Immigration to Africa was seen as both a solution to Portugal’s excess population problem and as a way to strengthen Portuguese control over its colonies.  With the white population in Angola increasing from 44,000 in 1940 to 325,000 in 1974, Europeans soon took over not only upper and mid-level positions, but also most low-wage jobs in the city, displacing most of the urban African population.  Having lost much of their status to poor white settlers, mestiço and assimilado populations felt increasingly marginalized by the Portuguese, and members of these groups would form the leadership of most of the independence movements in the 1950s and 60s.  In addition to the social-cultural hierarchy imposed by the Portuguese, ethnic divisions were also intensified by other colonial policies.