Angola and Brazil Are Buying Portuguese Companies

Four centuries ago, seafaring Portugal was at the height of its economic power, thanks in no small part to its exploitation of Brazil and Angola. The Portuguese were voracious consumers of Angolan slaves, arming Africans with guns and shackles to capture members of rival tribes. The slaves ended up working and dying on the plantations and in the mines of Brazil and the Portuguese-owned islands off Africa.

Today, Portugal is a ward of the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. Brazil is the world’s seventh-biggest economy (Portugal, at last count, was No. 38) and Angola, Sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest oil producer, is one of the fastest-growing nations on earth. Now Portugal, the erstwhile imperialist, may be acquired in bits and pieces by its former colonies.