According to ehistorylib, in 2005, Mozambique had an estimated population of 19.4 million people with a population growth rate of 2.5%. The economy in 2005 was largely based on agriculture and natural resources, with major exports including aluminum, prawns, cashews and cotton. Foreign relations in 2005 were largely focused on economic cooperation with Mozambique having strong ties to the European Union and other countries through trade agreements. The politics of Mozambique in 2005 were dominated by President Armando Guebuza who had been elected to office in 2004 after an election which was considered by international observers to be generally free and fair. Guebuza’s government implemented major economic reforms aimed at improving living standards for all Mozambicans as well as encouraging foreign investment.
Yearbook 2005
Mozambique. Politically, Mozambique experienced a fairly calm year since the opposition party and former rebel movement Renamo withdrew the threat of boycotting Parliament in protest against the handling of the December 2004 elections..
Economically, Mozambique is also relatively successful and managed to maintain the growth of recent years, which has been at 7-8% annually. Since the end of the 1990s, the proportion of residents below the poverty line has been reduced from close to 70% to just over 50%. In September, the World Bank granted a USD 120 million credit for further poverty reduction.
However, the unexpected dismissal of the head of the anti-corruption authority, Isabel Rupia, worried. Rupia had made itself known for ruthless corruption investigations against a number of high-ranking civil servants, but thereby also attracted many enemies. According to countryaah, Maputo is the capital and one of the major cities within the country of Mozambique. Several of her investigations had been closed on orders from elsewhere and she had also been subjected to a murder attempt.
- Also see abbreviationfinder.org for how the acronym MZ stands for the country of Mozambique and other meanings of this two-letter abbreviation.
Anibal Antonio dos Santos, also known as Anibalzinho, was sent home from Canada in January, where he moved in 2004 after for the second time having managed to escape from prison under suspicious circumstances. He was sentenced in 2003 to 28 years in prison for the murder of journalist Carlos Cardoso, who was about to revive one of the country’s largest corruption cases with suspected branching into the highest social peak.
The town of Sofala near present-day Beira was founded by the Shirazians in the late 10th century. It became the focal point of the two highest civilizations developed in Africa: the Muslim and trade-oriented culture that developed on the east coast of Africa and the metallurgical and animistic culture developed in Zimbabwe. As for other civilizations on the continent the presence of the Portuguese along the coast of the present Mozambique became a casualty. The Portuguese’s desire to take control of the extensive trade in the Orient – which for centuries had contributed to the development of both civilizations – led to the destruction of the port cities and the choking of gold exports from Zimbabwe. The colonial power was never able to regain this trade. Nor did the Portuguese achieve their other goal – to bring gold production under their control. Monomotapa, ruler of the Karangas, probably declared himself the vassal of Portugal in 1629, but he was a relatively indifferent person whose kingdom merely constituted a negligible stretch of coast. Access to the gold mines was effectively blocked by the Changamiras in Zimbabwe.
1974-75 Liberation
Along with the battle waged in Angola and Guinea Bissau, FRELIMO’s progress contributed to the collapse of the military forces and the coup d’état in Portugal on April 25, 1974. The new military government initiated negotiations with FRELIMO, and initially envisaged a neo-colonial solution where the colonies together with the “motherland” were to form a federation. The collapse of fascism did not therefore have to mean the collapse of colonialism. Such a federation was in the interest of the Western capital, most Portuguese residents of Mozambique, and the burgeoning African petty bourgeoisie. Throughout the 1960s, Mozambique had become more important to international capital after Portugal opened up investments in mineral extraction, industry and energy supply. An example of this was the expansion of the Cabora Bassa dam – the largest hydropower project in Africa – with Western and South African capital. But FRELIMO refused to give up the armed struggle before the country gained real independence under FRELIMO’s leadership. During the transitional government in 1974-75, the movement retained its headquarters in Tanzania, strengthened political mobilization and maintained high readiness for coup plans and foreign interference. Only on June 25, 75 were the Mozambique People’s Republic proclaimed. “The fight continues,” Samora Machel declared on the same day in reference to solidarity with the freedom fighters in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
