The Benguela Railway serves as a key example to study legal transplantation and reception in colonial territory, exploring the intersection of architectural and legal history. The aim of this paper is to survey the legal framework, texts and legal documents that influenced the planning and construction of Angola's largest railway line. In accordance with Cecil Rhodes' ideal of a "C to C" connection between Africa's Cape and Cairo, this line crosses Angola from west to east and is the country's largest and most important railway line. Its construction lasted until 1930, after the first technical studies were drawn up in 1876. Initially, the line was intended to transport 40,000 tonnes of copper a year from Katanga, thanks to a concession granted by King Leopold to the company Tanganyika Concessions Ltd, founded on 20 January 1899 by Robert Williams, an associate of Cecil Rhodes. However, this enterprise initial plans suffered adjustments; it developed its activities in an extension of over 1300 km, extending itself to the provinces of Benguela, Huambo, Bié and Moxico up to the municipality of Luau. In order to understand the ideals and adaptations of this transport network, it is necessary to study in depth the legal regulation of several topics, such as scientific studies, construction projects, periods and contracts, concessions, demarcations, land disputes and exploitation, which we intend to do in context. It is not only about collecting normative developments, but understanding their extent in historical archives, which can show intersections between original projects and actual events. The research developed within the scope of the ArchWar project (the study of violence and control through housing and architecture during colonialism, ref. PTDC/ART-DAQ/0592/2020) along with the archival management carried out at the Historic Overseas Archive in Lisbon on the Benguela Railway, will allow to unravel the impact of this colonial infrastructure on the Portuguese colonial project, taking into account both landscapes - the archival and the legal framework.

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