History

Mozambique was originally colonized by Portugal. The Portuguese set up trading posts and mining enterprises. By the 1800s Mozambique had become a major slave-trading center. In the 1950s-1960s the colonial economy thrived attracting thousands of Portuguese settlers. Finally in 1975 after a decade of war Mozambique won independence from Portugal. Although the war was successful, in 1992 a civil war started and claimed the lives of almost 1,000,000 Mozambicans. When the civil war ended an AIDS epidemic broke out. As a result in 2003 Brazil built a medicine plant to help treat AIDS in Mozambique.