Battle of Coolela
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Battle of Coolela | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Portuguese conquest of the Gaza Empire | |||||||
 Painting of the Battle of Coolela | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
.svg){kind=small} Portuguese Empire | Gaza Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Joaquim Augusto de Albuquerque Colonel Eduardo Galhardo |
| ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
631 Europeans 100 sepoys 500 native auxiliaries 6 guns |
10,000–12,000 men
| ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
5 killed 21 wounded |
305 dead Between 600 and 900 wounded. | ||||||
The Battle of Coolela (Batalha de Coolela in Portuguese) was a confrontation fought on November 7, 1895 between Portuguese forces commanded by Colonel Eduardo Galhardo and forces of the Gaza Empire commanded by Emperor Gungunhana. The clash took place in the context of the Portuguese Campaigns of Pacification and Occupation in Mozambique, a struggle aimed at resisting Portuguese occupation, and took place in the vicinity of the Coolela swamp, in the district of Manjacaze, province of Gaza.
As a response to the violence caused by the attacks on Lourenço Marques and the refusal to submit to Portuguese authorities, the Portuguese administration demanded the delivery an annual payment of 10,000 pounds in gold and authorization for the collection of taxes and other commercial and military from the kings Matibejane and Maazul. Gungunhana probably did not want a confrontation with the Portuguese, but the war-faction led by Maguiguana won out, therefore he gathered all his mangas of warriors under the command of Maguiguana.[1]
While many tribal chiefs refused to send their men to reinforce the Portuguese, Maguiguana managed to assemble around 10,000 men or eight regiments, equipped with around 2,000 rifles.[1] Of the eight regiments however, five were made up of Ndau or Tonga little inclined to fight for Gungunhana.[1] There was deep dissent within the entourage of the emperor and this along with severe food shortages undermined the armys morale.[1] The Nguni or Vatua were not experienced in guerilla warfare and they could not afford to withdraw from their lands.[1]