Page "Economy of Angola" Paragraph 2

The Portuguese started to develop townships, trading posts, logging camps and small processing factories.

From 1764 onwards, there was a gradual change from a slave-based society to one based on production for domestic consumption and export.

Meanwhile, with the independence of Brazil in 1822, the slave trade was abolished in 1836, and in 1844 Angola's ports were opened to foreign shipping.

By 1850, Luanda was one of the greatest and most developed Portuguese cities in the vast Portuguese Empire outside Mainland Portugal, full of trading companies, exporting ( together with Benguela ) palm and peanut oil, wax, copal, timber, ivory, cotton, coffee, and cocoa, among many other products.

Maize, tobacco, dried meat and cassava flour also began to be produced locally.

The Angolan bourgeoisie was born.

From the 1920s to the 1960s, strong economic growth, abundant natural resources and development of infrastruture, led to the arrival of even more Portuguese settlers.