Empire du Monomotapa et etats Voisins

Title

Empire du Monomotapa et etats Voisins

Description

Map shows Mosambique with the cities Sofala, Maputo etc. From : Maps for Prevost's L'Histoire Générale des Voyages - 1747-61

ca. 1756

Artist

Bellin (1703-1772)

Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703 Paris -1772 Versailles) was a French cartographer, engineer-geographer, marine hydrographer. As a contributor to the Encyclopédie, he wrote more than a thousand articles on maritime topics. As a cartographer, Bellin distinguished himself primarily in the field of sea cartography. From 1721 he worked for the Dépot des Cartes et Plans de la Marine, from 1741 until his death as an engineer-hydrograph of the Navy. In 1753 his atlas Neptune français, which covered all the coasts of France, was published, and in 1756 the hydrography françoise covering all seas of the earth. In 1764 the five-volume Petit Atlas maritime was published, which Bellin prepared on the orders of the Minister of the Navy, Choiseul. In addition, he wrote a number of geographical works and with Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre la geographie (1769) a geographic textbook for teaching. His maps illustrated, among other things, Bougainville's work Voyage autour du monde, published in 1771. As a co-author of the Encyclopédie edited by Diderot and d'Alembert, Bellin wrote more than a thousand articles in the field of shipping and navy.

Historical Description

Before the great exploratory trips by the Europeans, Arabs had ruled the coast off Africa for centuries. They traded between Africa, the Orient and India in gold, ivory and African slaves. The first Portuguese to land in Sofala in 1497 was Pedro da Covilhã, who was commissioned by the Portuguese king to explore the sea route from Arabia to East Africa. In 1498 Vasco da Gama reached Mozambique on the way to India: On the island of Mozambique he met Sheikh Moussa Ben Mbiki, from whom the name Mozambique is derived. The Portuguese then seized these trading centers and penetrated inland along the Zambezi in search of gold. For centuries the Portuguese were content with trading slaves and cared little about the population. Their rule lasted into the 20th century, and living conditions in the colonies deteriorated considerably as a result of forced labor, exploitative employment contracts and reckless treatment. Until 1898, the city of Ilha de Moçambique was the country's capital. She also gave the country its name.