Europeans in Africa before 1815

Abstract

During the eighteenth century European empires in America reached their peak, and the foundations of European power were laid in the east. But in Africa there was little evidence of European activity. This is at first sight surprising, for the earliest European overseas expansion took place in North-West and West Africa. During the fifteenth century the Portuguese established bases on the west coast at Arguin, Elmina, São Tomé, and San Salvador; their discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 led to occupation of the main existing ports of East Africa — Sofala, Mozambique and others, extending as far as the Red Sea and Ormuz. During the sixteenth century it seemed possible that Portugal might establish territorial colonies in the Congo region, Angola and up the Zambezi, where adventurers and missionaries were following the same paths as conquistadores and religious orders in Spanish America. But gradually these enterprises withered. The Portuguese Crown lost interest in exploration and conversion; India and the east monopolized its energies; Africa was seen either as an obstacle on the route to the Indies or as a source of gold dust and ivory and of slaves for the American plantations. Portugal showed no desire or capacity to develop its coastal bases into colonies.