ENCYCLOPAEDIA of Rebellions

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Soldiers mutiny in Luanda 1667

Synopsis
The mutiny of the soldiers in Luanda (1667) was marked by a successful insurrection that ultimately led to a clear political change – the exile of the governor Tristão da Cunha, and the consequent implementation of a different model of government, in which the municipality ruled directly. The reasons at the core of this mutiny are of diverse nature, and include taxation, political tensions, and mismanagement of the army. Seizing the fact that Luanda’s infantry had been unpaid and poorly fed for the last two years, a set of local actors – including municipal officers, oligarchies and main individuals– decided to support and manipulate the concerns of the soldiers. On 27 January 1667, most of the infantry concentrated in the Ingombotas (Santa Cruz) and forced Cunha to exile in Brazil. Shortly after, a meeting in the Jesuit college attended by the city officers, delegates of the religious orders, and distinguished moradores, paved way for the municipality to concentrate both political and military domain over early colonial Angola. The literature has stressed how the politics developed by Cunha were object of contention by the colonial elites. The changes in the access to the slave hinterland markets (pumbos), together with the alleged lack of respect of Cunha by some of the protocols, had the effect of shortening the rule of the latter. The municipality and its oligarchies diverged progressively from the governor, and the munity of the soldiers accelerated its fall.
Additional info

Starting date: . Ending: . Duration: 3 days. Name in sources: Motim dos soldados de infantaria; revolta de Luanda. Location: Luanda Country (current): Angola. Monarchy: Portuguese. Main participants: Clergymen, Local elites, Soldiers. Number of participants: 50-100. Main reasons & motivations: Fiscal, Military issues, Political. Leadership: Unknown. Relevance: medium.

Further reading
ALENCASTRO, Luiz (2000). O trato dos viventes. Formação do Brasil no Atlântico Sul. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras; CALDEIRA, Arlindo (2015). “Dimensão sociopolítica do município de Luanda durante o século XVII”, Cadernos de Estudos Africanos, 30: 27-59; NAFAFÈ, José Ligna (2022). Lourenço da Silva Mendonça and the Black Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cite this entry

Carvalhal, Hélder (2024). "Soldiers mutiny in Luanda 1667", in J. V. Serrão and M. S. Cunha (coord), Rebellions in the Early Modern Iberian World. http://atlas.cidehusdigital.uevora.pt/revolt/soldiers-mutiny-in-luanda-1667/ (accessed on 06 Julho 2024).