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The properly defined white population was far from being numerous, and this probably affected its impact in terms of influence and extension of power. On the other hand, the mulatto population grosso modo identified itself ideologically, politically, and economically with the whites, together forming the preponderant element in urban Angolan society.
White traders owned the land and managed the capitalisation of their activities connected to the Atlantic trade with Brazil, Europe, and the United States: since the Portuguese occupation, trade had always been instrumental to the existence of the colony. It is not surprising, then, if more than one governmental resolution strongly jeopardising local capital (abolition of the traffic) or openly advantaging the metropolitan bourgeoisie (customs protectionist policies) frequently encountered some resistance, which was able to put back the enactment in the colony of decrees considered a nuisance for the interests of local businesses.
Nonetheless, it is important to underline that a remarkably high proportion of the white population was composed of convicts or enriched ex-convicts. Most of those who survived their sentence returned to Portugal, but those who enjoyed some measure of commercial success running small businesses or trading with the natives remained. They created roots—that is, mixed-race families—and consolidated specific interests that diverged more and more from metropolitan policies such as, for instance, demonstrating strong opposition to the laws enacted by Sá da Bandeira, which led to a progressive abolition of the slave trade.12
A wide segment of the economically preponderant population was formed by individuals who can be divided into convicts, poor settlers, and mestiços, all of them culturally and sociologically rejected by the metropolitan society: from that rejection derived, if not a fracture, certainly a series of deep tensions. It cannot be forgotten that the local colonial society was also layered between “civilised” and “noncivilised” people.