4.2: Africa and India

Europeans did know about North Africa. The Mediterranean had served as the crossroads of the civilized Western World since ancient times. Despite North Africa being ruled by Muslim kingdoms, Europeans regularly traded with Muslim merchants. Many lucrative commodities (like gold and ivory) were only available from North African merchants. Although Europeans knew that these commodities originated somewhere across the Sahara desert, they were unable to access the sources directly.

During the European Middle Ages, Sub-Saharan Africa was dominated by various medium-sized kingdoms, most of which had converted to Islam. Mali was the largest one, and oversaw a lucrative trade in gold and various luxury goods via caravan to North Africa and the rest of the Mediterranean. Likewise, other kingdoms traded with one another, the Middle East, and Europe. These kingdoms also engaged in frequent warfare against one another (just as the states of Europe did).

Drawn by the gold they were able to acquire via merchants in North Africa, Europeans tried to unsuccessfully sail down the west coast of the continent. In the 15th century, the caravel made it possible, as did the new compasses and astrolabe.

Prince Henry the Navigator (1394 – 1460), the governor of the southernmost province of Portugal, sponsored numerous Portuguese expeditions along the west coast of Africa, hoping to somehow seize lands or at least find routes to lucrative sources of gold and spices. In 1497, Vasco Da Gama, a Portuguese nobleman, was sponsored by the Portuguese crown and sailed around Africa and as far as India, in the process claiming various territories for Portugal. By the 16th century, the Portuguese maintained a lucrative royally-controlled, militarily-enforced monopoly on trade between Europe and West African kingdoms, East African kingdoms, and Indian merchants. Thus, tiny Portugal was, for a time, one of the wealthiest states in Europe.

This Portuguese “monopoly” was first and foremost a monopoly between the Indian Ocean trade and Europe, not a monopoly of trade within the Indian Ocean itself. Indian, African, and Middle Eastern merchants continued to exchange goods and wealth whose value greatly exceeded that of the trade between Europe and the Indian Ocean region. Now, Portugal was at the forefront of the European states with direct access to the sources of luxury commodities like spices, indigo, ivory, and gold. Other states were quick to follow once the sheer extent of African and Indian wealth was revealed through Portuguese trade. Soon, first the Dutch and then the English started taking over the oceanic trade routes from the Portuguese.

This map illustrates the evolution of Portugal into a global colonial power following the period of European exploration of the 15th Century. For a full-screen version, click here.

Source: Worldhistory.org