1. CXC CAPE HISTORY
LECTURE 4
THE PORTUGUESE IN WEST AFRICA

2. GENERAL OBJECTIVE
 By the end of the topic students will be able to:
 Analyse the nature of West African contact with Europe
up to 1493

3. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE
 By the end of the lesson students will be able to:
 Discuss the factors that led to contact between West
Africa and Europe up to 1492

4. PORTUGUESE IN WEST AFRICA
 Portugal was the first Europeans to visit the coast of
Africa.
 The first and definite sustained commercial connections
between Europe and West Africa were established by
Portugal.

5. FACTORS
 Several factors led to Portuguese contact
with West Africa. These include:
 Political factors
 Geography
 Economic
 Technological
 Private funding
 Religion

6. FACTORS CONT
 Prince Henry
 Bases
 Wind systems

7. POLITICAL FACTORS
 Portugal was well placed to lead the
voyages of discovery because it was not
confronted with any internal difficulties or
external threat by the beginning of the 15th
century.
 Other maritime European countries were
faced with a number of political
distractions (e.g Castile was waging a
number of against the Muslims which
ended 1n 1492. The Dutch were involved in
their wars of independence with Spain

8. GEOGRAPHY
 Portugal’s location and early participation in Atlantic
fisheries positioned it to be the pioneer in this venture.

9. ECONOMIC
 The economic factors include:
 Alternative sea route
 Commercial viability of Atlantic islands
 Desire for African and Asian Gold

10. ALTERNATIVE SEA ROUTE
 Portugal wanted to the trade items from the east without
any intervention. They wanted to cut out the number of
middle-men who distributed goods from China to India
 This provided the motive for the search for a sea route to
the East which would not be under the control of Muslim
powers.

11. ALTERNATIVE SEA ROUTE
CONTD
 The Portuguese decided that the contact with the Far
East trade had to the way lay in a circum-navigation of
Africa.

12. COMMERCIAL VIABILITY
 The Atlantic islands proved to be commercially viable
e.g. sugar was cultivated in the Azores, Canary Islands
and Madeira.

13. DESIRE FOR GOLD
 There was a strong desire for commercial
gain from the trade of West African gold,
spice, ivory. These were attractive and
commercially important items
 There was a search for gold and spices
which were known to be in abundance in
West Africa.
 Since Mansa Musa, King of Mali, dazzled
the world with West African gold in the
1300s, gold from Africa had become a
fascination.

14. TECHNOLOGY
 There was development in the building of ships capable
of undertaking long voyages. The caravel for example
was invented .
 There was also the development of navigational aids
e.g. astrolabe and cartography(map making)
 The improvement in technology made possible the
expansion of Portugal down the West African coast
 NB. Much of the technology embraced by the
Portuguese came from their interaction with the Moors
who invaded Europe.

15. RELIGION
 The Portuguese wanted to convert Africans to
Christianity and they had a crusading tradition against
the Muslims.
 There was an anti-Muslim spirit.
 Europeans wanted to move into Muslim dominated
North and Northwest Africa.

16. PRINCE HENRY
 Prince Henry’s moral and financial commitment to
exploration provided much of the infrastructural
foundation for contact e.g. school of navigation at
Sagres.
 At Sagres Henry studied and sent forth men on missions
of exploration.

17. BASES
 The Atlantic islands served as vital bases from which to
launch expeditions down the coast of West Africa

18. WIND SYSTEMS
 Comprehension of the wind systems and ocean currents,
which affected the outward and return voyages and the
development of strategies to cope with these.

19. PORTUGUESE
ASSUMPTIONS
 When Portuguese went to Africa the made
certain assumptions about Africans
 Africans had no knowledge so they went naked
 Had no understanding of certain types of food

20. PORTUGUESE
ASSUMPTIONS
 Had no dwelling/houses
 Lived like animals and were lazy (bestial sloth)
 Had little morality (no understanding of what was
good)

21. REASON FORE THESE
ASSUMPTIONS
 The Portuguese :
 Were ignorant of the way of life of
the Africans as they had not gone
beyond the coastal areas of the
continent
 As with other Europeans, had the
preconception that non-Europeans
were uncivilised

22. REASON FORE THESE
ASSUMPTIONS
 As with other Europeans, were culturally
prejudices against others who were obviously
different, especially ‘pagans’ and non-Christians
 Bread and wine were basic to the food culture of
Southern Europeans and therefore and index of
civilisation

23. NATURE OF
PORTUGUESE/EUROPEAN
CONTACT EITH WEST AFRICA UP TO
1600
INTRODUCTORY POINT
 While European contact with West Africa
was a by-product of the search for a sea
route to the east, Europeans, since the
early decades of the 15th century, were
interested in mineral wealth and other
products that Africa had to offer. In
general, European interest in penetrating
Africa was limited up to 1600.

24. PORTUGUESE
 The Portuguese, the pioneer explorers of
Western Africa, were primarily interested
in finding a route to the East
 There were only a few scattered
settlements along the coast and
offshore islands, for example, Atlantic
islands, Algoa Bay and Delgoa
 Africa was used largely as provision
bases for ships charting a course to the
Indies.

25. PORTUGUESE
 The African coastline was important in charting and
navigating the route to the East
 Settlements may have incidental to the main objective
but important trading bases were established, for
example, Elmina.

26. PORTUGUESE
 The traffic increased to the East, and as the route
extended South and East they needed larger provision
bases so Luanda in Angola was established by 1530

27. TRADE
 Early contact with West Africa was also important for
trade but trade with Africa did not necessitate access by
Europeans to the interior lands.
 Europeans who arrived off the coast of West Africa
established coastal trade with states such as Benin and
Ghana
 They traded for Gold and slaves

28. TRADE
 Their presence led to the increase in the volume of
slaves traded as they opened the new markets across
the Atlantic
 The presence of Europeans on the West African coast
caused the shift of trade routes towards the Atlantic from
the route across the Sahara
 The trading activities gave them access to the interior
resources.

29. TRADE
 Along the West African coasts, mixed settlements of
Africans, Portuguese, mulattoes of mixed origin
developed. Here mercantile families carried out trade
with the interior of Africa.

30. PENETRATION
 While direct access to the interior was not a necessity,
the Europeans/Portuguese did attempt to penetrate
Africa
 They found it difficult to go beyond the coastal areas
because of the terrain; there were mangrove swamps,
rain forests, steep cliffs and even access by waterways
was hindered by the currents

31. PENETRATION
 Europeans in Africa found diseases to
which they had no immunity. This helped
to impede settlement in the interior by
Europeans well into the 19th century.
 Some states were accommodating;
there were sometimes hostile
 Christians, i.e Roman Catholic
missionaries were active in Angola and
the Kongo

32. USE OF FORCE
 The use of force against the Africans suggests that the
Europeans were interested in gaining a foothold.
 They sacked towns and cities
 They carried out raids and pillaged overland trade
routes
 They sometimes were able invade the interior but they
could not establish control

33. IMPACT OF EUROPEANS IN
WEST AFRICA UP TO 1492
RELIGIOUS
 Africans were converted to Christianity
and in some cases became officers in the
Church, in kingdoms such as the Kongo.
 Some abandoned their religious
practices in favour of those of the
Europeans.
 Syncretism (amalgamation of various
religious beliefs)

34. SOCIAL
 There was a brain drain from Africa. There was a
trade in Africans to Iberia in the second half of the
fifteenth century.
 New family patterns emerged in the coastal
areas: Europeans had children with Africans. The
mulattoes became agents of the Europeans.

35. CULTURAL
 There was cultural penetration/erosion: the
removal obstructed the passing on of cultural
traditions

36. ECONOMIC
 There was a shift in in the direction of the trade to
West Africa from the traditional route across the
Sahara to North Africa
 A direct trade developed with the Europeans in
gold, ivory and enslaved Africans.