History
Mozambique's history can be traced back approximately 1700 years when the area was settled by migrating tribes, who dominated the more peaceful nomadic tribes and intermarried with them. The Portuguese involvement in Mozambique started around 1498 when Vasco da Gama landed at Ilha da Mozambique en route to India. Their interest came about from a need to establish supply posts on the routes sailed between Europe and the East. In the following 200 years numerous other trading posts were set up along the coast with Ilha da Mozambique becoming the capital. By the mid sixteenth century, ivory had replaced gold as the main trading commodity. By the eighteenth century slaves were being sold by the thousands through many of Mozambique's ports.

In the seventeenth century the Portuguese strengthened their control in the country by establishing private agricultural land grants by either the Portuguese crown or by conquest of local African Chiefs. Major companies in Mozambique during the eighteenth century tried to gain control of the Zambezi Valley by forming charter companies, of which the Zambezia Company was the largest. Most failed at this attempt, but the Zambezia Company profited through forced labor abuses and harsh conditions under which the locals were made to live. In 1891 the British-Portuguese treaty was signed which set the boundaries of Portuguese East Africa (the former name for Mozambique).

Significant events in the early twentieth century were the large scale migration of labor forces from the southern regions of Mozambique to South Africa and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Another equally important occurrence was the growing economic importance of the southern part of the country as ties with South Africa strengthened.

In the late nineteenth century, Lourenzo Marques (Maputo) became increasingly popular as a major export channel and became the country's capital after being transferred from Ilha da Mozambique.

In 1919, Antonio Salazar came into power and consolidated Portuguese control over Mozambique. This resulted in the introduction of agriculture, which boosted economic growth. Alas, conditions for Mozambicans worsened and only a handful of schools and hospitals existed, of which most were situated in cities and only available to the Portuguese and other white nationalities. In 1960 an official meeting was held at Mueda in northern Mozambique where peaceful villagers protested against taxes. Portuguese troops opened fire killing large numbers of demonstrators.

This fueled the Makonde people and the struggle for independence grew steadily until the 25th of June 1975 when the independent People's Republic of Mozambique was proclaimed with Samora Machel as President and Joaquim Chissano as Prime Minister.

The Portuguese left the country in a state of chaos with few skilled professionals and hardly any infrastructure. Aims at teaching 100 000 people to read and write each year, the formation of banks, insurance companies and basic health services fell apart by 1983 when the country became bankrupt and the money useless. The Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) came into action, which later had backing from the South African military and certain sectors in the West. Renamo had no ideology of its own and sought sole destruction of the social and communications infrastructure and destabilization of the government.

From then on, the 17 year 'Civil War' brought mass destruction of roads, bridges, schools and clinics and where villagers with any sort of skill were shot. A disastrous drought in 1983 crippled the country and led Frelimo to opening Mozambique to the West for Western Aid. When Samora Machel died in 1986, Joaquim Chissano took his place as the war continued. By the early 1990's Frelimo had abandoned its Marxist ideology and announced the changing over to a market economy.

State enterprises would be privatized and multi-party elections were to be scheduled. In October 1992, a formal peace agreement was arranged and a successful UN-monitored disarmament and demobilization campaign was established. Since the signing of the peace accords, Mozambique has moved forward in a quest for transforming military conflict into political competition.

Geography
Situated on the east coast of Southern Africa, Mozambique has a coastline that stretches for nearly 3000 km. The country covers an area of approximately 800 000 sq km with it's inland waters including a portion of Lake Malawi. Long, winding rivers flow across its territory. One of them is the Zambezi, which has its source in Angola , enters Mozambique at the country's most western point in the Tete province, and flows almost 800 km before reaching the sea at Chinde.

It has an extensive coastal plain which varies from 100 - 2000km's wide in the south. The north is dominated by plateaus and mountainous terrain where towering granite outcrops called inselbergs occur.

While the south coast is edged with barrier lakes, the Zambezi River Valley is situated in the central regions of Mozambique and creates an extensive delta region towards the coast. Mount Binga is Mozambique's highest peak at 2436m and is situated in the Chimanimani Mountains on the Zimbabwean border. Other important rivers which flows through the country are the Limpopo River, the Save River and the Rovuma River (the border between Mozambique and Tanzania in the north).

Environment
Mozambique has a diverse ecosystem with extensive wetlands, mangrove forests, offshore marine habitats and montane habitats including the Chimanimani Mountains and the Gorongosa Massif in central Mozambique. A lack of official regulations and structures harbor the conservation of many areas. Even when boundaries have been set, many of Mozambique's natural resources are being ignored or squandered.

Timber trade in the northern parts of Mozambique is an example of how over-utilization and inappropriate logging practices are being pulled off with large scale damage to the surrounding environment as neither replanting nor sustainable harvesting is implemented. There are however a number of small projects which focus on the promotion of sustainable development and community resource management.

Fauna
Although most large mammal populations were exterminated during the war period, some 200 mammal species, 170 reptile and 40 amphibian species still occur. In most places, recovery is in place of animal populations and an example of the drastically reduced numbers is shown in the Gorongoza National Park where there were 3000 elephants before the war compared to the 120 that now remain. Similar are the buffalo population numbers which were 14 000 prior to the war where in 1994 there were none. Approximately 600 bird species have been identified in Mozambique. Efforts are under way to fully document the numbers of remaining species.

As for marine life, mammals include the spinner, bottlenose, humpback and striped dolphins and the endangered dugongs. Leather, loggerhead, green, hawksbill and olive Ridley turtles occur along the coastline and whales such as the humpback use the calm waters as breeding grounds during the winter months. Endangered species include the black rhino, giraffe, tsessebe, roan antelope and African wild goat. This also includes the African rock python, the wattled crane and most notably the dugong which occurs in marine estuarine habitats.