Kionga triangle

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The Kionga Triangle in northeast Mozambique

The Kionga Triangle was a small area of ​​about 395 km² south of the Rovuma River on the Indian Ocean, which extended to Cape Delgado .

history

The Kionga triangle, shown in the “Economic Atlas” from the German colonial era

In the triangle is the place Quionga (formerly “Kionga”), which in 1910 had around 4,000 inhabitants. After the Portuguese withdrew from the region, the area up to Cape Delgado belonged to the empire of Zanzibar . At the Congo Conference in 1885, Portugal was granted the areas south of the Rovuma, but from a German perspective this only affected the inland, beyond the Zanzibari mainland strip. In 1890, after the so-called Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty , Germany took over the south of the Zanzibari mainland on the East African coast. Therefore, the German side now regarded Kionga as part of German East Africa. A German naval unit occupied the area on June 16, 1894 and set up an outpost. With this, the German Empire secured the mouth of the Rovuma, on the border between the colonies of German East Africa (now Tanzania ) and Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique ). Under the German administration there was a customs office here , but only little steamship and some constant traffic .

During the First World War , the Portuguese occupied the area in 1916. The German Reich declared war on Portugal on March 9th. At the end of the month, a Portuguese unit was put together in Porto Amélia to occupy the Kionga triangle. It included a company of the 21st Infantry, a battery of the mountain artillery (m / 82) and a platoon of cavalry. At the beginning of April, the first part of the troop was brought to Palma , south of Quionga, on the steamer Luabo . Local forces were also mobilized here. On the sand path to Quionga, Major Silveira led his troops, together with the 20th native company ( companhia indígena ) twelve kilometers north and occupied the place on April 10, 1916. The Germans had given up the post the previous evening and moved to the north bank of the Rovuma withdrawn, where the front stretched along for a length of about 50 kilometers. On April 24th, the inexperienced General Ferreira Gil reached Palma with new Portuguese troops on board the Limbo . Only the cavalry was missing, as their horses could not be accommodated on the ship. The onset of rains also turned the path from the port of Palma to Quionga into a muddy surface, which slowed down supplies. The Portuguese had a total of 400 rifles and cannons, machine guns and finally the cavalry. Despite the Governor General's wish to go on the offensive along the coast northwards, the Portuguese forces were distributed along the border line. The chance of a successful attack on German East Africa was wasted, although the Germans were severely weakened by British actions on the coast.

The unhealthy climate created new problems. 545 soldiers fell ill. In the place, which at that time only consisted of three commercial buildings and about a hundred huts, provisional hospital wards were built. The beach was chosen as the location, where there was no drinking water, but it was hoped that the air would be healthier. On July 29th, the Zaire took the sick from Quionga away. This was probably the first time that such a large ship entered the Baía de Quionga . The Portuguese had proportionally far more sick people to care for than the other European troops. The reasons for this were poor hygiene and rampant diseases such as syphilis and tuberculosis. The soldiers refused to boil their drinking water, and quinine was rejected because of its bitter taste. If the Zaire hadn't picked up the sick, half of them would have had to be buried later in Quionga.

On September 25, 1919, in the Treaty of Versailles, the Rovuma was finally defined as a border river and Portugal was awarded the triangle as compensation for the war damage. On January 10, 1920, the area became a C- Mandate of the League of Nations under Portuguese administration. The Kionga Triangle was officially incorporated into Portuguese East Africa with the law n.º 962 on April 2nd, 1920. It was the last territorial gain of the Portuguese colonial empire . The League of Nations mandate or the later UN trusteeship finally ended on June 25, 1975 with the independence of Mozambique, with which the area became part of the Cabo Delgado province .

Postage stamps

2 ½ Centavo postage stamp from Kionga, canceled August 1916

On May 29, 1916, the Portuguese administration issued stamps for Kionga. Old postage stamps from the colony of Lourenço Marques (today Maputo ) with the image of King Carlos I and the stamp “REPUBLICA” (the Portuguese monarchy was overthrown in 1910) were used. In addition, the word “Kionga” and a new value have now been printed. The stamps were valued at ½, 1, 2½ and 5 Centavo . The stamps are considered a rarity.

literature

  • HB Thomas: The Kionga Triangle. Tanganyika Notes and Records, Vol. 31, 1951, pp. 47-50.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica: Quionga
  2. ↑ On a map of the German Colonial Society , published by Rochus Schmidt , from 1892, Kionga is still marked as a Portuguese area.
  3. ↑ Without a name : The German-Portuguese border dispute, in: Karl Homann (Ed.): Latest Mittheilungen. Berlin, July 31, 1894.
  4. ↑ According to information in the Great German Colonial Atlas, published by the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office, edited by Paul Sprigade and Max Moisel , Berlin 1901–1915.
  5. ^ Map of the German and Portuguese military operations at the Kionga triangle , engl.
  6. ^ Biography Ferreira Gils (Portuguese), accessed on January 21, 2018
  7. ↑ a b O Portal da História: A REOCUPAÇÃO DE QUIONGA , accessed on August 3, 2014.
  8. ↑ Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta. Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 1987, p. 424, ISBN 3-453-02420-6 .

Coordinates: 10 ° 35 ′ 40 ″  S , 40 ° 30 ′ 25 ″  E