What was portugals impact on western africa

Some basic effects of Europeans coming to North America are that the Native Americans caught new diseases which included smallpox, influenza, measles, and chicken pox. Explorers used superior fire power, like single shot muskets, to conquer natives. Effect: Conquistadors attacked Native American cultures and claimed lands for their country. Effect: Missions were built to convert Native Americans. Colonization ruptured many ecosystems, bringing in new organisms while eliminating others.

The Europeans brought many diseases with them that decimated Native American populations. Colonists and Native Americans alike looked to new plants as possible medicinal resources. But the depth and extent of European impact on the two regions was far different Africa was affected by the Europeans, but the Americas were transformed.

The European presence in Africa primarily meant trade, trade in which human beings — slaves — became the most lucrative commodity. Due to European exploration, several diseases spread and infected a large segment of population. With the arrival of white man as sailors into unexplored nations, diseases like smallpox, Syphilis, measles became prevalent. This was because that these sailors where themselves infected from the disease. Age of Exploration had many effects, People said that it had Positive and Negative Effects to them, The main Negative effects were 1 Culture being destroyed, by destroying and eliminate the rich cultures and civilizations.

Where spread all around the world. Native Americans were forced to work on farms for the settlers and to work in dangerous mines. Many died from diseases brought by Europeans, and their great civilizations were destroyed. Diseases were a huge negative impact. While slavery had a bit of a positive light, it was mostly a negative thing.

In conclusion, the age of exploration was worth it because it led America to the economy it has today and helped to colonize the country as a whole. It was a turning point in history because this was the period when Europeans began to expand. They explored and discovered new land. This was also a period where trading began from Europe to the rest of the world and when the slave trade began. The so-called Age of Exploration was a period from the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century, during which European ships were traveled around the world to search for new trading routes and partners to feed burgeoning capitalism in Europe.

Answer Expert Verified. The human cost of European colonies and exploitations were many, but the main ones were genocide against indigenous people and the cruel process of enslavement of black people. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Ben Davis May 1, What effects did the Portuguese have in West Africa? What impact did Portuguese exploration have on Africa?

In fact, they encountered urban centers in West Africa comparable to those back in Europe, governed by elaborate dynasties, organized around apprenticeship-based artistic guilds, and with agricultural systems capable of feeding their large populaces. Many African cities were even deemed to be larger, more hygienic, and better organized than those of Europe.

Additionally, the Portuguese shared many beliefs about magic, the supernatural, and the treatment of illness with the African societies they encountered.

Protective amulets in both cultures were considered medicinally valuable, and sickness in general was attributed to witchcraft. Ross, Emma George. Visiting The Met? They helped African rulers to expand their trading connections. They could help to negotiate with European traders and ships who stopped only for a while, and to get the best price.

Some of these families retained the connection to Europe, sending children to study in European countries into the 18 th century, and becoming rich merchants of the coastal towns.

Most more or less shook off their European past, and became fully integrated into the African societies, where their male European forefathers had settled as stranger-guests of their African landlord kings. As noted, these informal settlements were in the majority in the 16 th century. However, towards the end of that century and in the early 17 th century fortified European trading posts became common, especially on the Gold Coast and in Hueda.

In Casamance and Guinea-Bissau, they were formed in settlements such as Cacheu , Ziguinchor , and Bissau The 17 th century also saw the establishment of the fort at James Island , at the estuary of the Gambia river.

Along the Gold Coast, the Dutch presence saw increasing number of castles being established, the most famous being at Cape Corso Cape Coast, built in and expanded in and Sekondi , as well as those already mentioned at Axim and Elmina.

The huge expansion of the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17 th century saw the growth of this model of European settlement. European factories at Offra , the port for Allada and at Hueda were fortified.

By the middle of the 18 th century, these communities of European settlers had become more important than the informal ones noted above; by this time, members of these informal communities had by and large settled and fully integrated into their host African communities. Although these communities were protected militarily, they relied very heavily on African intermediaries in their trade. The military captains of these forts also often attended and participated in royal ceremonies of the local African state as often happened in Dahomey, for instance , and also would send gifts for the funeral rites of any deceased person of importance.

In practice, this meant that they had to accept and participate in African religious practices, associated with these funerals. Nevertheless, the communities which grew up around these fortified trading posts were quite different to the informal communities noted above.

The military aspect was vital. Although European traders rented the land for their posts, they were as much occupiers as they were tenants. They had armed militias, and often allied with one local ruler or another, which could create problems between them [it is important to remember that by the 18 th century, guns were one of the larges imports from the Atlantic trade to Africa; this had changed a lot from previous centuries, where copper, iron, and cloth had also been important].

They were accustomed to slavery, and brought with them the racial animus which became especially bad in Europe from around onwards. Many of the European officials in these forts had families with African women, and their children who grew up around these forts often became traders, as their dual heritage gave them access to both the worlds of their African and European parents.

Some of these families became important figures in local politics. In this sense there was a continuity from the more informal communities discussed above.

However the military presence and the growth of slavery meant that in many important respects these communities had become very different by the 18 th century. Europeans came to Africa mainly for trade, and this was the almost exclusive cause of their coming. By and large they arrived hoping for a short stay and to become rich. Some then realised the many riches to be found beyond material wealth, and stayed to form families who became part of their host communities.

But even then, the commercial aspect was always important. For African rulers, trade brought many opportunities. In the first two centuries, they demanded especially currency materials. Cloth was one of the largest items imported, from India and Europe; some cargoes of Dutch ships in the early 17 th century consisted almost entirely of cloth, shipped to Senegambia and the Gold Coast.

Cloth was used as money in Senegambia, and also as a currency in parts of Angola and the Gold Coast. Cowries were imported from the Maldives to Benin from as early as This period also saw the import of jewels, and some manufactured goods like mirrors and basins. But the value of each imported cargo consisted mainly of goods which could be converted into currency.

Evidence suggests that the imported metals such as copper and iron were brought in specific dimensions for trade: copper rings or manillas and iron bars of a specified length [especially in Senegambia] which were used then as mediums of exchange. The metals were then melted down by smiths for use in agricultural tools, weapons, and artistic works in the case of Benin, the Benin bronzes [there was a large increase in production of the bronzes in the 16 th century, when copper imports grew; the bronzes had been important from before, but their production expanded then].

One can say by contrast that until the second half of the 17 th century, the trade between Africa and Europe was quite balanced. Until then, while African rulers wanted increased supplies of currency, Europeans did not only focus on the slave trade, as later became the case.

They also wanted to import gold and ivory. When the Dutch invaded Portuguese colonies in Brazil in , the Portuguese colonists formed an army which included many Africans from the Gold Coast and Angola; the Gold Coast contingent demanded particular cloths as part of their payment and apparel, which was sent specially from the Dutch fortress at Elmina.

It was not just the West African textile industry which found markets overseas in the 16 th and 17 th centuries. Basketwork made by Gold Coast communities was highly prized in Holland in the early 17 th century. Ivory carvings made by the Sape peoples of Sierra Leone were found in different parts of Europe, turned into everyday items such as salt cellars and candle holders which were part of the export trade from this part of West Africa [in the 20 th century colonial era, some European art historians assumed these ivories came from Benin; however it has now been established by the American art historian Peter Mark that they came from Sierra Leone].

In sum, the Europeans who settled in Africa did so as part of a commercial enterprise. Their trading presence in West Africa began as one which was more or less between equal trading partners. As the diplomatic embassies show, each party saw the others as kings and rulers of their lands by divine power. Each, too, imported money from the other the Europeans importing gold, the Africans importing copper, cowries, cloth, and iron.

There was an Atlantic slave trade, but it was not as important as it later became [the Atlantic slave trade remained quite minor in West Africa until the s; it had expanded a lot in Angola after , with a trade to Brazil and the rest of Latin America, but this is in West-Central Africa: it was only in Senegambia that the slave trade was at all important in West Africa until the s, when it began to grow in Allada and Calabar]. However the later 17 th century saw a change, and with that a different pattern in European settlement and trade in West Africa.

By this time, the slave trade was dominating, and Europeans were settling in fortified trading positions, and not informally with their African hosts. The economic terms of trade were in general less equal, and that remained the case through the 18 th century. The first half of the 17 th century saw many changes in these patterns, as we are seeing.

These changes were vital in West Africa. They were also part of changes that were taking place around the world, which saw wars and revolutions in places as different as China and Europe, as well as in Africa. This produced climatic difficulties. There were heavy snows in Morocco. When the King of Allada sent ambassadors to Spain in the s, he said that one of the reasons was an attempt to stop the terrible storms which Allada had been experiencing.

Major problems occurred in other parts of the world. The freezing temperatures made harvests of wheat and other crops much worse than before, and food prices rose. Some of the coolest temperatures of all occurred around This was also when the biggest revolutions began. In China, a civil war began which saw the overthrow of the Ming dynasty. In Europe, Portugal declared independence from Spain also in and a civil war began which lasted until ; a civil war also began in England in , when the King was deposed and executed, and there was also civil conflict in France.

What caused this fall in temperatures, and the political crises? European historians traditionally pointed to different patterns of the sun. A team of archaeologists based in Colombia have a new explanation. The European conquest of the Americas in the 16 th century is usually thought to have caused a population collapse of indigenous Americans.