Ivory trade and impact on elephant habitat and population in benguela 1790 – 1810

This paper’s subject is the inquiry of the impact of ivory consumption on elephant populations and their habitat in the course of the trading routes, in the late XVIII century and in the beginning of the XIX century (1790 – 1810) Angola. The information and the analyses for this paper was gathered and established, while doing research for a presentation in the Faculty of letters of the University of Lisbon; for an international conference where it was brought a study related to the Ivory trade from the port of Benguela to Lisbon in the mentioned period. Where, while undergoing the research, the author understood that it could be provided a quantitative universe related to the elephant population hunted in that region due Ivory demand. To undertake this article, the author consulted information available in several Portuguese archives, where he collected several documents that permitted him, based in quantitative sources, to establish an interpretation of the population of pachyderms hunted during the mentioned period. Another base of this essay, beside the quantitative data, is the references collected in XVI – XVIII century Chronicles about Angola, to establish in consonance with the archivist call sources, correlation between the hunting of the elephants with the impact, it caused in its habitat through that period. Keeping its interest in the interconnection of fields, the author investigates the notion of conservation in this period. In this case, the author tries to identify how many elephants were killed, and in what ages correspond to the most killing.