Portuguese East Africa

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Portuguese East Africa is the name formerly applied to a string of Portuguese overseas colonies along the south-east African coast, which now form the republic of Mozambique.

Portuguese trading settlements and, later, colonies were formed along the coast from 1498, when Vasco da Gama first reached the Mozambican coast. Some of these colonies were handed over in the late nineteenth century for rule by chartered companies such as the Companhia de Moçambique.

Portugal possessed the following colonies in the area, which were known collectively as Portuguese East Africa:

(From south to north)

In 1951 the colonies were combined into a single overseas province under the name Moçambique. In many cases the colonies have given their names to the modern provinces of Mozambique.

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