Mozambique

First visited by Vasco da Gama, Mozambique was colonized by the Portuguese in the early 16th century and became a center of the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. It became an independent republic in 1975, after a ten-year armed struggle by the Frelimo liberation movement; civil war between the Frelimo government and the Renamo opposition followed until a peace agreement was signed in 1992