The Kionga Triangle was a tiny territory on the border between German East Africa

German East Africa

German East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now :Burundi, :Rwanda and Tanganyika . Its area was , nearly three times the size of Germany today....

 (largely overlapping the present-day United Republic of Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

) and the Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 colony

Colony

In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

 of Portuguese East Africa

Portuguese East Africa

Mozambique or Portuguese East Africa was the common name by which the Portuguese Empire's territorial expansion in East Africa was known across different periods of time...

 (present day Republic of Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

), totalling just 1000 km² (400 mi²).

Originally, the Germans established this as their outpost south of the Rovuma River, and there was a settlement called Kionga of 4,000 inhabitants (1910), now Quionga. But in 1916, during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the Portuguese occupied it. After the war, the Treaty of Versailles

Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...

 defined the border as running along the Rovuma, thus allotting the triangle to Mozambique. When Mozambique became independent on 25 June 1975, the Kionga remained with it, as part of Cabo Delgado Province.

Postage stamps

Postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

s were issued for Kionga during its occupation; for more detail, see postage stamps and postal history of Kionga

Postage stamps and postal history of Kionga

The Kionga Triangle was a tiny territory on the border between German East Africa and the Portuguese colony of Mozambique , originally German, but occupied by Portuguese forces in 1916.On May 29, 1916, 100-reis postage stamps from Lourenço Marques were overprinted with "KIONGA" and one of the...

.