AFRICA – 1450-1750

Terms:

Songhai Empire Trans-Saharan Trade Slave Coast

Cassava/manioc/yuca (same Kongo Swahili Empire goes down
thing) (Portuguese)
Atlantic Trade System Maize Swahili Empire
Main Ideas:

 While Africa had long been linked to the Islamic world through trade (and the Muslims’
conquest of North Africa  Songhai rulers/nobles converted to Islam), this period saw the first
significant European contact with the continent.
 European involvement in Africa began with the Portuguese and initially included a variety of
religious, economic, and political motivations. As the period continued, other European powers
initiated contact with Africa as well, drawn mainly by the prospect of acquiring slaves to be put
to work on New World plantations.
 In general, African interactions with European powers were fairly static, as the Europeans
became preoccupied with New World colonization, and were interested in Africa primarily to
maintain the slave trade. Most major conflicts that occurred – with the exception of the
Portuguese destruction of the East African trading cities in 1505 – were among rival groups
within Africa itself, such as the Moroccan invasion of Songhai in 1591.
 The slave trade led to the depopulation of certain areas of sub-Saharan Africa (but the pop of
the Africa increased during this time due to foods from New World – manioc and maize) , and
forced millions of Africans into lives of grueling labor in other parts of the world. However, the
economic, political, and social structures of the continent remained largely intact during this
period; not until the 19th century would European involvement in Africa widen from a focus on
the slave trade to true imperialist domination.

Items to Focus On:

 Transformation of Africa at this 1450-1750 (changes and continuities) Focus on growing

European influence
o Social: demographic shifts (in certain regions population goes down and gender
imbalances)  introduction of European culture (languages/Christianity) to coastal
cities.
o Political: Ottoman takeover North Africa; Portuguese destroy key Swahili Coast trading
cities; establishment of the colonies of Angola and Cape Colony; territorial
disputes/transfers between indigenous Africans (i.e.: Morocco and Songhai Empire)
o Economic: sharp increase in European demand for slaves after 1500 brings
wealth/guns to African political leaders and merchants
o Continuities = ongoing influence of Islamic religious, legal and educational practices
(North Africa); persistence of African weavers and metalworkers; unlike indigenous
people in Americas, Africans maintained political control of nearly all of their continent

1
 AFRICA – 1450-1750

West and East Africa: The Europeans’ First Contacts

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Explodes

Angola and the Cape Colony

Africa and Islam: North Africa, the Sudan, and the Swahili Coast