Kongo Kingdom Chronological Outlining

3000 BCE- hunters and gatherers become sedentary, turn to agriculture changes lifestyle, orientation of kinship families and concepts of territory

2000 BCE- Western Bantu expansion results in splitting of language groups in Central Africa

1560 BCE- advance beyond Cameroon

1120 BCE- using what Jan Vansina calls glottochronological estimates, relating to the diverging of languages over time, research has been done to chronicle the history of the Kongo region linguistically, beginning with the split of Aka-Mbati language group, northern Zaire and southwestern languages

950 BCE-170 CE split between southern languages, including Kongo and the Gabon-Congo community; Buan-Soan split circa 580 CE; Buan split circa 440 BCE; split with Biran circa 170 CE

330 CE- Western Bantu expansion “ends” when Maniema group splits in development

Early Kongo expansions -- circa 350 BCE -400 CE

400-600 CE – iron smelting dates back possibly as early as 5^th century for Gabon. Emergence of iron significantly changes realms of agriculture and combat

circa 600 CE – banana cultivation expands, highly successful crop in rainforest regions

1000 CE- largest distribution of farmers across the Kongo region. Economy of trade begins to take form with goods such as ivory, hides, slaves and sea shells. Vansina notes this period as a proto-period of development in the Kongo

1350-1375- The earliest origins of Kongo begin with Nimi a Nzima, ruler of Mpemba Kasi, who made a number of conquests along the south shore of the Congo River

1400- Lukeni lua Nimi, known to some as the founder of Kongo, conquers the kingdom of the Mwene Kabunga

1437- birth of King Nzinga a Nkuwu (later would become João I)

1483- Portuguese sailor Diogo Cao first visits the Kongo, though no written records remain of this first contact with the Portuguese

1490- King Nzinga Nkuwu welcomes Portuguese trade and fosters a relationship with the Europeans. He becomes João I after his conversion to Christianity, though later, it is purported that he reverted to Indigenous beliefs shortly before his death. Portugal sent carpenters, farmers, traders and other specialists to Kongo which greatly impressed Kongo royalty.

1506- João I rules until his death. His son Afonso Mvemba a Nzinga takes power and establishes Christianity as the state religion, granting the Roman Catholic Church a secure seat in the future political spectrum

1512- Mbamba became involved in a defensive war with Munza, a lord of the southern border, in which the royal army intervened, and campaigned there until 1517.

1517 These territories were humbled by Kongo armies in the sixteenth century and forced to pay tribute, as Matamba, for example, but were not fully integrated into the Kongo Kingdom.

1542- death of King Afonso

1568- Álvaro I came to the throne during another contest over the throne. His reign marked the beginning of the House of Kwili

1574- Portuguese establish the city of Luanda in Angola

1588- Duarte Lopes, a Portuguese New Christian who served as Kongo's ambassador to Rome, wrote the first explicitly historical description of Kongo.

1591- Lopes' account was revised and augmented by an Italian humanist, Filippo Pigafetta, after he interviewed Lopes in Rome

1600s- churches become well established throughout the Kongo, many citizens interested in converting to adopt “Dom” as part of their titles to indicate social position

1620s Kimpanzu, Kinlaza, and Kinkanga a Mvika form 3 realms of the Kongo Kingdom

1622-1624 Jesuit priest Mateus Cardoso makes extensive historical notes about the early kingdom in letters and historical accounts. Cardoso placed the origin of Kongo "some three hundred and fifty years ago," or 1270, which seems too early by half a century for even the most extreme assumptions of reign length and birth dates.

1641- Dutch invasion of Angola

1664- Capuchin missionary Giovanni Cavazzi da Montecuccolo wrote a detailed account of early Kongo history from his visit to the Kongo, though the text was not actually published until 1687

1665- Kongo dissolves in civil war after the battle of Ulanga (Mbwila)

1670- defeat of a combined Kongo-Portuguese army in the fall of 1670, an event henceforward celebrated by a holiday