Baixo Maputo: meio ambiente, ocupaçao humana e história política pré-colonial (1550-1896)

Abstract

In this study, we intend to provide a framework of relationships between the variables in the title, thus contributing to the reconstruction of the past of the Lower Maputo region in the period dating c. 1550, when the first reports of shipwrecks appeared, until the end of the colonial period in 1974-5. Our assumption is that men's lives are organized in natural contexts, which, above all, are bioclimatic means that, in the interaction with other factors, conditioned survival strategies that were reflected in the occupation and use of space by human groups. Not only, but they also interacted in pre-colonial political processes.

As for the structure of the work, in chapter I we present the usual methodological aspects of the work and the literature review. In chapter II, the geographical ecological profile of the study region, in which we present the ecological zoning and the survey of the potential resources of large ecological areas. In chapter III, we analyze the structure of human occupation and its factors in the region throughout the study period. In the last chapter, we articulate chapters II and III in the analysis of pre-colonial political processes. In the final remarks, we summarily recapitulate the work, underlining the main conclusions per chapter.