Mozambique's 32 million people distribute across a narrow 2,500-kilometer strip along the Indian Ocean coast and extend inland up to 600 kilometers at the widest point. The Makhuwa constitute the largest ethnic group at approximately 40 percent of the population, concentrated in the northern provinces. The Tsonga people, representing roughly 23 percent, occupy southern Mozambique including the capital region. The Sena, about 8 percent, inhabit the central Zambezi valley. Portuguese functions as the official language, a colonial remnant spoken by approximately half the population as a second language, while the majority communicate daily in Bantu languages including Emakhuwa, Xichangana, Cisena, and Elomwe.
Portuguese traders arrived at what became Mozambique Island in 1498. Formal colonization began in 1505 when Portugal established fortified trading posts along the coast. For four centuries Portugal treated Mozambique primarily as a source of enslaved people for Brazilian plantations and as a stopover on routes to India. The colonial administration remained minimal in inland areas until the late 19th century when Portugal expanded control following the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. The Portuguese ruled through prazo systems where settlers received land grants and operated as quasi-feudal lords, and later through forced labor arrangements that persisted into the 1960s.
Eduardo Mondlane founded the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO) in Tanzania in 1962, unifying three smaller nationalist movements. The Mozambican War of Independence began September 25, 1964 when FRELIMO guerrillas attacked Portuguese administrative posts in northern Cabo Delgado province. Mondlane's assassination by parcel bomb in 1969 briefly fractured the movement before Samora Machel consolidated leadership. The Portuguese dictatorship's collapse in the Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974 ended the war. Portugal granted Mozambique independence on June 25, 1975 after 470 years of colonial rule.
FRELIMO declared Mozambique a one-party Marxist-Leninist state at independence with Samora Machel as president. The new government nationalized land and industries, abolished traditional authorities, and launched mass literacy campaigns. The Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO), initially formed by Rhodesian intelligence services in 1977, evolved into a full opposition force backed by South Africa's apartheid government. The Mozambican Civil War killed an estimated one million people between 1977 and 1992. President Machel died in a 1986 plane crash near the South African border under circumstances that remain disputed. Joaquim Chissano succeeded him and negotiated the Rome General Peace Accords signed October 4, 1992, ending the civil war.
Mozambique transitioned to multiparty democracy with elections in 1994. FRELIMO has won every presidential and parliamentary election since independence, though RENAMO transformed into the primary opposition party. Armando Guebuza served as president from 2005 to 2015, presiding over significant offshore natural gas discoveries in the Rovuma Basin beginning in 2010. Filipe Nyusi assumed the presidency in January 2015. An Islamist insurgency began in Cabo Delgado province in October 2017, displacing over one million people and delaying liquefied natural gas projects valued at over 20 billion dollars. Government forces, with Rwandan military support deployed in 2021, have regained control of key areas but fighting continues.
The Ilha de Moçambique, a three-kilometer coral island in Nampula province, served as Portuguese East Africa's capital from 1507 to 1898. UNESCO designated the entire island a World Heritage Site in 1991. The Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, built in 1522, stands as the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere. The Palace of São Paulo, constructed in 1610, housed governors until the capital moved to Maputo. Stone Town on the island's northern half contains coral-and-lime buildings from the 16th through 19th centuries. Macuti Town on the southern portion housed forced laborers and remains inhabited by fishing communities.
Maputo, called Lourenço Marques until 1976, became the capital in 1898 due to its deepwater port and proximity to South African trade routes. The city's population exceeds two million in the greater metropolitan area. The Maputo Central Train Station, completed in 1916, features a design attributed to Gustave Eiffel though this attribution lacks definitive documentation. The Casa de Ferro (Iron House), shipped from Belgium in the 1890s, definitively came from Eiffel's workshop but proved uninhabitable due to heat despite its prominent Maputo location. The Fortaleza de Maputo, originally Nossa Senhora da Conceição fort built in 1787, sits on a cliff overlooking the bay and now houses a military museum.