The Angolan System of Cities in Late Portuguese Colonialism: Demography, Economy, and Policy

Abstract Late Portuguese colonialism (1945–1975) was a formative period for Angola’s urban system. Viewing Angola’s cities from the bird’s-eye perspective of urbanisation history, an underexplored angle in Angolan historiography, reveals how the colony’s integration in the global economy, belated Portuguese development efforts, and the colonial war shaped not only individual places but also their interrelationships and functional differentiation within Angola’s system of cities.