page_title: History of the Republic of the Congo
section_title: Portuguese exploration
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Republic of the Congo / Portuguese exploration
caption_attribution_description: 17th-century map of the Kingdom of Congo. This map was published as an inset labelled Congi regni in Africa Christiani nova descriptio. alongside a larger map Abissinorum sive Pretiosi Joannis imperium. It was published as an update to Mercator's Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati figura of 1595 (in spite of the filename, this is not a map made by Mercator himself!).
context_page_description: The history of the Republic of the Congo has been marked by diverse civilisations: indigenous, French and post-independence.
context_section_description: This African Iron Age culture came under great pressure with the arrival of the first Europeans, in this case Portuguese explorers. King John II of Portugal sought, in order to break Venetian and Ottoman control over trade with the East, to organize a series of expeditions south along the African coast with the goal of establishing direct contact with Asia. In 1482–1483, Captain Diogo Cão, sailing southwards on the uncharted Congo River, discovered the mouth of the river, and became the first European to encounter the Kingdom of Kongo.
  Initially relations were limited and considered beneficial to both sides. With Christianity easily accepted by the local nobility, leading on 3 May 1491 to the baptism of king Nzinga a Nkuwu as the first Christian Kongolese king João I. He was succeeded after his death in 1506 by his son Nzinga Mbemba, who ruled as King Afonso I until 1543. Under his reign Christianity gained a strong foothold in the country. Many churches were built in Mbanza, of which the Kulumbimbi Cathedral (erected between 1491 and 1534) was the most impressive. In theory the kings of Portugal and Kongo were equals and they exchanged letters as such. Kongo at some point even established diplomatic relations with the Vatican, and the Pope appointed a local priest as bishop for the region.
caption: The Kongo region at the time of first European contact
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