Page "History of Mozambique" Paragraph 5

With the decline of Portuguese power, especially during the period when the crown of Portugal was combined with the crown of Spain ( 1580 – 1640 ), the Portuguese coastal settlements were ignored and fell into a ruinous condition.

Afterwards, investment lagged while Lisbon devoted itself to the more lucrative trade with India and the Far East and to the colonization of Brazil.

Into the 19th century, a system prevailed of dividing the land into prazos ( large agricultural estates ) which the natives cultivated for the benefit of the European leaseholders, who were also tax-collector for each district and claimed the tax either in labour or produce, a system that kept the sharecropping farmers in a state of serfdom.

Direct Portuguese influence was limited.

On the coast between several native ports of call and Madagascar a large surreptitious trade in slaves was carried on until 1877, supplying slaves for Arabia and the Ottomans.

European traders and prospectors barely penetrated the interior regions, until the Transvaal gold rush.

The commercial and political importance of Mozambique was eclipsed by Lourenço Marques.