Kongo

Kongo, kingdom of central Africa from the 15th to the 18th century, covering an area now in Angola and Zaïre, south of the Congo River. The king or Mani-Kongo ruled from the capital of Mbanza over a hierarchy of provincial and village governments, exercising political and religious authority without military force. The Kongolese traded in ivory, copper, and slaves. The Portuguese, who first explored the area in 1482, began converting the Kongolese to Christianity, but soon also became active in enslaving them. Portuguese slave trade seriously weakened the hierarchy of the kingdom, and Portugal took control by invading the Kongo in 1665, killing the king. By the early 18th century the kingdom was destroyed.