Archaeological data about land occupation remount to Palaeolithic. For example, in the Namibe desert, cave painting was found. In the first five hundred of the actual era Angola was directly affected by the migration of the butu people from Central Africa. Other group, Kikongo people came to River Congo (or Zaire) by the 13th century. And over the centuries arrived the jagas, ngangela, nhaneca, Herero, ovambo, kyoko people and in century 19th the last people who came to settle in Angola: the Cuangar (or ovakwangali).

The arrival of the first Europeans dates the ends of the15th century, in 1482, when the Portuguese sailor Diogo Cão shored to mouth of River Congo or Zaire. In the then capital of Kingdom of Congo and still existing city of Mbanza Congo, northern Angola, the king hosted foreign as friends and let them convert to Christianity, taken the name of Afonso I, thus creating an alliance between the two states.

From the Kingdom of Congo depended other smaller kingdoms south as those from Matamba and Ndongo, of whose sovereign (ngola) will result in the name Angola. The resistance of these three kingdoms to colonial penetration will be practically crushed in the second half of the 17th century, in the short period of 20 years: Congo (1665), Ndongo (1671), and Matamba (1681). In 1700, the Portuguese controlled an area of 65,000 km2, with the sole purpose to capture slaves - the dominant trade in that time - and which were exported to Portugal, Brazil, Antilles and Central America.

In the end of the 18th century, the Marquis of Pombal, the all-mighty minister of the Portuguese Kingdom attempted to exploit the country resources. However, his attempt failed due the metropolis lack of support, which was more interested in the development of Brazil based on Angolan slavery. Thus, Angola maintained its title of “slavery mine”.