Beginning of Foreign Exploitation

When Bartholomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488, Portugal had discovered a direct water route to the East Indies. It had also, on the way south, established itself on Africa's Gold Coast and at the mouth of the Congo. In 1493 Pope Alexander VI drew the Line of Demarcation, which gave Portugal exclusive rights to explore and trade in Africa.

Before the turn of the century the Portuguese had discovered the gold and the rich trade of the east coast. They seized Kilwa and Mozambique in 1502 and Zanzibar in 1503. Under Francisco de Almeida the rest of the coastal cities were brought to submission by 1510. Fortified trading stations were built on both coasts.

For a century no European nation had the sea power to challenge Portugal in Africa. Then in 1598 the Netherlands founded two posts on the Gold Coast. During the 17th century the English settled at the mouth of the Gambia River; the French at the mouth of the Senegal River; the English and Danes along the Gold Coast. The Dutch established themselves also at the Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese were largely driven from Africa, retaining only their settlements south of the Gambia (Portuguese Guinea), south of the Congo (Angola), and around the Zambezi (Mozambique).

At first the coastal trade was mainly in ivory and gold, although Portugal also supplied slaves to the Latin American colonies. As the sugar plantations of the West Indies were developed, the demand for slave labor grew enormously, and ship captains learned that the most profitable cargo was slaves. The Dutch became dominant in the slave trade when Portuguese power declined, but by the end of the 18th century British ships were carrying more than half the slaves to America.

Inland raids by the coastal peoples to provide slaves for the traders brought perpetual warfare. Meanwhile Morocco seized the gold trade of the western Sudan. The Songhai empire disintegrated, and chaos prevailed. There were migrations of various peoples, and new kingdoms arose.

Ottoman Turks occupied Egypt in 1517. Turkish corsairs (sea raiders) quickly gained control of the Red Sea and of the North African coast as far west as Morocco, with the exception of Oran, which was seized and held by Spain. Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers became administrative centers in the Ottoman Empire, but under the bold rule of the corsairs they were virtually autonomous. Trade connections with the Sudan were established from the Maghrib, and with the southern Nile Valley from Egypt. Ethiopia, with aid from Portugal, successfully defended itself against the Turks. Morocco also repelled Turkish attacks, as well as those of Spain, although the Spanish won control of a few ports.

On the east coast the previously Arab ports north of Cape Delgado were taken back from Portugal by the Arabs of Oman during the latter half of the 17th century. African slaves were transported by the Arabs throughout the Indian Ocean area and by the Turks and the corsairs throughout the Mediterranean area. The Barbary corsairs also harassed shipping in the Mediterranean. (