Turbulent Centuries in

Africa

Chapter 3 Section 4

HF

Vocabulary Triangular trade-colonial trade route among

Europe and its colonies, the West Indies, and Africa in which goods were exchanged for slaves.

Repeal- to cancel Monopoly- complete control of a product or

business by one person or group

European Outposts in Africa In the 1400’s Portuguese sailors sailed along the West Coast of Africa They looked for a sea route to India Set up forts along west coast for food, water, gold, trade, and to

repair their ships The Portuguese were too weak to push into middle Africa

Attacked Eastern Coastal cities Mombasa and Malindi

Portuguese expelled the Arabs Arabs controlled East Africa Portuguese took over land

Portuguese however, got little from their conquering In 1600’s the Eastern cities sunk into poverty Interior trade dwindled

Other Europeans soon followed The Dutch, English, and the French All set up up forts in the West for trade

The Atlantic Slave Trade In the 1500’s Europeans began to view slaves as the

most import trade item Slaves were used by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans,

Persians, Indians, Aztecs, and the Arabs. Most people became slaves after being defeated in

battle

European and African Slave Traders

The Atlantic slave trade began in the 1500’s It became very profitable over the next 300 years Every year tens of thousands of African slaves were

sent to the Americas to work on tobacco and sugar plantations

The slave trade intensified as demand for more slaves in America and as more luxury items were in Africa

Triangular Trade The Atlantic slave trade formed on a three-legged

trade network known as the Triangular trade First leg was merchants brought goods to Africa for

trade of slaves Second leg, known as the Middle Passage, the slaves

were transported to the West Indies. There they were exchanged for goods

The final leg was products being shipped to Europe or European colonies in America

Horrors of the Middle Passage The middle Passage was horror for slaves

they were packed under ship decks in single cells Ships became floating coffins because half of the

slaves died of disease or brutal treatment

Some Slaves resisted though They tried to take control of the ship and return to

Africa or they’d jump overboard and commit suicide

African Leaders Resist African leaders tried to slow down or stop the

Transatlantic trade the trade system was simply too strong to stop

An early voice raised against slavery was Affonso, ruler of Kongo He was tortured as a teen by Portuguese missionaries In 1505 when he became king he developed Kongo as a

modern Christian state

Before long Affonso became alarmed Yearly more Portuguese came to buy Africans

He noticed even Christian priests and missionaries were eagerly selling Africans for goods

African Leaders Resist (Cont.) In the late 1700’s, another African ruler, the

almamy of Futa Toro in Northern Senegal, tried to stop slave trade

In 1788, he forbade anyone to transport slaves through Futa Toro for sale abroad

Sea captains and chiefs protested and called on the almamy to repeal the law The almamy refused

The almamy’s victory was short lived however. French slave traders found new routes to the coast

Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Historians estimated that in the 1500’s 2,000 slaves went from Africa to America per year By 1780’s the trade was at its peak and 80,000 slaves

were sent to America per year By 1800 when the trade stopped an estimated 11

million slaves were sent to America and another 2 million died during transport to America

In some parts of Africa the slave trade destroyed some countries but in others it replenished the countries

Rise of New African States Among the largest states who rose from the trade

were Oyo, Bornu, Dahomey, and the Asante Kingdom

The Asante kingdom In the 1600’s, a military leader Osei Tutu, won

control of Kumasi. From there he conquered neighboring peoples and

organized the Asante Kingdom

Officials chosen by merit rather than by birth supervised an efficient bureaucracy. They managed royal monopolies over gold mining and

the slave trade

Islamic Crusades In the 1700’s & early 1800’s an Islamic revival spread

across West Africa It began among the Fulani people in northern Nigeria

A scholar and preacher Usman dan Fodio denounced the corruption of the local Hausa rulers He inspired Fulani herders and Hausa townspeople to rise

against their leaders

Usman and his successors set up a powerful Islamic state Under his rule literacy increased, local wars quieted, and trade

improved. Their success inspired more Muslim reform movements in West

Africa From 1780-1880 more than a dozen Islamic leaders rose to

power

Battles for Power in Southern Africa

Over many centuries Bantu speaking people migrated to Africa

In 1652, Dutch immigrants also arrived in the region They built Cape Town to supply ships sailing to or from

the East Indies Dutch farmers, called Boers, settled around Cape

Town

Over time the ousted or enslaved the Khosians herders who lived there The Boers held to a Calvinist belief that they were the

chosen ones by God They look on Africans as inferior

Shaka and the Zulus The Zulus had migrated into South Africa in the 1500’s

In the early 1800’s they became a power force under the leader, Shaka

In between 1818-1828 Shaka waged relentless war and conquered many nearby peoples After conquering their people Shaka turned them into

Zulu warriors

Later Shakas half brother took over the kingdom Around this time they faced a new problem. Well armed,

mounted Boers migrating north from the Cape Colony