Luanda Coast

Luanda Bay is sheltered from the Atlantic by a long island and peninsula. Before the Portuguese founded their settlement on the mainland, merchants from São Tomé already traded in its waters; when Paulo Dias de Novais arrived in 1575, several ships were at anchor. Luanda grew into a major port for the export of enslaved Africans, whose forced journeys linked Angola to Brazil and Spanish America. The Dutch seized the port in 1641, but a Portuguese fleet from Brazil restored Portuguese rule in 1648.