<P> After the death of Nimi a Lukeni, his brother, Mbokani Mavinga, took over the throne and ruled until approximately 1467 . He had two wives and nine children . His rule saw an expansion of the Kingdom of Kongo to include the neighbouring state the Kingdom of Loango and other areas now encompassed by the current Republic of Congo . </P> <P> The Mwene Kongos often gave the governorships to members of their family or its clients . As this centralization increased, the allied provinces gradually lost influence until their powers were only symbolic, manifested in Mbata, once a co-kingdom, but by 1620 simply known by the title "Grandfather of the King of Kongo" (Nkaka'ndi a Mwene Kongo). </P> <P> The high concentration of population around Mbanza Kongo and its outskirts played a critical role in the centralization of Kongo . The capital was a densely settled area in an otherwise sparsely populated region where rural population densities probably did not exceed 5 persons per km . Early Portuguese travelers described Mbanza Kongo as a large city, the size of the Portuguese town of Évora as it was in 1491 . By the end of the sixteenth century, Kongo's population was probably close to half a million people in a core region of some 130,000 square kilometers . 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). This concentration allowed resources, soldiers and surplus foodstuffs to be readily available at the request of the king . This made the king overwhelmingly powerful and caused the kingdom to become highly centralized . </P> <P> By the time of the first recorded contact with the Europeans, the Kingdom of Kongo was a highly developed state at the center of an extensive trading network . Apart from natural resources and ivory, the country manufactured and traded copperware, ferrous metal goods, raffia cloth, and pottery . The Kongo people spoke in the Kikongo language . The eastern regions, especially that part known as the Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza (or in Kikongo Mumbwadi or "the Seven"), were particularly famous for the production of cloth . </P>

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