Pink Map

The Pink Map (Portuguese: Mapa cor-de-rosa, "rose-coloured map"), also known in English as the Rose-Coloured Map,^[1] was a map prepared in 1885 to represent Portugal's claim of sovereignty over a land corridor connecting their colonies of Angola and Mozambique during the Scramble for Africa. The area claimed included most of what is currently Zimbabwe and large parts of modern Zambia and Malawi. In the first half of the 19th century, Portugal fully controlled only a few coastal towns in Angola and Mozambique. It also claimed suzerainty over other almost independent towns and nominally Portuguese subjects in the Zambezi valley, but could rarely enforce its claims; most of the territory now within Angola and Mozambique was entirely independent of Portuguese control. Between 1840 and 1869, Portugal expanded the area it controlled but felt threatened by the activities of other powers.

The British government refused to accept Portuguese claims not based on effective occupation, including a Portuguese offer in 1889 to abandon their claim to a transcontinental link in exchange for British recognition of its other claims. The 1890 British Ultimatum ended Portuguese claims based on historical discovery and recent exploration. The dispute seriously damaged popular perception of the Portuguese monarchy, encouraging republicanism.^[2]