 During the Portuguese occupation, two expatriate officers were located in Negomano district to ensure that the local farmers met their quota of cotton production and complied with the standards set by the senior bureaucrats in the capital, Lourenco Marques (Maputo).Germans who had colonial designs on Mozambique, particularly its northern region, by diplomatic coercion had obtained border concessions from Portugal by annexing the mouth of the Rovuma River and even established their commune at Quionga.This ambition got a boost during the World War I when they launched a full-scale war on Mozambique, which resulted in Portuguese getting defeated initially.