AP US History

Answer - A - The Portuguese presence in Africa affected the kingdom of Kongo by urging Kongo’s rulers to become Catholic.

Key Takeaway: The Kingdom of Kongo was an African kingdom located in west central Africa in what are now northern Angola, Cabinda, the Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At its greatest extent, it reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south.

Portuguese travelers discovered the Kingdom of Kongo and urged its rulers to become Catholic. By the early seventeenth century the city and its hinterland had a population of around 100,000, or one out of every five inhabitants in the Kingdom (according to baptismal statistics compiled by Jesuit priests).