The second half of the eighteenth century was marked by significant changes in the colonial government of Angola. In Lisbon, the Crown conceived a new imperial project to territorialize the colony. In Luanda, the governors were in charge to gather information and to propose new measures to improve the economy and colonization of the region. Profoundly influenced by the Enlightenment ideas of government, the different projects always considered that the Religion should have a central role to successfully achieve the goals of progress and civilization of the colony. Since the beginning of the overseas expansion of the Iberian kingdoms, the Catholic Church and the idea of the evangelization was always present. However, in Angola the missionary activities never had the same expression as they had in Asia or South America. In this paper I will show that the colonial governors of Angola looked to the Religion not only as a matter of orthodoxy, but mainly as the only way to civilize blacks and whites, to “Europeanize” Angola.