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The Arrival of the Europeans
Throughout the 15th century, the
Portuguese had been exploring
Africa’s coast, establishing trading
posts for several types of
commodities, ranging from gold to
slaves, as they looked for a route to
India and its spices. They were also
hoping to convert the people to
Christianity, making them their
allies against Islam. By 1475 they
had reached the Bight of Benin, and
it has been suggested that the
Portuguese enabled intra-African
trade by shipping goods from port
to port. This may have weakened the
Songhai empire, however, as trade
took to the sea and difficult journeys
overland were abandoned.
The Portuguese were joined by
other seafaring empires, profoundly
affecting indigenous trade across the
Sahara. Now that the direction of
trade had turned towards the sea,
inland states declined as coastal ones
gained in wealth and power, now
helped by the availability of
firearms. Now the slave trade began
to increase its momentum; the
Portuguese needed workers on their
plantations in Brazil and as other
European powers established
colonies in the Americas, the need
for labor grew, causing the vicious
trade to expand. Coastal African
states began to attack their
neighbors, taking captives who were
then sold into slavery.
The Atlantic Slave Trade
Human bondage existed in Africa
since earliest times, often in the
forms of agricultural labor and
conscripted soldiers. Africans
became part of the Atlantic trade in
slaves after the European Age of
Exploration, from which comes the
modern Western perception of
African-descended slaves owned by
non-African slave traders.
Africa’s involvement in this trade
emerged when suitable ships made it
possible for long voyages to be made
from the Mediterranean, down the
coast of Africa, and ultimately across
the Atlantic to the Americas. Before
they even boarded ship, many slaves
had already made long inland
journeys, and had often been bought
and sold several times along the way.
Slavery existed in the Americas
prior to European colonization, in
that the indigenous population often
took and held members of other
tribes captive, human sacrifice of
captives being common in Aztec
society. The Spanish followed by
enslaving indigenous Caribbean
tribes, and as the native populations
declined, mostly through European
diseases, came to be replaced by
commercially imported Africans.
These were primarily obtained
from their African homelands by
coastal tribes, who captured and
sold them, receiving guns and gun
powder in exchange. The total slave
trade to islands in the Caribbean,
Brazil, Mexico and to the United
States is estimated to have involved
12 million Africans, of whom 645,000
were brought to what is now the
United States. In addition to African
slaves, poor Europeans were
brought over in substantial numbers
as indentured servants, particularly
in the British 13 colonies.
A Concise History of Africa
OPPOSITE:
Carved stamps are used to
print symbols on traditional Adinkra cloth
made by the Ashanti people in Ghana.
ABOVE:
African slaves processing
sugar cane on the Caribbean island of
Hispaniola. Engraving by Theodor
de Bry (1528–1598).
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