The region now known as Guinea-Bissau, in West Africa, has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years. During the 13th century CE, it was a province of the Mali Empire which later became independent as the empire of Kaabu. The Portuguese Empire claimed the region during the 1450s, but its control was limited to several forts along the coast during most of this period; it gained control of the mainland after a series of "pacification campaigns" from 1912 to 1915, which used military forces to violently crush local resistance. The offshore Bijagos Islands were not colonized until 1936. Guinea-Bissau gained independence from Portugal in 1974. The introduction of multi-party politics in 1991 led to the first multi-party elections in 1994. A civil war broke out in 1998, which lasted until the following year.
Peoples Although the region's history has not yet been extensively documented with archaeological records, it had a population of hunter-gatherers by 1000 CE. Agriculturists using iron tools soon followed.
The oldest inhabitants were the Jola, Papel, Manjak, Balanta, and Biafada peoples. The Mandinka and Fulani later migrated into the region, pushing the earlier inhabitants towards the coast. A small number of Mandinka had been present in the region as early as the 11th century, but they migrated en masse in the 13th century as Senegambia was incorporated into the Mali Empire by Kaabu founder Tiramakhan Traore. A process of "Mandinkization" followed. The Fulani arrived as early as the 12th century as semi-nomadic herders, but were not a large presence until the 15th century.
The Balanta and Jola had weak (or non-existent) institutions of kingship, with an emphasis on heads of villages and families. The Mandinka, Fula, Papel, Manjak, and Biafada chiefs were vassals of kings with a variety of customs, rites, and ceremonies. Nobles commanded all major positions, however, which included the judicial system. Social stratification was apparent in clothing and accessories, housing materials, and transportation options.
Commerce was widespread among the ethnic groups. Items traded included pepper and kola nuts from the southern forests, iron from the savannah-forest zone, salt and dried fish from the coast, and Mandinka cotton cloth. Products were commonly sold at markets and fairs, held every seven or eight days and sometimes attended by several thousand buyers and sellers from up to away. Weapons were prohibited in the marketplace, and soldiers were positioned around the area to maintain order throughout the day. Market sections were allocated for specific products except for wine, which could be sold anywhere.
Pre-colonial kingdoms
Kaabu
Origins Kaabu, established in the 13th century, was a province of Mali through the conquest of Senegambia by Tiramakhan Traore (a general of Mali Empire founder Sundiata Keita). According to oral tradition, Tiramakhan Traore invaded the region to punish the Wolof king for insulting Sundiata and went south of the Gambia River into the Casamance. This began a migration of Mandinka into the region. By the 14th century, much of Guinea-Bissau was administered by Mali and ruled by a farim kaabu (commander of Kaabu).
The Empire of Mali began to decline during the 14th century. Formerly-secure possessions in present-day Senegal, the Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau were cut off by the expanding power of Koli Tenguella in the early 16th century. Kaabu became an independent federation of kingdoms, the era's most powerful western Mandinka state.
Society Kaabu's ruling classes were composed of elite warriors known as the Nyancho, who traced their patrilineal lineage to Tiramakhan Traore. The Nyancho were reportedly good cavalrymen and raiders. The Kaabu Mansaba was seated in Kansala in the eastern Gabú region region. Malian imperial history was central to Kaabu culture, maintaining its significant institutions and the lingua franca of Mandinka. Individuals from other ethnic backgrounds were assimilated into this dominant culture, and frequent inter-ethnic marriages assisted the process.
The slave trade dominated the economy, enriching the warrior classes with imported cloth, beads, metalware, and firearms. Trade networks to North Africa were dominant until the 14th century, with coastal trade with the Europeans beginning to increase during the 15th century. An estimated 700 enslaved people left the region annually in the 17th and 18th centuries, many from Kaabu.
Decline In the late 18th century, the rise of the Imamate of Futa Jallon in the east was a powerful challenge to the animist Kaabu. During the first half of the 19th century, civil war erupted as local Fula people sought independence. This long-running conflict led to the 1867 Battle of Kansala. A Fula army led by Alfa Molo laid siege to the earthen walls of Kansala for 11 days. The Mandinka kept the Fulani from climbing the walls for a time, but were eventually overwhelmed. The Mansaba Dianke Walli, sensing defeat, ordered his troops to set the city's gunpowder on fire; this killed the Mandinka defenders and most of the invading army. Although the loss of Kansala marked the end of the Kaabu empire and the rise of the Fuladu kingdom, smaller Mandinka kingdoms survived until they were absorbed by the Portuguese.
Biafada kingdoms The Biafada people inhabited the area around the Rio Grande de Buba in three kingdoms: Biguba, Guinala, and Bissege. The former two were important ports with significant lançado communities, subjects of the Mandinka mansa of Kaabu.
Kingdom of Bissau According to oral tradition, the kingdom of Bissau was founded by the son of the king of Quinara (Guinala), who moved to the region with his pregnant sister, his six wives, and the subjects of his father's kingdom. Relations between the kingdom and the Portuguese were initially warm, but deteriorated over time.
The kingdom defended its sovereignty against the Portuguese "pacification campaigns," defeating them in 1891, 1894, and 1904. The Portuguese, under commanded by Teixeira Pinto and warlord Abdul Injai, absorbed Bissau in 1915.
Bijagos The Bijagos Islands were inhabited by people with different ethnic origins, leading to cultural diversity in the archipelago. Bijago society was warlike. Men were dedicated to building boats and raiding the mainland, attacking the coastal peoples and other islands. Women cultivated land, constructed houses, and gathered food. They could choose their husbands, generally warriors with the best reputation. Successful warriors could have many wives and boats, and were entitled to one-third of a boat's spoils from any expedition.
Bijago night raids on coastal settlements had a significant impact. Portuguese traders on the mainland tried to stop the raids because they hurt the local economy. The islanders sold a considerable number of slaves to the Europeans, however, who frequently pushed for more captives. The Bijagos, out of the reach of mainland slave traders, were largely safe from enslavement. Portuguese sources say that the children made good slaves but not the adults, who were likely to commit suicide, lead rebellions on slave ships, or escape when they reached the New World.
European contact
15th–16th centuries
The first Europeans to reach Guinea-Bissau were the Venetian explorer Alvise Cadamosto in 1455, Portuguese explorer Diogo Gomes in 1456, Portuguese explorer Duarte Pacheco Pareira in the 1480s, and Flemish explorer Eustache de la Fosse in 1479–1480. The region was known to the Portuguese as the Guinea of Cape Verde, and Santiago was the administrative capital and the source of most of its white settlers.
Although Portuguese authorities initially discouraged European settlement on the mainland, the prohibition was ignored by lançados and tangomãos who assimilated its indigenous culture and customs. They were mainly from impoverished backgrounds, traders from Cape Verde or people exiled from Portugal, often of Jewish or New Christian background. They ignored Portuguese trade regulations which banned entering the region or trading without a royal licence, shipping from unauthorized ports, or assimilating into the native community. In 1520, measures against the lançados were eased in 1520; trade and settlements increased on the mainland, which was populated by Portuguese and native traders and Spanish, Genoese, English, French, and Dutch.
With the region's rivers having no natural harbors, the lançados and native traders navigated river-ways and creeks in small boats purchased from European ships or manufactured locally by trained grumetes (native African sailors, enslaved and free). The main ports were Cacheu, Bissau, and Guinala; each river had trading centers such as Toubaboudougou at their furthest navigable point, which traded with the interior for resources such as gum arabic, ivory, hides, civet, dyes, slaves, and gold. A small number of European settlers established isolated farms along the rivers. Local African rulers generally refused to allow Europeans into the interior, to ensure their control of trade routes.
Europeans were not accepted in all communities, with the Jolas, Balantas, and Bijagos initially hostile. The region's other groups harboured communities of lançados who were subject to taxation and the laws and customs of their community, including the local courts. Disputes became increasingly frequent and serious during the late 1500s as foreign traders tried to influence the host societies to their benefit. Under pressure from hostile locals, the Portuguese abandoned the settlement of Buguendo near Cacheu in 1580 and Guinala in 1583 (where they retreated to a fort). In 1590 they built a fort at Cacheu, which the local Manjaks unsuccessfully stormed shortly after its construction. The poorly-manned and provisioned forts were unable to free the lançados from their responsibilities to the native monarchs (their hosts), who could not expel the traders because their goods were in great demand by the upper class.
The Portuguese monopoly was being increasingly challenged. The 1580 Iberian Union unified the crowns of Portugal and Spain, leading to the attack of Portuguese possessions in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde by Spain's enemies. French, Dutch, and English ships increasingly traded with the natives and the independent-minded lançados.
17th–18th centuries During the early 17th century, the government unsuccessfully tried to force all Guinean trade to go through Santiago and promote trade and settlement on the mainland while restricting weapons sales to the locals. With the end of the Iberian Union in 1640, King João IV attempted to restrict the Spanish trade in Guinea which had flourished for the previous 60 years. The Afro-Portuguese in Bissau, Guinala, Geba, and Cacheu swore allegiance to the Portuguese king, but were not in a position to deny the free trade that the African kings (who now saw European products as necessities) demanded. In Cacheu, famine had wiped out the slave troops in charge of defending the fort, the water supply remained in Manjak hands and the lançados, their Africanized descendants and the locals were losing customers; Captain-Major Luis de Magalhães lifted the embargo.
In 1641, the replaced de Magalhães with Gonçalo de Gamboa de Ayala. He had some success winning over local leaders and stopping Spanish ships at Cacheu. In Bissau, however, two Spanish ships were protected by the King of Bissau. Ayala threatened violent repercussions and resettled Geba's Afro-European community to Farim, northeast of Cacheu. The Portuguese could not impose their monopolistic vision on the local and Afro-European traders, since the economic interests of the native leaders and Afro-European merchants never fully aligned with theirs. During this period, the power of the Mali Empire in the region was dissipating and the farim of Kaabu, the king of Kassa and other local rulers began to assert their independence.