Turbulent Centuries in Africa

By: Emma Bunting

Portugal Gains FootholdsIn West Africa, the Portuguese

began building small forts and trading posts.

They then sailed around the continent establishing more forts, leaving people behind with firepower in order to defend them.

Attacked Mambosa and Malindi, which were centers of international trade.

Took over Arabs’ thriving East African trade network.

These victories were just adding to their growing trade empire.

Portugal Gains FootholdsPortuguese explorers were able to

establish trading posts in present-day Congo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe over the course of 200 years.

Because Portuguese did not have maps or other resources, they stayed near the coasts, not knowing much about Africa’s inland and also, Africans in the interior resisted this exploration.

Therefore, the Portuguese did not leave a strong legacy in Africa.

The African Slave Trade ExplodesSlavery had existed

in Africa since ancient times.

In the 1500s and 1600s, Europeans thought of slaves as the most important aspect of African trade.

Elmina Castle

Europeans Enter the Slave TradePortuguese, as well as other European traders,

joined the profitable slave trade.They bought many slaves to do work on their

plantations, which are large estates run by an owner or an owner’s overseer, and to be household servants in the Americas and other places.

They were dependent on African rulers to seize captives and bring them to the coastal trading posts where they would be traded for goods.

The slave trade grew into a huge and profitable business to fill the need for cheap labor

Slaves working on plantations

African Leaders ResistAfrican leaders attempted to stop or

slow down the transatlantic slave trade, but they were unsuccessful because the trade was too strong for them.

Affonso I, after becoming the ruler of Kongo in 1505, wanted the Portuguese to help him change Kongo to a modern Christian state, but was shocked by the amount that came to Kongo each year to buy slaves.

He tried to end the slave trade, but keep contact with Europe

Much like the other African leaders, his attempt was unsuccessful and the trade continued.

New African States AriseThe slave trade highly impacted

the time period of the 1600s-1700s

The amount of women and men that were lost caused some states in West Africa to permanently disappear

New states arose whose way of life revolved around the slave trade

Wars began between the powerful new states to dominate the slave trade

The Asante KingdomThe Asante Kingdom was formed in the area

occupied by present-day GhanaOsei Tutu, an able military leader, won

control of the trading city of Kumasi and he conquered neighboring people and unified the Asante Kingdom by claiming that his right to rule came from heaven and that people were linked by spiritual bonds.

Under Osei Tutu, government officials managed the royal monopolies, which is the exclusive control of an industry or business, on gold mining and the slave trade

The Asante built a wealthy, powerful state by exchanging gold and slaves for firearms with Europeans on the coast

Osei Tutu

The Oyo EmpireContinuous waves of

settlement by Yoruba people of present-day Nigeria caused the Oyo Empire to arise

The leaders used wealth from the slave trade to build up an impressive army and it used it to conquer the neighboring kingdom of Dahomey

The empire also traded with European merchants at the port city of Porto-Novo, which it gained wealth from

The European Presence Expands

Like the Portuguese, many European powers had established forts along the western coast of Africa.

The Portuguese power declined in the region and the British, Dutch, and French traders took over their forts

Cape Town was the first permanent European settlement built by the Dutch immigrants to supply ships sailing to or from the East Indies

Boers, which are Dutch farmers, settled around Cape Town.

They believed that they were the chosen of God thinking of the Africans as inferior to them and did not respect their claims to the land.

Boers began to move north from the Cape Colony which led to several battles with African groups

Boers

The European Presence ExpandsBy the mid-1600s, both the

British and French had arrived to present-day Senegal

In the late 1700s, British explorers’ search for the source of the Nile River led to an interest in Africa among Europeans

1788: British established the African Association, which is an organization that sponsored explorers to Africa