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| s2 = Portuguese West Africa
| s3 = French Congo
| image_flag = Flag of the Kingdom of Kongo according to Giovanni Cavazzi da Montecuccolo.svg
| flag_caption = Flag
| image_coat =
| symbol_type = Coat of arms of [[Afonso I of Kongo|Afonso I]] ({{circa|1528}}–1541)
| image_map = KingdomKongo1711.png
| image_map_caption = The "Kingdom of Congo"
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| event10 = [[Berlin Conference]]
| date_event10 = 1884–1885
| religion = [[Kongo religion|
[[Catholic Church in Kongo|Catholicism]]<br>[[Antonianism]] (1704–1708)
| currency = [[Nzimbu]] shells and [[Raffia|Lubongo (Libongo, Mbongo), Mpusu]] cloth
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}}
The '''Kingdom of Kongo''' ({{lang-kg|Kongo
From {{Circa|1390}} to 1862, it was an independent state. From 1862 to 1914, it functioned intermittently as a [[vassal state]] of the [[Kingdom of Portugal]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/kingdom-kongo-1390-1914|title=Kingdom of Kongo 1390 – 1914|last=Leander|date=2016-05-18|website=South African History Online|access-date=2019-02-23}}</ref> In 1914, following the Portuguese suppression of a Kongo revolt, Portugal abolished the [[titular ruler|titular monarchy]]. The title of
==
Oral traditions about the early history of the country were set in writing for the first time in the late 16th century, and especially detailed versions were recorded in the mid-17th century,
Modern research into [[oral tradition]], including recording them in writing began in the 1910s with Mpetelo Boka and Lievan Sakala Boku writing in Kikongo and extended by [[Redemptorist]] missionaries like [[Jean Cuvelier]] and [[Joseph de Munck]]. In 1934, Cuvelier published a Kikongo language summary of these traditions in [[Nkutama a mvila za makanda]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Thornton|first=John|date=2001|title=The Origins and Early History of the Kingdom of Kongo, c. 1350–1550|journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies|volume=34|issue=1|pages=89–120 |doi=10.2307/3097288|jstor=3097288}}</ref> Although Cuvelier and other scholars contended that these traditions applied to the earliest period of Kongo's history, it is more likely that they relate primarily to local traditions of clans (''[[Kanda (lineage)|makanda]]'') and especially to the period following 1750.<ref>John Thornton, "Modern Oral Traditions and the Historic Kingdom of Kongo" in {{cite book |last1=Landau |first1=Paul |title=The Power of Doubt: Essays in Honor of David Henige |date=2011 |publisher=University of Wlsconsin African Studies Center |location=Madison, WI |pages=195–208}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Thornton |first1=John |title=A History of West Central Africa to 1850 |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-107-12715-9 |pages=24–35}}</ref>
===Foundation===
Before the founding of Kongo, the region it would eventually control was under the control of several minor kingdoms, according to a tradition recorded in the mid-1580s. It named several former kingdoms, which were included in Kongo: [[Nsundi]], Mpangu, and Mbata, along the Inkisi on the east; and
According to Kongo tradition in the seventeenth century, the kingdom's origin was in [[Vungu]], a small polity which lay north of the Congo River, and which had extended its authority across the Congo to [[Mpemba Kasi]], which was itself the northernmost territory of a larger kingdom called [[Mpemba Kasi|Mpemba]] whose capital was located about 150 miles south. A [[dynasty]] of rulers from this small [[polity]] built up its rule along the Kwilu Valley, or what was called [[Nsi Kwilu|Nsi a Kwilu]] and its elite are buried near its center. Traditions from the 17th century allude to this sacred burial ground. According to the [[missionary]] [[Girolamo da Montesarchio]], an Italian Capuchin who visited the area from 1650 to 1652, the site was so holy that looking upon it was deadly.<ref name=":0" /> These rocks may be the rugged uplands of Lovo where there is extensive cave and rock art that dates from at least the fifteenth century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thornton |first1=John |title=A History of West Central Africa to 1850 |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-107-12715-9 |pages=24–35}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Heimlich |first1=Geoffroy |title=Le massif de Lovo, sur les traces du royaume de Kongo |date=2017 |publisher=Archaeopress |isbn=978-1784916350}}</ref>
At some point around 1375, Nimi a Nzima, ruler of Mpemba Kasi and Vungu, made an alliance with Nsaku Lau, the ruler of the neighboring [[Mbata Kingdom]]. Nimi a Nzima married Lukeni lua Nsanze (Luqueni Luansanze in the text), Nsaku Lau's daughter.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/kingdom-kongo-1390-1914|title=Kingdom of Kongo 1390 – 1914|last=Leander|date=2016-05-18|website=South African History Online|access-date=2019-05-07}}</ref> This alliance guaranteed that each of the two allies would help ensure the succession of its ally's lineage in the other's territory. Mbata in turn was a former province of the [[Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza]] whose capital lay farther east along the current border of [[Angola]] and [[Democratic Republic of Congo]]. Mbata may have been the senior partner in the original alliance, as he had the title of "Nkaka andi a Mwene Kongo," or grandfather of the king of Kongo.<ref name=":
Nimi a Nzima and Lukeni lua Nsanze's son [[Lukeni lua Nimi]]<ref name=":0" /> (circa 1380–1420) began the expansion that would found the Kingdom of Kongo. The name Nimi a Lukeni appeared in later oral traditions and some modern historians, notably Jean Cuvelier, popularized it. Lukeni lua Nimi, or Nimi a Lukeni, led expansion southward into lands ruled by Mpemba. He established a new base on the mountain Mongo dia Kongo and made alliances with the Mwene Mpangala, ruler of a market town then loyal to Mpemba and also with the Mwene Kabunga whose lands lay west of there of uncertain loyalty but the site of a famous shrine. Two centuries later the Mwene Kabunga's descendants still symbolically challenged the conquest in an annual celebration. He furthered this with a second more important alliance with Vunda, another of Mpemba's subordinate rulers. To cement this alliance, as with the one with Mbata, Lukeni lua Nimi allowed him to be an elector to the kingdom.<ref name=":17a"
After the death of Nimi a Lukeni, the rulers that followed Lukeni claimed relation to his ''[[kanda (lineage)|kanda]]'', or lineage, and were known as the [[Kilukeni]]. The Kilukeni Kanda — or "house", as it was recorded in Portuguese language documents written in Kongo — ruled Kongo unopposed until 1567.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thornton|first=John K.|date=November 2006|title=Elite women in the kingdom of Kongo: historical perspectives on women's political power|journal=The Journal of African History|volume=47|issue=3|pages=437–460 |doi=10.1017/S0021853706001812 |s2cid=145136736}}</ref>
===Expansion and early development===
The 16th-century tradition contended that the former kingdoms "in ancient times had separate kings, but now all are subjects and tributaries of the king of Congo."<ref name="Relacion del Regno de Congo"/> Tradition noted that in each case the governorship was given to members of the royal family or other noble families.<ref name="Relacion del Regno de Congo"/> Governors who served terms determined by the king had the right to appoint their own clients to lower positions, down to villages who had their own locally chosen leadership.<ref>Anonymous manuscript c. 1608 but informed by Carmelite missionaries of 1584–1586 in {{cite book |last1=Cuvelier |first1=Jean and Louis Jadin |title=L'ancien royaume de Congo d'apres les archives romaines (1518–1640) |date=1954 |publisher=Academie royale des sciences coloniales, Memoires |location=Brussels |pages=133–134}}</ref> As this centralization increased, the allied provinces gradually lost influence until their powers were only symbolic, manifested in Mbata, once a co-kingdom, but by 1620 simply known by the title "Grandfather of the King of Kongo" (''Nkaka'ndi a Mwene Kongo'').<ref name=":0" /><ref>Mateus Cardoso, "História do Reino de Congo (1624)," (ed. António Brásio,) Chapter 15, fol. 16</ref>
The
The concentration of population, economic activity, and political power in Mbanza Kongo strengthened the Kongolese monarchy and allowed for a centralized government. Captives taken in war were enslaved and integrated into the local population, producing a food and labor surplus, while rural regions of the kingdom paid taxes in the form of goods the capital could not produce itself. A class of urban nobility developed in the capital, and their demand for positions at court and consumer goods fueled the kingdom's economy. Rural development was intentionally discouraged by the Kongolese king,<ref name=":4" /> ensuring the capital remained the economic and political center of the kingdom. This concentration allowed resources, soldiers and surplus foodstuffs to be readily available at the request of the king and made the king overwhelmingly powerful when compared to any potential rival.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" />
By the time of the first recorded contact with the Europeans, the Kingdom of Kongo was sited at the centre of an extensive trading network. Apart from natural resources and [[ivory]], the country manufactured and traded copperware, [[ferrous]] metal goods, [[raffia]] cloth, and [[pottery]]. The Kongo people spoke in the [[Kikongo language]]. The eastern regions, especially that part known as the Seven Kingdoms of [[Kongo dia Nlaza]], were particularly famous for the production of cloth.
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{{Main|Catholic Church in Kongo}}
[[File:Jean Roy de Congo.jpg|thumb|right|[[João I of Kongo|João I Nzinga a Nkuwu]]]]
In 1483, the Portuguese explorer [[Diogo Cão]] reached the coast of the Kongo Kingdom.<ref name=diogo>{{cite book|last=Gates|first=Louis|author2=Anthony Appiah |year=1999|title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience|url=https://archive.org/details/africanaencyclop00appi|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/africanaencyclop00appi/page/1105 1105]|isbn=9780465000715}}</ref> Cão left some of his men in Kongo and took Kongo nobles to Portugal. He returned to Kongo with the Kongo nobles in 1485; such commissioning, hiring, or even kidnapping of local Africans to use as local ambassadors, especially for newly contacted areas, was by then an already established practice.<ref name="Elbl 1992">{{cite journal |last1=Elbl |first1=Ivana |title=Cross-Cultural Trade and Diplomacy: Portuguese Relations with West Africa 1441–1521 |journal=Journal of World History |date=1992 |volume=3 |issue=2 |page=171 |jstor=20078528 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20078528}}</ref> At that point the ruling king, Nzinga a Nkuwu, decided he would become Christian and sent another, large mission headed by Kala ka Mfusu, the noble who had earlier gone to Portugal as a hostage. They remained in Europe for nearly four years, studying [[Christianity]] and learning reading and writing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/sub/kongo.html|title=Kongo Religion|author=Aguilar, Mario Ignacio|year=2008|access-date=24 January 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071212184848/http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/sub/kongo.html|archive-date=12 December 2007}}</ref> The mission returned with Cão along with
João I ruled until his death around 1509 and was succeeded by his son Afonso [[Afonso I of Kongo|Mvemba a Nzinga]]. He faced a serious challenge from a half brother, Mpanzu a Kitima. The king overcame his brother in a battle waged at [[Mbanza Kongo]]. According to Afonso's own account, sent to Portugal in 1506, he was able to win the battle thanks to the intervention of a heavenly vision of the cross [[James, son of Zebedee|Saint James]] and the [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Virgin Mary]]. Inspired by these events, he subsequently designed a [[coat of arms]] for Kongo that was used by all following kings on official documents, royal paraphernalia and the like until 1860.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-106647781.html|title=The Destruction of the Kingdom of Kongo|author=Lopes, David|date=1 January 2002|access-date=24 January 2008|archive-date=13 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213063134/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-106647781.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> While King João I later reverted to his traditional beliefs, [[Afonso I of Kongo|Afonso I]] established Christianity as the [[state religion]] of his kingdom.<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography 2008"/>
=== Reign of Afonso I ===
{{Main|Afonso I of Kongo}}
[[File:Royal banner of Kongo (Afonso I).svg|thumb|Banner of [[Afonso I of Kongo|King Afonso I]]]]
The Kongo church was always short of ordained clergy and made up for it by the employment of a strong laity. Kongolese school teachers or ''[[:wikt:mestre#Portuguese|mestre]]s'' (Kikongo alongi a aleke) were the anchor of this system. Recruited from the nobility and trained in the kingdom's schools, they provided religious instruction and services to others building upon Kongo's growing Christian population. At the same time, they permitted the growth of syncretic forms of Christianity which incorporated older religious ideas with Christian ones. Examples of this are the introduction of [[Kongo language|KiKongo]] words to translate Christian concepts. The KiKongo words ''ukisi'' (an abstract word meaning charm, but used to mean "holy") and ''nkanda'' (meaning book) were merged so that the Christian [[Bible]] became known as the ''nkanda ukisi'' (holy book). The church became known as the ''nzo a ukisi'' (holy house). While some European clergy often denounced these mixed traditions, they were never able to root them out.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thornton |first1=John |title=Afro-Christian Syncretism in the Kingdom of Kongo |journal=Journal of African History |date=2013 |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=53–77|doi=10.1017/S0021853713000224 |s2cid=161133804 }}</ref>
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Part of the establishment of this church was the creation of a strong priesthood and to this end, Afonso's son Henrique was sent to Europe to be educated. Henrique became an ordained priest and in 1518 was named as [[titular bishop]] of [[Utica, Tunisia|Utica]] (a North African diocese recently reclaimed from the Muslims). He returned to Kongo in the early 1520s to run Kongo's new church. He died in 1531.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bontinck |first1=Francois |title=Ndoadidiki Ne-Kinu a Mubemba, premier évêque du Kongo (c. 1495–c. 1531)' |journal=Revue africaine de theology |date=1971 |volume=3 |pages=149–169}}</ref>
====
Slavery had existed since the Kingdom of Kongo's founding, as during its early wars of expansion the nascent kingdom had taken many captives.<ref name=":2">Heywood, Linda M. “Slavery and Its Transformation in the Kingdom of Kongo: 1491-1800.” ''The Journal of African History'' 50, no. 1 (2009): 1–22. <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/40206695</nowiki>.</ref><ref name=":4" /> Kongo's tradition of forcibly transferring peoples captured in wars to the royal capital was key to the power of the Kongolese king, and it was the same mechanism of enslavement and transfer of population that made Kongo an efficient exporter of slaves. Kongolese laws and cultural traditions protected freeborn Kongolese from enslavement, and so most of the enslaved population were war captives. Convicted Kongolese criminals could also be forced into slavery, but were initially protected from sale outside the kingdom.<ref name="wene" /><ref name=":2" /> The export of female slaves was also prohibited.<ref name=":2" /> Afonso's early letters show evidence of domestic slave markets.<ref name="Abolitionism and Imperialism in Bri">John Thornton, "African Political Ethics and the Slave Trade,"{{cite book |last1=Peterson |first1=Derrick |title=Abolitionism and Imperialism in Britain, Africa, and the Atlantic |date=2011 |publisher=Ohio University Press |location=Columbus, OH |pages=38–62}}</ref><ref name=":2" />
As relations between Kongo and Portugal grew in the early 16th century, trade between the kingdoms also increased. Most of the trade was in palm cloth, copper, and ivory, but also increasing numbers of slaves.<ref name=":2" /> Although initially Kongo exported few slaves, following the development of a successful sugar-growing colony on the Portuguese island of [[São Tomé]], Kongo became a major source of [[Slavery|slaves]] for the island's traders and plantations. The [[Cantino planisphere|Cantino Atlas]] of 1502 mentions Kongo as a source of slaves for the [[São Tomé]] colony, but notes they were few. Correspondence by Afonso also show the purchase and sale of slaves within the country and his accounts on capturing slaves in war which were given and sold to Portuguese merchants.<ref name=":3">{{cite book |author=Atmore, Anthony and Oliver |url=https://archive.org/details/medievalafrica1200rola |title=Medieval Africa, 1250–1800 |year=2001 |page=[https://archive.org/details/medievalafrica1200rola/page/171 171] |url-access=registration}}</ref>
Afonso continued to expand the kingdom of Kongo into the 1540s, expanding its borders to the south and east. The expansion of Kongo's population, coupled with his earlier religious reforms, allowed Afonso to centralize power in his capital and increase the power of the monarchy. He also established a royal monopoly on some trade.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" /> To govern the growing slave trade, Afonso and several Portuguese kings claimed a joint monopoly on the external slave trade.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" />
However, as the slave trade grew in size, it came to gradually erode royal power in Kongo. Portuguese traders based in São Tomé began violating the royal monopoly on the slave trade, trading instead with other African states in the region. Portuguese merchants also began to trade goods with powerful Kongolese nobles, depriving the monarchy of tax revenue, while Portuguese priests and merchants living in the Kongo became increasingly politically active.<ref name=":2" /><ref>Thornton J. Early Kongo-Portuguese Relations: A New Interpretation. ''History in Africa''. 1981;8:183-204. doi:10.2307/3171515</ref> New markets for slaves such as [[Mpanzalumbu]] (a rebel Kongolese province conquered by Afonso in 1526) and the [[Ambundu|Mbundu]] [[Kingdom of Ndongo]] also harmed the Kongolese monopoly on the slave trade.<ref name="wene" /><ref name=":2" />
In 1526, Afonso complained in correspondence to King [[John III of Portugal|João III of Portugal]] about merchants' violation of his end of the monopoly, claiming that Portuguese officials had not regulated them sufficiently, and
However, the kings of Portugal eventually determined the best way to deal with the trade through the Kwanza to Ndongo was to establish their own base there. In 1560, again responding to a request from Angola, the Portuguese crown sent [[Paulo Dias de Novais]] as ambassador to Ndongo with the idea of settling relations with the country. Ngola Kiluanji was not interested in this mission, however, as it offered only baptism and diplomatic relations, while he hoped for military support. In 1575, Portugal would follow with a mission of conquest, also under Paulo Dias de Novais, this time to conquer the country and monopolize its slave trade.<ref>Thornton, 2020, pp. 67–69</ref>
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King [[Diogo I of Kongo|Diogo I]] skillfully replaced or outmaneuvered his entrenched competitors after he was crowned in 1545. He faced a major conspiracy led by [[Pedro I of Kongo|Pedro I]], who had taken refuge in a church, and whom Diogo in respect of the Church's [[right of asylum|rule of asylum]] allowed to remain in the church. However, Diogo did conduct an inquiry into the plot, the text of which was sent to Portugal in 1552 which shows the way in which plotters hoped to overthrow the king by enticing his supporters to abandon him.<ref>John K Thornton and Linda Heywood, "The Treason of Dom Pedro Nkanga a Mvemba against Dom Diogo, King of Kongo, 1550"{{cite book |last1=McKnight and Leo Garofalo |first1=Kathryn |title=Afro-Latino Voices: Narratives from the Early Modern Ibero-Atlantic World, 1550–1812 |date=2009 |publisher=Hackett |location=Indianolpolis/Cambridge |isbn=978-0-87220-994-7 |pages=2–29}}</ref>
King Diogo's successor, [[Afonso II of Kongo|Afonso II]], was killed by the Portuguese days after his succession, and an uprising occurred which killed the Portuguese candidate, allowing [[Bernardo I|King Bernardo I of Kongo]] to be enthroned. However, King Bernardo I was killed by the "Jaga" [[Yaka people|Yaka]], invasion in 1567. And was replaced by [[Henrique I of Kongo|Henrique I]] who was also killed while fighting in the east, leaving the government in the hands of his stepson [[Álvaro I of Kongo|Álvaro Nimi a Lukeni lua Mvemba]]. He was crowned Álvaro I, "by common consent," according Duarte Lopes, Kongo's ambassador to Rome.
===Kongo under the House of Kwilu===
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At the [[Battle of Mbwila]] in 1665, the Portuguese forces from Angola had their first victory against the kingdom of Kongo since 1622. They defeated the forces under [[António I of Kongo|António I]] killing him and many of his courtiers as well as the Luso-African Capuchin priest Manuel Roboredo (also known by his cloister name of Francisco de São Salvador), who had attempted to prevent this final war.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
==
{{Main|Kongo Civil War}}
In the aftermath of the battle, there was no clear succession. The country was divided between rival claimants to the throne. The two factions, [[Kimpanzu]] and [[Kinlaza]], hardened, and partitioned the country between them. Pretenders would ascend to the throne, and then be ousted. The period was marked by an increase in [[BaKongo]] slaves being sold across the Atlantic, the weakening of the Kongo monarchy and the strengthening of [[Soyo]].{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}▼
[[File:The Bansa, or residence of the King of Kongo, called St. Salvador (M'Banza Kongo), Astley 1745 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Sao Salvador after painting by [[Olfert Dapper]], 1668]]
▲In the aftermath of the battle of Mbwila, there was no clear succession. The country was divided between rival claimants to the throne. The two factions, [[Kimpanzu]] and [[Kinlaza]], hardened, and partitioned the country between them. Pretenders would ascend to the throne, and then be ousted. The period was marked by an increase in [[BaKongo]] slaves being sold across the Atlantic, the weakening of the Kongo monarchy and the strengthening of [[Soyo]].{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
During this chaos, Kongo was being increasingly manipulated by Soyo. In an act of desperation, the central authority in Kongo called on Luanda to attack Soyo in return for various concessions. The Portuguese invaded the county of Soyo in 1670. They met with no more success than Garcia II, being roundly defeated by Soyo's forces at the [[Battle of Kitombo]] on 18 October 1670. The kingdom of Kongo was to remain completely independent, though still embroiled in civil war, thanks to the very force (Portuguese colonials) it had fought so long to destroy. This Portuguese defeat was resounding enough to end all Portuguese ambitions in Kongo's sphere of influence, until the end of the nineteenth century.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
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=== 18th and 19th centuries ===
[[File:1770 Bonne (coloured excerpt).png|thumb|Kongo in 1770]]
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Kongo artists began making crucifixes and other religious objects that depicted Jesus as an African. Such objects produced by many workshops over a long period (given their variety) reflect that emerging belief that Kongo was a central part of the Christian world, and fundamental to its history. A story of the eighteenth century was that the partially ruined cathedral of São Salvador, originally constructed for the Jesuits in 1549 and eventually elevated to cathedral status, was actually built overnight by angels. It was called affectionately, Nkulumbimbi. [[Pope John Paul II]] would eventually say
[[Manuel II of Kongo]] succeeded Pedro IV in 1718. Manuel II ruled over a restored and restive kingdom until his death in 1743. However, Soyo's provincial status in the kingdom, nominal for years, limited Manuel's power. Nsundi on the north had also more or less become independent, although still claiming to be part of the larger kingdom and more or less permanently ruled by a Kimpanzu family. Even within the remaining portions of the kingdom, there were still powerful and violent rivalries. At least one major war took place in the 1730s in the province of Mbamba. Pedro IV's successor, [[Garcia IV of Kongo|Garcia IV Nkanga a Mvandu]], ruled from 1743 to 1752. Pedro IV's restoration required his successor's membership in a branch of the Kinlaza faction resident in Matadi that had sworn loyalty to Pedro IV in 1716. Other Kinlaza branches had developed in the north, at Lemba and Matari, and in the south along the Mbidizi River in lands that had been ruled by D. [[Ana Afonso de Leão]]. De Leão's lands came to be called the "Lands of the Queen".
The system of alternating succession broke down in 1764, when [[Álvaro XI of Kongo|Álvaro XI]], a Kinlaza, drove out the usurping Kimpanzu king [[Pedro V of Kongo (usurper)|Pedro V]] (the first to bear this title) and took over the throne. Pedro and his successor in Luvata maintained a separate court at Sembo, and never acknowledged the usurpation. A regent of Pedro's successor claimed the throne in the early 1780s and pressed his claims against a [[José I of Kongo|José I]], a Kinlaza from the Mbidizi Valley branch of the royal family. José won the showdown, fought at São Salvador in 1781, a massive battle involving 30,000 soldiers on José's side alone. To show his contempt for his defeated rival, José refused to allow the soldiers of the other faction to receive Christian burial. José's power was limited, as he had no sway over the lands controlled by the Kinlaza faction of Lemba and Matari, even though they were technically of the same family, and he did not follow up his victory to extend his authority over the Kimpanzu lands around Luvota. At the same time, the lands around Mount Kibangu, Pedro IV's original base, was controlled—as it had been for the whole eighteenth century—by members of the Água Rosada family, who claimed descent from both the Kimpanzu and Kinlaza.
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[[File:African-congo-bowmen.jpg|thumb|Congo bowmen. The bulk of Kongo's infantry forces, consisted of archers equipped and dressed in a similar fashion to these encountered by the [[David Livingstone]] expedition.]]
The kingdom's army consisted of a mass levy of archers, drawn from the general male population, and a smaller corps of heavy infantry, who fought with swords and carried shields for protection. Portuguese documents typically referred to [[heavy infantry]], considered nobles, as ''fidalgos'' in documents.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} The bearing of a shield was also important, as Portuguese documents usually called the heavy infantry as ''adargueiros'' (shield bearers). The shields of the heavy infantry extended from the knees unto the neck of the soldier but this force lacked [[armor]]. Most shield bearers bore a "[[scimitar]]-shaped [[longsword]]" as described by military historian Wayne Lee.<ref name="Lee warfare">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xatMrooibacC&dq=nsanga+martial+arts&pg=PA171|last1=Lee|first1= Wayne|year=2011|title=Empires and Indigenes: Intercultural Alliance, Imperial Expansion, and Warfare in the Early Modern World|page=171|publisher=[[New York University Press|NYU Press]] |isbn=9780814765272}}</ref> Shield bearers were limited by number and approximately 1000 were deployed in most Kongo armies.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Thornton |first=John K. |authorlink=John Thornton (historian) |title=The Art of War in Angola, 1575–1680 |year=1988 |journal=[[Comparative Studies in Society and History]] |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=360–378 |doi=10.1017/S0010417500015231 |s2cid=144152478 }}</ref> Some archers, especially those in eastern Kongo, used [[arrow poison|poison arrows]].<ref name="Lee warfare"/><ref>{{
After 1600, civil war became far more common than inter-state warfare. The government instituted a draft for the entire population during wartime, but only a limited number actually served. Many who did not carry arms instead carried baggage and supplies. Thousands of women supported armies on the move. Administrators expected soldiers to have two weeks' worth of food upon reporting for campaign duty. Logistical difficulties probably limited both the size of armies and their capacity to operate for extended periods. Some Portuguese sources suggested that the king of Kongo fielded armies as large as 70,000 soldiers for a 1665 [[Battle of Mbwila]], but it is unlikely that armies larger than 20–30,000 troops could be raised for military campaigns.<ref>{{cite book|title=Medieval Africa, 1250–1800|url=https://archive.org/details/medievalafrica1200rola|url-access=registration|author=Atmore, Anthony and Oliver|year=2001|page=[https://archive.org/details/medievalafrica1200rola/page/178 178]}}</ref>
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==Art of the Kongo Kingdom==
The people of the Kongo are divided into many subgroups including the [[Yombe people|Yombe]], [[Beembe tribe (Kongo)|Beembe]], [[Sundi]], and others but share a common language, [[Kikongo]]. These groups have many cultural similarities, including that they all produce a huge range of sculptural art. The most notable feature of this region's figurative style is the relative naturalism of the representation of both humans and animals. "The musculature of face and body is carefully rendered, and great attention is paid to items of personal adornment and scarification. Much of the region's art was produced for social and political leaders such as the Kongo king."<ref name="Siegmann Brooklyn Museum 2009">{{cite book|last=Siegmann|first=William C.|title=African art a century at the Brooklyn Museum|year=2009|publisher=Brooklyn Museum|location=Brooklyn, NY|isbn=978-0-87273-163-9 |author2=Dumouchelle, Kevin D.}}</ref>▼
[[File:Brooklyn Museum 2011.74 Crucifix Nkangi Kiditu (2).jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Copper-alloy crucifix, early 17th century]]
▲The people of the Kongo are divided into many subgroups including the [[Yombe people|Yombe]], [[Beembe tribe (Kongo)|Beembe]], [[Sundi]], and others, but share a common language, [[Kikongo]]. These groups have many cultural similarities, including that they all produce a huge range of sculptural art. The most notable feature of this region's figurative style is the relative naturalism of the representation of both humans and animals. "The musculature of face and body is carefully rendered, and great attention is paid to items of personal adornment and scarification. Much of the region's art was produced for social and political leaders such as the Kongo king."<ref name="Siegmann Brooklyn Museum 2009">{{cite book|last=Siegmann|first=William C.|title=African art a century at the Brooklyn Museum|year=2009|publisher=Brooklyn Museum|location=Brooklyn, NY|isbn=978-0-87273-163-9 |author2=Dumouchelle, Kevin D.}}</ref>
=== Architecture ===
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* Carli, Dionigio da Piacenza. ''Il Moro transportado nell'inclita città di Venezia''. Bassano, 1687.
* Carli, Dionigio da Piacenza. ''Viaggio del Padre Michael Angelo de Guattini da Reggio et del P. Dionigi de Carli da Piacensa...Regno del Congo''. (Bologna, 1674). Mod. ed. Francesco Surdich, Milan, 1997. French translation, Michel Chandeigne, Paris, 2006.
*
* Cavazzi da Montecuccolo, Giovanni Antonio. ''Istorica Descrizione de tre regni Congo, Matamba ed Angola'' (Bologna, 1687). Portuguese translation by Graziano Saccardo da Luggazano, 2 vols., Lisbon, 1965.
* Dapper, Olfried. ''Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Africa gewesten''. (Amsterdam, 1668) English translation, John Ogilby, London, 1670.
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* David Birmingham, ''Trade and Conquest in Angola''. Oxford and London: Oxford University Press, 1966.
* David Birmingham, ''A Short History of Modern Angola'', Oxford University Press, 2016.
*
* Ronald H. Chilcote, ''Protest and resistance in Angola and Brazil: Comparative studies'', University of California Press, 1972.
* E. Dartevelle, ''Les Nzimbu, monnaie du royaume du Congo'', Bruxelles, 1953.
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* Lussunzi Vita Mbala, ''La société Kongo face à la colonisation portugaise 1885–1961'', Paari éditeur, 2021.
* Graziano Saccardo, ''Congo e Angola con la storia dell'antica missione dei Cappuccini'' 3 vols., Venice, 1982–83.
* [[John K. Thornton]], ''The Kingdom of Kongo: Civil War and Transition, 1641–1718'', 1983.
* John K. Thornton, ''The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1683–1706'' Cambridge University Press, 1998.
* John K. Thornton
* John K. Thornton, {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MdI8DYItvg8C&q=gbs_navlinks_s
* [[Jan Vansina]], ''Kingdoms of the Savanna'', Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press, 1966.
* Jelmer Vos, ''Empire, patronage and a revolt in the kingdom of Kongo'', Old Dominion University, 2017.
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[[Category:Countries in medieval Africa]]
[[Category:Countries in precolonial Africa]]
[[Category:Early modern history of Angola]]
[[Category:History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo]]
[[Category:History of the Republic of the Congo]]
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