Maputo Bay
| Maputo Bay | ||
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 Maputo Bay satellite photo |
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| Waters | ||
| Geographical location | 25 ° 59 ′ S , 32 ° 42 ′ E | |
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| width | 32 km | |
| depth | 113 km | |
| Tributaries | Komati , Matola , Umbeluzi , Tembe , Maputo | |
The Maputo Bay ( Portuguese Baía de Maputo ), formerly Delagoa Bay (Portuguese Baía da Lagoa , English Delagoa Bay , German "lagoon bay ") is an arm of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique . The bay extends for about 113 kilometers from north to south and has a width of about 32 kilometers.
description
The bay forms the northern end of the lagoons that line the coast to the South African Saint Lucia Bay . It opens to the sea to the northeast. The southern part of the bay is formed by a peninsula called the Machangulo Peninsula, which offers safe anchorage on its inner or western side. At the northwest end is the port of Melville . To the north of the peninsula is Inhaca Island , and beyond that there is a smaller island known as Elephant Island .
Despite an obstacle in entry and a number of shallow spots within the bay, Maputo Bay is an important port accessible to large ships in all seasons. The surrounding land is low and not fertile, but the island of Inhaca is 73 meters high and houses a sanatorium.
A total of around 90,000 km² drains into the bay. The 4 to 6 meter deep Komati flows from the north . in the southern area of the bay the Maputo flows , which has its sources in southern Mpumalanga and east of Ermelo at Bela Vista . From the west, the Umbeluzi, like the Tembe and the Matola , flows over the Espírito Santo estuary (also English river ) into the Maputo Bay. These rivers are frequented by hippos and crocodiles .
history
The bay was discovered in 1502 by the Portuguese navigator Antonio de Campo , a companion of Vasco da Gama . As a result, the Portuguese trading post of Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) was founded, not far from the north bank of the English River.
In 1720 the Dutch East India Company built a fort and a trading post near Lourenco Marques, which were called Lijdzaamheid (Lydsaamheid) (German for patience ). Since April 1721 they were administered by an Opperhoofd (dt. Head / Main Factor ) under the authority of the Dutch Cape Colony , interrupted from April 1722 to August 28, 1722 by the occupation by the pirate John Taylor ; in December 1730 the settlement was abandoned. An Austrian colonial fort was occupied in the region between 1777 and 1781 .
After that, the Portuguese had - periodically - exchange stations in the Espirito-Santo estuary. These stations were protected by small forts.
In the years around 1790 whalers, particularly from the United States, hunted southern right whales in the bay . The sale of livestock and food to seafarers expanded the coastal trade of the Ronga states and undermined the trade monopoly claimed by Portugal. Sometimes men from the coast took part in whaling as seasonal workers . When whaling experienced a renewed boom in the 1830s, British politicians and missionaries in the Cape Colony at times feared the establishment of a US colony in the bay and pushed for British occupation, which however did not materialize.
In 1823, Captain (later Vice-Admiral) William Fitzwilliam Owen of the British Royal Navy discovered that the Portuguese had no sphere of influence south of the settlement of Lourenço Marques. He then signed cession agreements with the local leaders, hoisted the British flag and appropriated the land south of the English River. When he revisited the bay in 1824, he found that the Portuguese had ignored the British treaties and made other treaties with the locals. He tried unsuccessfully militarily to take possession of the land again.
Captain Owen ceded the land to the Portuguese, but rule of either power remained undecided until the claims of the South African Republic required a solution to the question. Meanwhile, Britain had taken no steps to exert influence, while the destruction by the Zulu limited Portuguese influence to the borders of their forts. In 1835 Boers tried to found a settlement in the bay under their leader Orich . In 1868 the President of the South African Republic, Marthinus Wessel Pretorius , claimed the land on each side of the Maputa to the sea. But the following year the South African Republic recognized Portugal's claim to the bay. In 1861, Captain Bickford declared that Inhaca and the Elephant Islands were British territory.
In 1872 the dispute between Great Britain and Portugal was submitted to Adolphe Thiers , the French President, for judgment. On April 19, 1875, his successor Patrice de Mac-Mahon decided in favor of the Portuguese. Previously, Great Britain and Portugal had agreed that in the event of a sale or assignment, the right to sell should be given to the unsuccessful applicant for the bay. Portuguese rule over the hinterland was not established until some time after Mac-Mahon's arbitration; nominally, the Matshangana leader Umzila had ceded the land south of Manhissa in 1861.
In 1889 another dispute arose between Portugal and Great Britain as a result of the Portuguese taking possession of the railway from the bay to the Transvaal. This dispute was also referred for arbitration, and in 1900 Portugal was sentenced to pay nearly a million pounds in compensation to the railroad company's shareholders.
Strategic importance
The port facilities in the bay formed one end point of the Delagoa Bay Railway (also Delagoa Railway or Transvaal Railway ). It led from Pretoria to the port of the then capital of the neighboring Portuguese colony, to Lourenço Marques .
Construction began on November 1, 1889. This railway line was completed on October 20, 1894 by the Nederlandsch-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorwegmaatschappij (NZASM) and should be opened on November 2 of the same year. However, it was not put into operation until July 8, 1895 in the presence of President Paul Kruger . As a result, the Boer South African Republic was able to bring its goods exports to an ocean port faster and easier, as the railway lines to the ports in the British Cape Colony were congested. With the continuous route operation, the Boer-dominated economy gained a significant political advantage in southern Africa because it reduced its dependence on the British colonial authorities in Cape Town, with whom the relationship was strained.
The discovery of the gold deposits on the Witwatersrand in the 1880s increased the future importance of the railway line still planned at that time. Around 1900 the route was involved in the clashes of the Second Boer War between Boer and British troops, whereby the bridge in Komatipoort was destroyed.
Sources and literature
- Sir Edward Hertslet: The Map of Africa by Treaty. III. 991-998, Cass, London 1909; Reprint 1967; ISBN 0714611425
- The British Blue-Book 1875: Delagoa Bay, Correspondence respecting the Claims of Her Majesty's Government . London 1875
- Marinus Lodewijk van Deventer: La Hollande et la Baie Delagoa . The Hague 1883
- William Fitzwilliam Owen: Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar: Performed in HH ships Leven and Barracouta / Under the Direction of Captain WFW Owen . J. & J. Harper, New York 1833.
- George McCall Theal: The Portuguese in South Africa. London 1896
- George McCall Theal: History of South Africa since September 1795 , Volume V, London 1908.
Web links
- WorldStatesmen: Mozambique (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Felix Schürmann: The gray undercurrent: whalers and coastal societies on the deep beaches of Africa, 1770-1920. Frankfurt a. M./New York 2017, pp. 143–190.
- ↑ Construction on the Delagoa Bay railway line across Transvaal territory starts. on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
- ^ Building of Delagoa Bay railway line is completed. on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
- ^ Huw M Jones: The Delagoa Bay Railway and the origin of Steinaecker's Horse . In: Military History Journal. Vol. 10 No. 3 (June 1996), The South African Military History Society (English)
- ^ Delagoa Bay railway line is officially opened. on www.sahistory.org.za (English)