Kingdom of Kongo in the context of "Democratic Republic of the Congo"

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the western coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country after Brazil in both total area and population and is the seventh-largest country in Africa. It is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Angola has an exclave province, the province of Cabinda, that borders the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital and most populous city is Luanda.

Angola has been inhabited since the Paleolithic Age. After the Bantu expansion reached the region, states were formed by the 13th century and organised into confederations. The Kingdom of Kongo ascended to achieve hegemony among the other kingdoms from the 14th century. Portuguese explorers established relations with Kongo in 1483. To the south were the kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba, with the Ovimbundu kingdoms further south, and the Mbunda Kingdom in the east.

In southwestern Africa, Portuguese Angola was a historical colony of the Portuguese Empire (1575–1951), the overseas province Portuguese West Africa of Estado Novo Portugal (1951–1972), and the State of Angola of the Portuguese Empire (1972–1975). The People's Republic of Angola became independent in 1975 until 1992, when the country officially changed to the "Republic of Angola" as a multi-party democratic republic. Brazil was the first country to recognize Angola's independence.

In the 16th and 17th century, Portugal ruled along the coast and engaged in military conflicts with the Kingdom of Kongo, but in the 18th century, Portugal gradually managed to colonise the interior highlands. Other polities in the region included the Kingdom of Ndongo, Kingdom of Lunda, and Mbunda Kingdom. Full control of the entire territory was not achieved until the beginning of the 20th century, when agreements with other European powers during the Scramble for Africa fixed the colony's interior borders.

The Kingdom of Ndongo (formerly known as Angola or Dongo, also Kimbundu: Utuminu ua Ndongo, Utuminu ua Ngola) was an early-modern African state located in the highlands between the Lukala and Kwanza Rivers, in what is now Angola.

The Kingdom of Ndongo is first recorded in the sixteenth century. It was one of multiple vassal states to Kongo, though Ndongo was the most powerful of these with a king called the Ngola.

Angola was first settled by San hunter-gatherer societies before the northern domains came under the rule of Bantu states such as Kongo and Ndongo. In the 15th century, Portuguese colonists began trading, and a settlement was established at Luanda during the 16th century. Portugal annexed territories in the region which were ruled as a colony from 1655, and Angola was incorporated as an overseas province of Portugal in 1951. After the Angolan War of Independence, which ended in 1974 with an army mutiny and leftist coup in Lisbon, Angola achieved independence in 1975 through the Alvor Agreement. After independence, Angola entered a long period of civil war that lasted until 2002.

The kingdom of Vungu or Bungu was a historic state located in Mayombe (between the present-day Republic of Congo and the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo). In the 13th century it led a confederation of itself, Ngoyo, and Kakongo. It neighboured the confederations of Mpemba and Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza. It is thought to be the origin of the Kingdom of Kongo.