Editing Economy of Guinea-Bissau (section)

===Colonial era===

As with the other Portuguese territories in mainland Africa ([[Portuguese Angola]] and [[Portuguese Mozambique]]), Portugal exercised control over the coastal areas of Portuguese Guinea when first laying claim to the whole region as a colony. For three decades there are costly and continuous campaigns to suppress the local African rulers. By 1915 this process was complete, enabling Portuguese colonial rule to progress in a relatively unruffled state - until the emergence of nationalist movements all over Africa in the 1950s.

For a brief period in the 1790s the British attempted to establish a rival foothold on an offshore island, at [[Bolama Island|Bolama]], but by the 19th century the Portuguese were sufficiently secure in Bissau to regard the neighbouring coastline as their own special territory. It was therefore natural for Portugal to lay claim to this region, soon to be known as Portuguese Guinea, when the European [[scramble for Africa]] began in the 1880s. Britain's interest in the region declined since the end of the British slave trade in 1807. After the abolition of slavery in the Portuguese overseas territories in the 1830s, the slave trade went into serious decline.

Portugal's main rivals were the French, their colonial neighbours along the coast on both sides - in [[Senegal]] and in the region which became [[French Guinea]]. The Portuguese presence in Guinea was not disputed by the French. The only point at issue was the precise line of the borders. This was established by agreement between the two colonial powers in two series of negotiations, in 1886 and 1902–5. Until the end of the 19th century, [[rubber]] was the main export.