Kongo King Nzinga a Ntinu Receives Portuguese Missionaries

Manikongo Nzinga a Ntinu (João I) of Kongo formally receives Portuguese missionaries and diplomats in 1491, is baptized, and begins a decades-long alliance. The Kongo court adopts Christianity, Portuguese literacy, and European statecraft while maintaining its own cultural institutions — a sophisticated diplomatic maneuver that preserves Kongo sovereignty for over a century.