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Transcript of West africa and_the_portuguese_up_to_____
CXC CAPE HISTORY
LECTURE 4
THE PORTUGUESE IN WEST AFRICA
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
By the end of the topic students will be able to:
Analyse the nature of West African contact with Europe
up to 1493
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE
By the end of the lesson students will be able to:
Discuss the factors that led to contact between West
Africa and Europe up to 1492
PORTUGUESE IN WEST AFRICA
Portugal was the first Europeans to visit the coast of
Africa.
The first and definite sustained commercial connections
between Europe and West Africa were established by
Portugal.
FACTORS
Several factors led to Portuguese contactwith West Africa. These include:
Political factors
Geography
Economic
Technological
Private funding
Religion
FACTORS CONT
Prince Henry
Bases
Wind systems
POLITICAL FACTORS
Portugal was well placed to lead thevoyages of discovery because it was notconfronted with any internal difficulties orexternal threat by the beginning of the 15th
century.
Other maritime European countries werefaced with a number of politicaldistractions (e.g Castile was waging anumber of against the Muslims whichended 1n 1492. The Dutch were involved intheir wars of independence with Spain
GEOGRAPHY
Portugal’s location and early participation in Atlantic
fisheries positioned it to be the pioneer in this venture.
ECONOMIC
The economic factors include:
Alternative sea route
Commercial viability of Atlantic islands
Desire for African and Asian Gold
ALTERNATIVE SEA ROUTE
Portugal wanted to the trade items from the east without
any intervention. They wanted to cut out the number of
middle-men who distributed goods from China to India
This provided the motive for the search for a sea route to
the East which would not be under the control of Muslim
powers.
ALTERNATIVE SEA ROUTE
CONTD
The Portuguese decided that the contact with the FarEast trade had to the way lay in a circum-navigation ofAfrica.
COMMERCIAL VIABILITY
The Atlantic islands proved to be commercially viable
e.g. sugar was cultivated in the Azores, Canary Islands
and Madeira.
DESIRE FOR GOLD
There was a strong desire for commercialgain from the trade of West African gold,spice, ivory. These were attractive andcommercially important items
There was a search for gold and spiceswhich were known to be in abundance inWest Africa.
Since Mansa Musa, King of Mali, dazzledthe world with West African gold in the1300s, gold from Africa had become afascination.
TECHNOLOGY
There was development in the building of ships capableof undertaking long voyages. The caravel for examplewas invented .
There was also the development of navigational aidse.g. astrolabe and cartography(map making)
The improvement in technology made possible theexpansion of Portugal down the West African coast
NB. Much of the technology embraced by thePortuguese came from their interaction with the Moorswho invaded Europe.
RELIGION
The Portuguese wanted to convert Africans to
Christianity and they had a crusading tradition against
the Muslims.
There was an anti-Muslim spirit.
Europeans wanted to move into Muslim dominated
North and Northwest Africa.
PRINCE HENRY
Prince Henry’s moral and financial commitment to
exploration provided much of the infrastructural
foundation for contact e.g. school of navigation at
Sagres.
At Sagres Henry studied and sent forth men on missions
of exploration.
BASES
The Atlantic islands served as vital bases from which to
launch expeditions down the coast of West Africa
WIND SYSTEMS
Comprehension of the wind systems and ocean currents,
which affected the outward and return voyages and the
development of strategies to cope with these.
PORTUGUESE
ASSUMPTIONS
When Portuguese went to Africa the made
certain assumptions about Africans
Africans had no knowledge so they went naked
Had no understanding of certain types of food
PORTUGUESE
ASSUMPTIONS
Had no dwelling/houses
Lived like animals and were lazy (bestial sloth)
Had little morality (no understanding of what was
good)
REASON FORE THESE
ASSUMPTIONS
The Portuguese :
Were ignorant of the way of life of
the Africans as they had not gone
beyond the coastal areas of the
continent
As with other Europeans, had the
preconception that non-Europeans
were uncivilised
REASON FORE THESE
ASSUMPTIONS
As with other Europeans, were culturally
prejudices against others who were obviously
different, especially ‘pagans’ and non-Christians
Bread and wine were basic to the food culture of
Southern Europeans and therefore and index of
civilisation
NATURE OF
PORTUGUESE/EUROPEAN
CONTACT EITH WEST AFRICA UP TO
1600
INTRODUCTORY POINT
While European contact with West Africa
was a by-product of the search for a sea
route to the east, Europeans, since the
early decades of the 15th century, were
interested in mineral wealth and other
products that Africa had to offer. In
general, European interest in penetrating
Africa was limited up to 1600.
PORTUGUESE The Portuguese, the pioneer explorers of
Western Africa, were primarily interested
in finding a route to the East
There were only a few scattered
settlements along the coast and
offshore islands, for example, Atlantic
islands, Algoa Bay and Delgoa
Africa was used largely as provision
bases for ships charting a course to theIndies.
PORTUGUESE
The African coastline was important in charting and
navigating the route to the East
Settlements may have incidental to the main objective
but important trading bases were established, for
example, Elmina.
PORTUGUESE
The traffic increased to the East, and as the route
extended South and East they needed larger provision
bases so Luanda in Angola was established by 1530
TRADE
Early contact with West Africa was also important for
trade but trade with Africa did not necessitate access by
Europeans to the interior lands.
Europeans who arrived off the coast of West Africa
established coastal trade with states such as Benin andGhana
They traded for Gold and slaves
TRADE
Their presence led to the increase in the volume of
slaves traded as they opened the new markets across
the Atlantic
The presence of Europeans on the West African coast
caused the shift of trade routes towards the Atlantic from
the route across the Sahara
The trading activities gave them access to the interior
resources.
TRADE
Along the West African coasts, mixed settlements of
Africans, Portuguese, mulattoes of mixed origin
developed. Here mercantile families carried out trade
with the interior of Africa.
PENETRATION
While direct access to the interior was not a necessity,
the Europeans/Portuguese did attempt to penetrateAfrica
They found it difficult to go beyond the coastal areas
because of the terrain; there were mangrove swamps,
rain forests, steep cliffs and even access by waterways
was hindered by the currents
PENETRATION
Europeans in Africa found diseases to
which they had no immunity. This helped
to impede settlement in the interior by
Europeans well into the 19th century.
Some states were accommodating;
there were sometimes hostile
Christians, i.e Roman Catholic
missionaries were active in Angola and
the Kongo
USE OF FORCE
The use of force against the Africans suggests that the
Europeans were interested in gaining a foothold.
They sacked towns and cities
They carried out raids and pillaged overland trade
routes
They sometimes were able invade the interior but they
could not establish control
IMPACT OF EUROPEANS IN
WEST AFRICA UP TO 1492RELIGIOUS
Africans were converted to Christianity
and in some cases became officers in the
Church, in kingdoms such as the Kongo.
Some abandoned their religious
practices in favour of those of the
Europeans.
Syncretism (amalgamation of various
religious beliefs)
SOCIAL
There was a brain drain from Africa. There was a
trade in Africans to Iberia in the second half of the
fifteenth century.
New family patterns emerged in the coastal
areas: Europeans had children with Africans. The
mulattoes became agents of the Europeans.
CULTURAL
There was cultural penetration/erosion: the
removal obstructed the passing on of cultural
traditions
ECONOMIC
There was a shift in in the direction of the trade to
West Africa from the traditional route across the
Sahara to North Africa
A direct trade developed with the Europeans in
gold, ivory and enslaved Africans.