Lourenço Marques

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Lourenço Marques (16th century) was a Portuguese trader and explorer in what is now Mozambique .

The capital of the Portuguese colony Mozambique was named after him. After independence from Portugal in 1975 , the name of the city was first changed to Cam Phumo (1975-1976), then to Maputo .

Life and reception

Together with António Caldeira , Marques reached the Baía da Lagoa (Eng .: Delagoa Bay, today Maputo Bay) in 1544 . This was discovered in 1502 by the Portuguese navigator António de Campo , a companion of Vasco da Gama , for Portugal.

Marques and Caldeira settled here and devoted themselves to trading, especially in ivory .

The city of Lourenço Marques 1905

In 1546 King D. João III. the area officially belonged to the Portuguese and had a first fortified trading post built. Marques was entrusted with the exploration of the region, which initially also got his name.

The branch was later given up. After the bay was Dutch for some time in the 18th century and briefly Austrian, the area finally became Portuguese again in 1781.

Today's city was re-established around 1875. The Portuguese colonial administration named it after the first Portuguese settler in the area, Lourenço Marques. After Mozambique gained independence in 1975, the city dropped its colonial place name and was given the name Cam Phumo, from 1976 Maputo.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Personal Lexicon Quém É Quém - Portugueses Célebres . 1st edition, Temas & Debates, Lisbon 2009 ( ISBN 978-989-644-047-3 ), p. 342
  2. ↑ a b Fernando Cristóvão (Ed.): Dicionário Temático da Lusofonia. Texto Editores, Lisbon / Luanda / Praia / Maputo 2006 ( ISBN 972-47-2935-4 ), p. 173
  3. ↑ “Landing without Fortune - How the Habsburgs Tried as Colonial Rulers” , article of November 24, 2009 in the magazine Spiegel Geschichte , accessed on August 5, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Marques, Lourenço
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese trader and explorer
DATE OF BIRTH 16th Century
DATE OF DEATH 16th Century