What impact did European settlement have on Africa?
Colonialism made African colonies dependent by introducing a mono- cultural economy for the territories. It also dehumanized African labour force and traders. It forced Africans to work in colonial plantations at very low wages and displaced them from their lands.
What changed when Europeans arrived in the New World?
The Europeans brought technologies, ideas, plants, and animals that were new to America and would transform peoples’ lives: guns, iron tools, and weapons; Christianity and Roman law; sugarcane and wheat; horses and cattle. They also carried diseases against which the Indian peoples had no defenses.
How did the Europeans come to West Africa?
Africans were either captured in warring raids or kidnapped and taken to the port by African slave traders. There they were exchanged for iron, guns, gunpowder, mirrors, knives, cloth, and beads brought by boat from Europe. When Europeans arrived along the West African coast, slavery already existed on the continent.
Why did the European slave trade begin in Africa?
The European slave trade began with Portugal’s exploration of the west coast of Africa in search of a sea trade route to the East. The East had bountiful new resources, like spices and silk, and the Portuguese were eager to acquire these goods without the laborious journey by land from Europe to Asia.
How many Africans were transported to Europe in the 16th century?
African slavery lacked the notion that whites were masters and blacks were slaves. By the start of the 16th century, almost 200,000 Africans had been transported to Europe and islands in the Atlantic.
What was slavery like in Africa in the 15th century?
African slavery was more akin to European serfdom –the condition of most Europeans in the 15th century. In the Ashanti Kingdom of West Africa, for example, slaves could marry, own property and even own slaves. And slavery ended after a certain number of years of servitude.
