The relationship between Europe and Africa dates back as far the 1200s, when Arab merchants traded gold with powerful African kingdoms and then went on to trade in Europe.
By the 1480s the Portuguese had started to settle along the west coast of Africa in the Kingdom of Kongo, trading guns and cloth in exchange for enslaved prisoners of war. By the 1600s, this relationship formed part of the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade, which wasn’t abolished until the early 1800s.
Up until the 1870s, European countries largely stuck to coastal areas of Africa. They focused on setting up trading relationships and small bases that would help them travel around the coast of Africa to trade in Asia. 10 per cent of the continent was controlled by European countries at this time:
Why were European countries rushing to gain control of Africa?
European countries mainly set up trading posts along the coast, because not much was known about inland Africa. When European explorers had tried to travel further inland, they faced several challenges:
- They were often killed by tropical diseases, such as malaria
- They were pushed back or killed by indigenous people protecting their land
- They got lost and ran out of resources, dying of starvation or dehydration
However, that changed when people like King Leopold II of Belgium set up the International African Association in 1876 to research inland Africa. They discovered that the continent had an abundance of natural resources, including:
