Cabinda

There are considerable offshore oil reserves nearby.

Cabinda emerged around the year 1490, its formation largely influenced by its geography (the Bay of Cabinda), which allowed the construction of a busy port. It later became a Portuguese trading post in 1620 and was turned into a Portuguese fortification in 1783, which contributed to the concentration of a political-military class and administrative services, granting it a zone of influence. However, it was from 1887 onward—when it became the seat of an administrative district, capital of the Congo district (now the province of Uíge) and of the Portuguese Congo Protectorate—that Cabinda effectively became the central city of the area.