Trading societies and their networks in Southeast Africa: social and political change on the coasts and in the interiors of Inhambane and Delagoa Bay, 1729-1833

Abstract

This thesis investigates the influence of European mercantile trade on societies along the southeast coast of Mozambique and its interior during the period 1729-1833. For most of this period, the ports of Delagoa Bay and Inhambane were viewed to be dominated by the Portuguese. European and South Asian traders played a key role in developing trading networks stretching far into the various hinterlands of these ports. Drawing in part on previously unused sources, this study shows the interplay, demands of, and competition between European, Muslim and south Asian traders, and African societies. Trade demonstrates a critical role that the changing dynamics of the export trade in ivory, and later in slaves, played in shaping patterns of conflict and cooperation in the region. And it outlines how the demands of the Indian Ocean network were central to the changes in political and military organisation, which translated into degrees of dominance in the wider region