The highest point in Angola is Morro de Moco (2,620 m).

The name Angola is derived from "ngola" - the title of a ruler in the region.

Angola has been inhabited since prehistoric times.

Hunter-gatherers settled in present-day Angola around the sixth century AD.

Bantu-speaking people migrated to the country from the north, possibly from around present-day Cameroon.

By the middle of the fourteenth century the region was organized into a kingdom and provinces.

Portuguese explorers arrived towards the end of the fifteenth century.

The Portuguese founded the Colony of Angola in 1575.

Angola was administered from the Portuguese colony of Brazil.

The Dutch occupied Luanda between 1641 and 1648.

Angola was a centre of the slave trade. Many Angolan slaves were sent to Brazil.

Portugal abolished slavery in their colonies in 1858 but slaves had to serve an apprenticeship for twenty years.

In 1951 Angola became an Overseas Province of Portugal.

Oil was first discovered in Angola in the 1950s.

Major oil reserves were discovered off the coast of Cabinda in 1966.

A coup d'etat in Portugal, in 1974, led to former Portuguese possessions gaining independence.

Independence from Portugal was achieved in 1975.

1975 saw the beginning of a civil war in Angola lasting until 2002.

Agostinho Neto (1927-1979), a doctor and poet, was the first president of independent Angola.

Landmines, buried in countryside during the war, have been responsible for the death and injury of many Angolans.

British organisations have assisted in the removal of landmines in Angola.

The United States-Angola Chamber of Commerce, an independent, non-profit organization, is dedicated to the promotion of trade and investment between the United States and Angola.