Representations of empire: the Great War and the battle for humanitarian relief in Angola and Mozambique

Abstract

Portugal, the founder of the fi rst and longest lasting global empire, became the most recent of only three republics in Europe after a victorious seizure of power in October 1910. This paper aims to capture not only the growing rivalries between European powers as they extended their colonial empires, especially on the aforementioned continent, but also to foreground the activities and responses of local and national philanthropic actors, encompassing empire mobilization and surveying the humanitarian responses in Angola and Mozambique. It will analyse the humanitarian relief eff orts carried out in and for the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique. By focusing on the humanitarian mobilization in Portuguese Africa, ongoing between 1914 and 1918, this provides an innovative insight into the inhumanity of war, at the intersection of colonial history and aid, revealing the impacts both of brutal global warfare and of humanitarian altruism in this early phase of the 20th century. The mass-industrial 1914-1918 World War held major impacts for colonial life far beyond those usually perceived and among the most aff ected regions. These peripheral spaces experienced the consequences of war, altering their structures, rhythms, and routines to not only transform private and public life but also catalyse their importance as wartime humanitarian actors The article will help to better understand the disruption of normalcy and the involvement of small and peripheral colonial powers in the war’s humanitarian struggle.