Video Lesson

Learning Competencies: After learning this lesson, you will be able to:

• examine the focus of Africa’s contact with the outside world.
• identify the motive behind European contacts with Africa.

Brainstorming Questions

• How can you relate the coming of Jesuit missionaries into Ethiopia in the second half of the16th century to early contacts between other parts of Africa, and Spain and Portugal?

Early Contacts Along the Western and Central African Coasts

In the 15th century, the Portuguese, led by Prince Henry the Navigator, began exploring Africa primarily to access gold-rich areas in West Africa directly. Their goal was to bypass Arab middlemen and the Turkish blockade on trade routes to the Far East. This exploration was driven by the desire for direct access to valuable trade items and gold.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, both Spain and Portugal established footholds along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa. The Portuguese occupied Ceuta in Morocco in 1415, reached the Canary Islands, and later established a colony on the Madeira Islands. The Spaniards took control of Oran in Algeria in 1409 and Melilla in Morocco in 1496. However, Portugal’s attempt to expand into Morocco ended in defeat at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578, where King Sebastian I and many Portuguese nobles were killed.

Between 1430 and 1490, Portuguese sailors explored the entire western coast of Africa, from Tangier to the Cape of Good Hope, and later reached the Swahili trading states on the eastern coast. This achievement allowed Europeans to bypass Turkish and Arab intermediaries, gaining direct access to Far Eastern trade. These early Portuguese explorations laid the groundwork for future European footholds in Africa and influenced later explorers like Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama.

Therefore; the Portuguese explored and established control over Northwest African islands, including Madeira (c.1418), the Azores (1439), and Cape Verde (1460). In 1446, they set up trading posts on the Senegal coast in West Africa. They established sugar plantations on these islands, which were worked by enslaved labor from the West African coast. The Atlantic outposts also served as key departure points for further journeys.

In 1482, Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão reached the mouth of the Congo River and claimed the area for Portugal. Initially, the Portuguese formed an alliance with the Ngola (king) of the Ndongo kingdom in present-day northern Angola. The dominant Mbundu people of Ndongo gave the region its name, Angola, derived from the royal title Ngola.

Later between 1580 and 1670, Portuguese settlements in Ndongo led to the kingdom’s breakup. However, Portuguese control in Angola was limited to Luanda due to persistent local resistance. Queen Nzinga Mbande (1581-1663) of the Mbundu was a notable leader who fiercely resisted Portuguese colonization for four decades. As a skilled negotiator and strategist, she repeatedly thwarted Portuguese efforts and eventually secured a peace treaty in 1656, which she enforced until her death in 1663.

The Kingdom of Kongo allied with Portugal around 1482. By 1489, a Kongolese embassy had visited the Portuguese king, and in 1491, Portuguese missionaries and craftsmen arrived in Kongo. They converted the Manikongo, his family, and important chiefs to Catholicism, but attempts to impose Catholicism led to resistance. Afonso I (r. 1507-42/43), who succeeded his father Mbemba Nzinga, embraced Portuguese culture, built churches, and engaged in slave raids, making Kongo a key supplier for the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. In about 1665, the Portuguese invaded, captured and killed the Manikongo, ending Kongo’s independence. The kingdom collapsed by the late 17th century due to internal unrest and invasions by the Jaga (Imbangala) people.

In 1497-98, Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama sailed around the southern tip of Africa, landing in the Swahili ports of Malindi and Mombasa before reaching India. Upon returning to Portugal, da Gama reported the wealth of the Swahili cities on the East African coast. Portugal subsequently sent fleets to capture these cities and their trade, leading to the destruction of much of their trade and culture. Around the same time, the Portuguese established trading and military posts along the Mozambican coast. They made unsuccessful attempts to control the gold mines of Zimbabwe, which were then under the Rozwi kingdom of southern Zimbabwe.

The Portuguese were more successful in the northern kingdom of Mwene Mutapa. In 1573, they persuaded the King to give them possession of some mines and permission to settle along the Zambezi River in northern Mozambique. But the Portuguese settlers wanted more, and gradually increased their influence over the affairs of the kingdom. In 1628-29, using hired African soldiers, they defeated the King`s forces, and a new treaty made him a puppet of the Portuguese. However, in 1693, the Rozwi led by Changamire from west of Mwene Mutapa expelled the Portuguese from the region. At the end of the 17th century, the Portuguese were also expelled from the East African ports north of Mozambique by Arabs from Oman in south eastern Arabia.