António I of Kongo
king of the kingdom of Kongo
António I Vita a Nkanga (or Mvita a Nkanga) was a mwenekongo of the Kingdom of Kongo who ruled from 1661 to his defeat and death at the Battle of Mbwila on October 29, 1665. He was elected following the death of King Garcia II. Like the former king, António I pursued a foreign policy focused on removing the Portuguese from his region.
Policy against the Portuguese
Since 1620, Kongo and Portugal had been in a near-constant state of war with the only intervals coming after decisive BaKongo victories. After almost 30 years of decline in the face of BaKongo, Mbundu and Dutch military victories, the Portuguese had retaken their colonial possession in Luanda while establishing a tenuous peace with their old enemies. Feeling threatened by Portugal's return on Kongo's southern border, António I sought to renew Kongo's war against the Portuguese with a new alliance similar to the one at the Battle of Kitombo. Unable to rely on the Dutch for assistance, he sent emissaries to Spain but failed to procure an alliance. He also contacted Kongo's Mbundu allies in Matamba and the semi-independent kingdoms of Dembos and Mbwila.
On December 22, 1663, Alfonso VI of Portugal ordered Vidal Negreiros to take control of the Kongo copper mines, exploit the deposits and send the ore by ship to Lisbon. António I of Kongo responded by denying the existence of the mines and proclaiming that he "is in no way indebted to the King of Portugal".
Vidal Negreiros prepares his army for battle and Antonio I responds with a vibrant call to war, the two met in Mbwila, along the Ulanga River.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “António I of Kongo” is king of the kingdom of Kongo. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through António, Kongo and king, not as a finished interpretation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2707642. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1661, 1665, 1620 and 1663.
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This entry incorporates text from “António I of Kongo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.