Chapter 2-2:Turbulent Centuries in Africa

European exploration of Africa began with the Greeks and Romans, who explored and settled in North Africa. Fifteenth century Portugal, especially under Henry the Navigator, probed along the West African coast. Scientific curiosity and Christian missionary spirit soon were subordinated to mercantile considerations, including lucrative trafficking in enslaved persons. Others (the Dutch, Spanish, French, English, and so on) joined in African trading, though for centuries European knowledge of Africa's interior was very vague. Much of the blank map was filled in by arduous, often fatal, expeditions in the nineteenth century. The European Scramble for Africa (in the 1880s through 1914) that followed its exploration saw the exploitation of Africa's people and resources. This fueled European ideas about their own racial and cultural superiority

The story of the European exploration of Africa comprises many incidents of cultural destruction but also of courage and determination in the face of geographical and climactic challenges of vast proportion. As Europeans mapped territory, they established trading companies, entered treaties with African rulers and began to create colonies within their zones of influence. Africans were regarded as unable to govern themselves, needing the oversight of more mature races, and African cultural achievement was often ignored. Apart from recognizing the achievements of a few great empires that had ruled parts of Africa, African history was thought to begin with European settlement. Colonization changed the political map of Africa, as new states were established following decolonization. The majority of African states owe their existence to the boundaries drawn by the European powers and do not correspond to earlier political entities. For "better or for worse," the European exploration of Africa integrated Africa into a general system of knowledge and a world system of economics that links the continent and its peoples with the rest of the global community.

Excerpt from: New World Encyclopedia

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/European_exploration_of_Africa

Focus Question: What effects did European exploration have on the people of Africa?