Sowing the seeds of failure: early Portuguese cotton cultivation in Angola and Mozambique, 1820–1926

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Abstract
Prior to the advent of the Estado Novo, early attempts by the Portuguese to grow cotton in Angola and Mozambique were humiliating failures. Natural factors contributed to the poor record of cotton production from the 1860s to the 1920s, but erratic international prices, conflicting and contradictory metropolitan objectives in the colonies, inappropriate methods of production, competing crop and labour demands, and African resistance also led to the failure of any sustained and appreciable cotton cultivation in Angola and Mozambique. This article details the history of early attempts and illuminates those forces which ultimately shaped the Estado Novo's own policy.