The Lunda Kingdom lies east, beyond Matamba…

The Lunda Kingdom lies east, beyond Matamba and Kasanje.

It develops in the seventeenth century, and its center is in the western Shaba Region (formerly Katanga Province) of the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Lunda Kingdom expands by absorbing the chiefs of neighboring groups in the empire, rather than by deposing them.

The Lunda consolidates their state by adopting an orderly system of succession and by gaining control of the trade caravans that pass through their kingdom.

The Portuguese hope to deal directly with the Lunda for slaves and thus bypass the representatives of the Matamba and Kasanje, who act as intermediaries.

Apparently entertaining similar ideas, the Lunda attack Matamba and Kasanje in the 1760s.

The Lunda, however, prove no more successful than the Portuguese at totally subduing these Mbundu kingdoms.