| The arrival of the Portuguese -and the building of the first European fort at Arguin in 1448, followed by the
second in 1482 at Elmina on the Gold Coast, had at first little impact on Africa.
The immediate objective of the Europeans was to take a share in the gold trade, dominated at the time by Arab middlemen, the slave trade being of secondary interest. But with the development of sugar plantations in Brazil and the
West Indies, the slave trade became a major source of profit, especially after the Dutch and British had ousted the Portuguese from along the Gold and Slave Coasts (today's coastal Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana). Fortified trading stations were set up as bases for this trade, the Portuguese continuing
from their bases in Angola and Cacheu (now Guinea-Bissau).
At this time, Europeans remained largely ignorant of the African Interior, and their influence was limited generally to the coast. In the far south the Dutch were established in the Cape, and in the northeast Islam was spreading.
By 1800, with the exception of the Ottomans in the north (their power was more nominal than real), Africa remained independant of foreign control. It was a world unto itself, but in no position to compete with the technology of
Europe that was about to explore -and eventually dominate this vibrant continent.
|
