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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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}}
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
==Early
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, include those written by the Italian [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin]] missionary [[Giovanni Cavazzi da Montecuccolo]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cavazzi da Montecuccolo |first1=Giovanni Antonio |title=Istorica Descrizione de' tre regni Congo, Matamba ed Angola |date=1687 |publisher=Giacomo Monti |location=Bologna |page=Book II, nos. 86–90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3aYPCUKOWZYC}}</ref> Traditions about the foundation changed over time, depending on historical circumstances.
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>
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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"/>
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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 [[
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
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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=== 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".
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[[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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[[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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