Angra Pequena (Portuguese for "small cove") was a small coastal area in Southwest Africa. First discovered by Europeans in 1487 by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, it was made into a trading station by German trader Adolf Lüderitz in 1883 who renamed it Lüderitz and concluded treaties with the neighbouring chiefs, who ceded large tracts of country to the newcomers. Under the belief that Britain was about to claim the area as a protectorate, Lüderitz transferred his rights over Angra Pequena on April 24 1884 to the German Imperial Government, and on the following August 7 Chancellor Otto von Bismarck proclaimed a German protectorate over the station and the surrounding area. Renamed Lüderitzbucht (Lüderitz Bay) by the Germans, the location then became the base for Germany's conquest of what became German South West Africa, today known as Namibia. Islands off the coast of Angra Pequena, rich in guano deposits, were annexed by Great Britain in 1867 and added to Cape Colony in 1874.
References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
