Historical context 1: The Scramble for and Partition

Historical context 1:

The Scramble for and Partition of Africa

The Scramble For Africa

• The scramble for Africa began in 1440, when Prince Henry from Portugal invaded what is now Morocco, in north west Africa.
• From here he started the African gold trade, which gave rise to the African slave trade.
• In 1494, when European powers including Spain, France, The Dutch, and more saw the prosperity of Portugal they flocked to Africa to take advantage of the Financial opportunity
• England didn't join this trade until later, in the 1660's after it won Asiento (The right to sell slaves in Latin America and the Caribbean) From Spain.
• This only fueled the industrial revolution, increasing the need, not only for precious gems, metals, and ores, but for slaves as well

Early European Contact

The Sahara Desert

• Africa Is thought of as a "Dark Continent" meaning that the nation it was comprised of were primarily "Third World Countries"
• Initial interest in Africa from Britain, Spain, and many others was the vast amounts of natural resources that Africa possessed (i.e. Metals, jewels, minerals, etc_
• The first contact Africa had with foreigners was well before the birth of Christ.
• During that time, many innovations were coming from Africa, particularly from Egypt. Things like Architecture, Engineering, Irrigation, and Agronomy.

The Cruelties of Slave Trade

• The Portuguese opened the flood gates of slave trade to other European powers, African slavers treated their captives with unimaginable cruelty
• They weren't given as much food or water, it was regulated to only two meals a day and they only got half a pint of water three times a day
• They weren't allowed to talk during the night
• They were chained together in groups of ten people while they slept

From C. Raymond Beazley, Prince Henry the Navigator(1967)

The Partition of Africa

Chronology (cont.)

• In 1441 Antam Gonsalvez took the first Moor captives of the Unknown South
• The crusade of Discovery is where the African slave trade began
• Henry's motives were to Christianize and civilize the native tribes, to win over the whole by the education of a few prisoners
• But the captains weren't always so nice to them

• When English factories started producing more products than the country could consume, England turned to Africa as a market.
• This led England to introduce armed forces into Africa to protect their investments.
• The British forces met initial defeat by the African armies, who utilized their advanced knowledge of the terrain, and greater access to supplies.
• But English forces sent for reinforcements, requesting the latest in military technology. With their superior firepower, the English defeated the African armies.
• All that was left to do was divide Africa up amongst the major powers. A summit was held in 1885, Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy Germany, Portugal, Austria-Hungary, Denmark, The Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Turkey held the Conference of Berlin. There they divided Africa into territories.

1701- The English Industrial Revolution begins

1750- The Company of Royal Adventurers renamed the Company of Merchants Trading in Africa

1830- The Industrial Revolution creates the need for more slaves, and Britain ships away 135,000 slaves per year from Africa

1874- British expedition against the Asante (Ghana) in West Africa

1884-85- The partition of Africa by European powers

1885- The beginning of the official colonization of various african Nation-States by Europeans

Prince Henry the Navigator Slave Raid/Trade in West Africa

Southern Africa

• Things Fall Apart, traces the history of the coming of white men to Igboland
• Things Fall Apart also traces the larger historic event of the coming of the Portuguese to open up West Africa during the fifteenth century under the commission of Prince Henry the Navigator

Chronology

"The Interesting Narrative Of The life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa The African, Written By himself." 1997

"Introduction,"

Making of Modern Africa (1968)

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Geography of Africa

7th Century- Muslim Arab invasion of North Africa ends the Roman presence in Africa

1441- Gonsalves, a Portuguese explorer, captures west africans and them the first african slaves in Europe.

1450-60- The Portuguese raid Senegal and Gambia (West Africa) for slaves

1492- The "Discovery" of America by Columbus leads to the use of African slaves there; on average 13,000 slaver per year are taken to Spanish Holdings in America

1494- European "Scramble" for Africa begins

1607- English settlement in Jamestown, Virginia

1619- Black Africans come to Jamestown, Virginia

1660-72- Great Britain, represented by the Company of Royal Adventurers, joins the scramble for Africa.

Conclusion

Youngest of seven children, taught in the art of war early on. Kidnappers would come to steal children while parents were absent. Olaudah and his sister were captured. Their mouths were gagged and they were made to travel days without food or water. The siblings were eventually separated. Traded as a slave, he got in trouble one day and hid in thick brush. He was unsure if it was better to come out and be beaten, to head home and die on the journey, or perish in the woods.

The Portuguese opened up black Africa to the European rule for slave trade. European green caused them to want and need Africa's resources. Africans fought hard for their freedom, but it was lost to better weapons and technology of the Europeans.

Theodore Canot,

Adventures of an

African slavery 1928

Africans in need for liberty would jump ship and swim out to see for freedom. Those caught, were tortured for mutiny. No prisoners could escape. A ringleader was punished and dropped on Turtle Island with 3 days of food and water.