Chapter 24 Chapter 18 Africa
If the degree of influence by external stimuli is the decisive factor in determining the rate at which a region develops, then a casual glance at a map shows that Africa is in a pretty good place.It faces Europe to the north across the Mediterranean Sea; a narrow and easily navigated body of water which has served historically not so much as a barrier than as a highway.The Sinai peninsula to the east is a bridge to Asia, and the Red Sea is narrower and easier to navigate than the Mediterranean.Finally, monsoons offset the immensity of the Indian Ocean, facilitating travel back and forth between East Africa and South Asia.
Historically, however, Africa has been far more isolated from Eurasia than the impression given above suggests.This isolation remains to this day a primary and persistent factor in the development of the African continent.This chapter will first discuss the geographical circumstances that led to their isolation, and then describe the nature of the peoples of the African continent and their historical development.
Africa, which will be studied in this chapter, refers to the part of the African continent south of the Sahara Desert.The reason for this limitation, as mentioned in Chapter 1, Section 3, is that the Sahara Desert is a big barrier, a big divider, while the Mediterranean Sea is a connecting road in contrast.Historically, North Africans have interacted more with other peoples around the Mediterranean basin than with peoples south of the desert barrier.The reason for this is this.Therefore, the sub-Saharan Africa studied in this chapter is actually an island whose northern shore is the Sahara Desert, not the Mediterranean Sea.
The Sahara was by no means the only obstacle to communication with the outside world.To the east of the great desert, along the upper reaches of the Nile is the huge Sud swamp.These swamps have historically posed a formidable obstacle.And the straight coastline, unbroken by harbours, bays and inland seas, also makes the African continent inaccessible.So although Africa is three times the size of Europe, it has a shorter coastline than Europe.The lack of oceans comparable to the Mediterranean, Baltic and Black Seas meant that the African interior was relatively inaccessible to the outside world.
The 1000-mile-long sandbars along the east and west coasts, as well as the huge uplifts on both banks, are also powerful obstacles that make landing by small boat very dangerous.Even if you dodge the sandbars and surf, there is still another obstacle, the rapids and waterfalls formed by the rolling rivers as they cascade down the cliffs from the interior highlands to the low-lying coast.The African continent, shaped like an upside-down saucer, offers enormous potential for hydroelectric power today.But historically, waterfalls along the coast meant that Africa had neither the gentle-flowing rivers that provided access to the interior of the Americas, like the St. Lawrence and the Amazon, nor the access to the interior of Europe, like the Rhine and the Danube river.In addition, the hot, humid climate of low-lying coastal areas, and the tropical diseases that result from this climate, also block the way into Africa.Inland plateaus usually have a cooler climate, which is good for health, but the climate of coastal areas seriously affects the health of people going to the interior.
Just as important as the inaccessibility of the outside is the inaccessibility of the inside, that is to say, the difficulty of getting from one part of Africa to another.Looking at the African continent, its north and south ends are small and fertile strips.These strips soon gave way to vast deserts, the Kalahari to the south and the Sahara to the north.Further down are rolling grasslands or savannahs, most notably in the north, the Sudanese grasslands: the Arabic word for "Sudan" means "Nation of the Negroes".Then there are the rainforests, which, in their densest regions, are more impenetrable than deserts.
These harsh natural conditions, together with the lack of outlets near the coast and the lack of an unhindered network of rivers in the interior, prevent the interaction between the various parts of the African continent.This must have hindered the overall development of African nations, thus explaining the reason why complex empires on the grasslands and hunting groups in remote deserts and forests coexisted from time to time.
This geography also helps explain the unusually different timing of European invasions of Africa than their invasion of the Americas.Africa, unlike the Americas, has been linked to Eurasia for thousands of years, though the link has sometimes been tenuous.But Europeans invaded neighboring Africa much more slowly than distant America.Centuries after America was developed and colonized, Africa remained a "dark continent."By the end of the American Civil War in 1865, Africa was known only along the coast and a few insignificant areas in the interior.Even by 1900, about a quarter of the continent remained unexplored.Africa's immunity from European impetus is in part due to its various geographical conditions; these combined to make the continent strong against outside invasion.However, geography is by no means the only factor.Less cars, and the general level of development of the social, political, and economic organization of black Africans also mattered; this level of development was high enough to effectively keep Europeans at bay for centuries.But before discussing the culture of blacks, we will first examine their racial composition.
Contrary to common assumptions, the peoples of Africa are by no means homogeneous.Various ethnic groups can be found in the sub-Saharan region alone, and have existed throughout historical periods.Their origin and spread remain largely a mystery, though, and authorities vary widely.One racial classification, at least so far, has received the least opposition, which considers four main races: (1) the Bushmen, who speak the Khoisan language; (2) the Pygmies, whose original language is unknown. , because they adopted the languages of later conquerors; (3) Negroes, who spoke Niger-Congo; .These four races appear to have originated in the Lake Victoria region, from where Bushmen migrated south to South Africa; Pygmies moved west to the Congo and the coastal rainforests of West Africa; blacks migrated west to West Africa and northwest to The then fertile Sahara; the Caucasus migrated northwest to Egypt and North Africa, and northeast to the Arabian Peninsula and West Asia.
It should be emphasized here again that the above classification and migration are not universally accepted.In fact, one authority has summarized the current knowledge, or lack thereof, as follows:
African culture is to a greater extent the result of interaction with the outside world than is likely to be the case in America and Australia.Agriculture, for example, originated in Mesopotamia, took root in Egypt in the fifth millennium BC, and probably spread from there to Sudan, whose borders stretch from the Ethiopian plateau to the Atlantic coast.It should be noted that some authorities believe that agriculture was invented solely by this region, the Upper Niger.Whether or not this is the case, the fact is that the vast majority of plants that were eventually cultivated in sub-Saharan Africa were imported.Among the most important are: barley, wheat, peas, and lentils from Mesopotamia and Egypt via the Nile; bananas, sugar cane, yams, and new types of rice from Southeast Asia; Tobacco, corn, ramie beans, string beans, pumpkins and tomatoes from traders.Before the advent of iron tools, these plants had been grown in large numbers in the Sudanese grasslands.Farming is seldom practiced in rainforest areas, because all kinds of edible fruits and vegetables can be obtained there, and sufficient food can be obtained without using stone tools to cut trees and plow the land and spend arduous labor.
As important as the introduction of agriculture to Africa was the introduction of ironmaking.Ironsmithing must have been imported from other places, and it may have had three origins.One was Carthage, from where the technology probably spread via merchants.In 500 BC, and perhaps earlier, traders opened two official trade routes across the Sahara Desert.As we can see from the rock carvings along the trade routes that have been discovered, the Sahara Desert at that time was not as wide and terrible as it was later, so merchants could use donkeys and horses to pull carts and carriages across And pass.Later, when the desert became more difficult to pass, the Romans solved the problem by importing camels from Central Asia.
The second source of iron smelting was the Kingdom of Kush; the Kingdom of Kush was located on the upper Nile, and its capital was at Meroe just north of Khartoum.The Kush people are mainly black, and the ancient Egyptians called them Nubians.They were attacked by the Egyptian pharaoh's army at first, and gradually established a very powerful country, conquered Egypt in 751 BC, and ruled the country for a century.Afterwards, the Assyrian army invaded from the east, forcing the Kushites to withdraw from Egypt.However, it was from these Assyrians that the Kushites learned the art of ironmaking.
The Kushites were able to put their knowledge to good use because, unlike Egypt, their country was rich in iron ore and fuel.Meroe soon became a huge center of iron production.The large iron slag piles that can still be seen next to the ruins of the capital suggest that Meroe was once the Pittsburgh of Central Africa.Iron and other products from the civilized area were probably exchanged for traditional African goods such as slaves, ivory, and ostrich feathers.After living for more than 1,000 years, the Kush Kingdom declined in the 4th century AD. Before that, iron smelting had been introduced to the far south and west.
A major reason for the decline of the kingdom of Kush was the invasion of Ethiopia, the third source of ironmaking into sub-Saharan Africa.The ancestors of the Amhara people in present-day Ethiopia established an empire around AD 50 with Axum as their capital.These Axumites were merchants who traded in the countries of the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and East Africa.Although the details are unknown, however, they were the ones who introduced iron smelting and advanced agricultural techniques to East Africa.
Iron was used in Africa long before European invasion.Here is an illustration from David Livingstone's The Last Days: Africans forging hoes.
The Carthaginians, Kushites, and Axumites played a decisive role in spreading ironmaking widely to sub-Saharan Africa.Around 500 BC, local residents had begun to manufacture their own tools and weapons.By 200 BC, the technology had spread west as far as central Nigeria, and by the 1st century AD, as far south as the Zambezi River.As a result, Africa entered the Iron Age, and its impact was as profound as the impact of the aforementioned iron on Eurasia.
Iron hoes and axes earlier made possible the extension of agriculture to the forested regions of central Europe, the Ganges and Yangtze River basins, and today it is possible to expand agriculture to the forested regions of Africa.As a result, agricultural production increased and there was a surplus of product that could be used for business.As in Eurasia, this in turn led to the division of societies into rulers and ruled, replacing simple kinship.Therefore, around the 9th century AD, a clear national organization appeared, which had military institutions, administrative agencies, and tax sources necessary to maintain the national organization.
Another effect on Africa was to bring about a fundamental change in the ethnic composition of the continent.It was the accessible Black Foresters and Caucasians of the Sudanese steppes who adopted and benefited from the techniques of agriculture and ironmaking, not the inaccessible Pygmies and Bushmen of the rainforest and southern regions.Thus it was also the Negroes and Caucasians who increased the population disproportionately; and with their iron implements and weapons they pushed southward at the expense of the Bushmen and Pygmies.This expansionism is particularly pronounced among the Bantu, a predominantly black-speaking group.Starting from the Cameroon Plateau, where the center originated, they invaded the Congo Basin at the beginning of AD and eliminated or conquered the sparsely populated Pygmy hunters.Between 600 and 900 AD, some Bantu people moved southeast from the Congo Basin to the fertile and open Great Lakes region.Then, continuing south through the savannah, they conquered the Bushmen; the Bushmen suffered the same fate as the Pygmies.At the same time, another part of the Bantu traveled directly south along the Atlantic coast, and finally encountered a new ethnic group, the Hottentots.These Hottentots are now believed to be Bushmen who had earlier learned to keep cattle, which improved their diet, and became taller than other Bushmen, but in other respects the same as the Bushmen. People are very similar.These migrations explain why blacks were the dominant ethnic group in Africa before the European invasion, and why they shared the continent fairly evenly with Caucasians, Bushmen, and Pygmies 1,000 years earlier.
Another historically significant force originating in Eurasia, Islam, strengthened the influence of agriculture and ironmaking. When Islam spread rapidly to North Africa in the 7th century, it encountered little resistance from the Byzantine rulers, but met with stubborn resistance from the local Berbers.Eventually, however, the Berbers embraced Islam; they then joined the Arabs in conquering Spain and crossing the Sahara Desert to bring Muslim faith and culture to Sudan.Berber traders converted the beliefs of African traders they encountered along the trans-Saharan trade route.Tolerant black rulers allowed Muslims full freedom to practice their religion and propagate their beliefs.Thus, around the ninth century, Islam first appeared in the commercial centers of western Sudan.By the 13th century it had become the state religion of what was then the Great Marian Empire, and it spread steadily with official support.
Islam also gained a much smaller foothold in East Africa; there, Muslim Arab societies were established very early.Arab immigrants intermarried with Bantu women, creating a new nation, the "Swahope", or "coastal dwellers", whose language became a mixed language of East Africa.In East Africa they settled only in coastal enclaves or islands, which were safer from mainland tribes.Islam did not attempt to conquer the interior, so, unlike in North Africa and Sudan, Islam never gained a large base in East Africa.
The influence of Islam on Africa is far-reaching and multifaceted.The most obvious point is the surface of life, that is, names, clothing, home furnishings, architectural styles, festivals, etc.In addition, it is also evident in the development of agriculture and technology with the expansion of the field of communication with the outside world.In East Africa, the Arabs imported rice and sugar cane from India.According to records, Hai Idris Aloma, king of the Bornu Kingdom, who was about the same time as Queen Elizabeth of England, once said: "Among the graces bestowed on the Sultan by the tolerant, merciful, generous, and eternal God, there is A rare Turkish musketeer and many domestic slaves skilled at musket shooting."
Islam also facilitated trade by linking African economies to Eurasia's extensive network of trade routes controlled by Muslim traders.Muslims used much more camels than Romans, and correspondingly added several trade routes across the Sahara Desert, increasing trade volume.From bases in North Africa, they shipped southwards cloth, jewellery, shell rosaries and, above all, salt; an urgent need throughout the Sudan.In return, the Africans offered them ivory, slaves, ostrich feathers, civet cats for spices and, most importantly, gold from the upper Niger, Senegal and Volta rivers.Most of these golds eventually flowed into Europe, and the large amount was very important for adjusting the trade deficit balance between Europe and the East in the Middle Ages.This is the mutual promotion and mutual influence between the Sudanese economy and foreign trade.Thus, by 1400, all of West Africa was criss-crossed by commercial roads and dotted with trading centers.
Meanwhile, a similar business model is taking shape in East Africa.Muslim brokers from the coast sent agents inland to buy ivory from Rhodesia, slaves, gold and copper from Katanga.These goods were shipped via commercial shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean then controlled by Muslim traders.In the following centuries, they also obtained iron ore from the interior and shipped it to southern India to make so-called Damascus swords.In turn, Africans exchanged their products for Chinese and Indian cloth, various luxury goods, and especially Chinese porcelain; relics of these porcelains can still be found in coastal areas today.This trade was the basis of some prosperous port cities and city-states along the coast of East Africa.By the 13th century, two of the cities, Kilwa Island and Zanzibar, had established their own mints and minted a large number of copper coins.
Now, a word about the role of Islam in Africa.Islam also greatly contributed to the cultural life of Sudan.With the establishment of schools, more and more people can read and write.Scholars can pursue advanced research in Sudanese universities.Of these universities, Timbuktu's Sankor University was the most outstanding and was emulated by other Muslim universities in Fez, Tunisia and Cairo.It was customary for scholars to travel freely to these schools and to other universities in the Muslim world, to conduct research under a certain mentor.The Muslim traveler Leo (of Africa) who visited Timbuktu in 1513 found that this flourishing of learning was due to the support of the ruler Askia the Great. "Here in 'Timbuktu' there are large numbers of doctors, judges, priests and other scholars who are well supported by the king. Manuscripts or books of all kinds are brought here from Barbury 'North Africa' and they are more valuable than any other commodity. Can sell for money."
Belief in Islam also strengthened the political unity of the Sudanese kingdoms.Traditionally, the rulers of the Sudanese kingdoms demanded the allegiance of themselves only from groups or families with direct kinship, and from other groups that were kinship and acknowledged bloodliness to a great ancestor.But when kingdoms expanded into great empires, such kinship was clearly inadequate as the basis of imperial organization.The wider the empire expanded, the more at odds the relationship between the emperor and most of his subjects seemed.Local chiefs could not be trusted as loyal vassals, instead they often led their own people against imperial rule.Islam helped to solve this institutional problem by strengthening the administrative machinery of the empire.Madrassas and universities produced a cadre of literati who could form an effective imperial bureaucracy.These men were not dominated by kinship alliances, their vital interests were aligned with the imperial power, and they were usually men who could be counted on to serve that power faithfully.
The development of agriculture and iron smelting, and the corresponding increase in economic productivity, the prosperity of interregional trade, and the promotion of Islam all combine to explain the process of state formation on the African continent from the eighth century onwards.Not surprisingly, the most complex political organization arose in Sudan, where long-distance trade developed fastest and Islamic influence was strongest.Thus, three great empires arose in this region; the Ghana Empire (700-1200), the Mali Empire (1200-1500) and the Songhai Empire (1350-1600).
These three empires shared certain basic features.First, they were both commercially based, so each empire extended its sphere of authority outward, controlling the import of salt to the north and the buying and selling of gold to the south.The greater part of the revenue of each empire came from taxes on the purchase and sale of these and other commodities.Bakery, a scholar of the time, enumerates the taxes levied in the Ghanaian Empire on "the salt of every donkey," and other goods carried by donkeys and camels, as they pass across the frontier.He said: "Every piece of gold found in this empire belongs to the King of Ghana, and all that the King leaves to his people is dust on that gold. …"
Revenues from these taxes gradually made possible a more sophisticated administration of the empire.Therefore, the Songhai Empire was more complex than the previous two empires.The country is clearly divided into several provinces, and each province has a long-serving governor.The empire also had an early professional army, and even several ministries in charge of finance, justice, state affairs, agriculture, forestry, and "whites", that is, Arabs and Berbers in the Sahara border area of the empire.
The Mali and Songhai empires were able to develop trade, provide a well-trained bureaucracy, and promote cultural life in large part due to the influence of Islam.Islam also changed Sudan from an isolated part of Africa to an integral part of the Muslim world.Thus, the 14th-century Arab traveler Ibn Boututa included Mali in his journey; this journey went as far east as China. In June 1353, Pituta arrived in the capital of Mali. The administration of the empire and the habits of the people left a good impression on him.He said:
Although Islam played a major role in the formation and role of the Sudanese empires, it should be noted that it was primarily an urban religion.Only the merchants and townspeople became Muslims, while the countrymen largely remained faithful to their traditional god worship and beliefs.Thus the reliance of many emperors and their imperial administration on Islam was both a cause of strength and a source of decline.As we have seen, Islam had much to offer, but it was based on a narrower basis than was remembered by observers who visited urban centers and traveled along trade routes.Thus, in times of crisis, city-centered empires can suddenly splinter and collapse quickly.
Another weakness of the Sudanese empires was their vulnerability to attack by the Berbers of the north, who were either looking for sources of African gold or seeking to impose their particular form of faith on others. In 1076, the fanatical Almoravids overthrew the Ghanaian Empire.Likewise, in 1591, the Moroccan invasion destroyed the Songhai Empire.The demise of the Songhai Empire marked the end of the era of the Sultan Empire.In the words of a historian of Timbuktu in the seventeenth century: "Since then everything has changed. Danger has replaced safety, poverty has replaced wealth, misfortune, disaster and violence have replaced peace. …"
The three empires mentioned above are the most famous political products of the African Middle Ages.In other parts of the continent, however, various other political structures exist.For example, in South-East Africa, there is something similar to Sudan.Just as Sudan was famous in the Mediterranean basin for exporting gold, so South East Africa was famous in the Indian Ocean basin for the same reason; The Monomotapa Empire and the coastal city-state of Kilwa Island.
The word Monomotapa was changed by the Portuguese from the king's title "Mwana Motapa".This empire included present-day Rhodesia and Mozambique, and thus, like the Sudanese empires, controlled the gold fields and the roads to the coast.It was the monarchs of Monomotapa who built the Great Temple of Zimbabwe; the temple's surrounding walls soaring 32 feet provide the proper setting for royal formal ceremonies.The merchant rulers of Kilwa Island, calling themselves sultans, were trade brokers, controlling the exchange of goods between Monomotapa and the Muslim merchant ships that sailed to and from the Indian Ocean and even as far as the China Sea. "The island of Kilwa is one of the most beautiful and well-built cities in the world. The architecture of the whole city is first-rate," wrote Ibn Batuta.Later, the Mali Empire left a deep impression on this Pituta.
17th Century European Illustration: Capital of the African Kingdom of the Congo.This kingdom was established before the Europeans invaded.
Just as the Sultan's kingdom was plundered by Berber invaders from the north, so Monomotapa and Kilwa Islands were pseudo-ravaged by Portuguese invaders from overseas.Within a decade of Vasco da Gama's voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, the Portuguese sacked many coastal cities in southeastern Africa and remained in the Indian Ocean as if it were a Portuguese lake.Da Gama did not find Kilwa Island on his first voyage, but a Portuguese fleet took refuge there in 1500.Five years later, another fleet repaid the hospitality with merciless plunder.Meeting no resistance from the stunned inhabitants, one expedition member described capturing the city of "many fortified houses of several storeys high."Then "the vicar and some elders of the Franciscan order went ashore with two crucifixes, singing a hymn of thanksgiving. They went into the palace, put down the crucifix, and the captain of the fleet said a prayer. all the commodities and provisions of the city."
A painting from the 19th century: a typical rural village in Africa, which is in stark contrast to the capital of the Congo Kingdom, which has a grand appearance in the previous picture, and looks very primitive in comparison.
Later, the Portuguese moved upriver along the Zambezi, and in similar fashion destroyed the Monomotapa empire.They first occupied the strategic points along the river, and extended their influence in all directions until the inevitable final attack in 1628.With their firearms, the Portuguese easily defeated the two armies of Monomotapa, and as a result, on the ruins of the former empire, several small kingdoms arose.
If we turn our attention from South East Africa to Northeast Africa, the diversity on the African scene is quite evident.In north-east Africa, among the Ethiopians and Nubians, there existed obscure and isolated Christian kingdoms.Before the 4th century AD, the Aksum people in Ethiopia had been pagans, and the gods they believed in were also the gods of the southern Arabian peninsula.In 333 AD, the Syrian Frumentius introduced Christianity here and converted the king to Christianity.Since then Christianity has been the official religion and has penetrated into all aspects of Ethiopian life. In the 7th century, the Muslim conquest cut off Ethiopia's connection with the Mediterranean Sea; from the 8th to the 10th century, the Red Sea ports were lost to Muslims, completely cutting off the country's connection with the outside world.However, Ethiopia has an extremely vast interior made up of mountains and plateaus that has survived virtually in isolation until modern times.In this environment, what formed and endured was a unique society, a Christian feudal society with a court and a king; Political pressure forced him to move his court constantly from one region to another.
As mentioned in the third section of this chapter, in 325, the Nubian Kush Kingdom was defeated by Axum.Successive states, through a mission from Alexandria, converted to Byzantine or Coptic Christianity in the sixth century.A large number of churches were built to reflect belief in this new religion; some were preserved because they were buried by sand, and their exquisite frescoes still show their original colors today.A Polish archaeological team discovered the murals a few years ago, rescued them from the rising waters of Egypt's new Aswan High Dam, and housed them in museums in Khartoum and Warsaw, respectively.
Like Ethiopia, these Christian Nubian kingdoms were isolated from the rest of the world by the Islamic conquest of Egypt in the seventh century.Despite constant wars with the Muslims in the Nubian frontiers, Nubian Christianity survived in secret for another six centuries. In the thirteenth century, Egypt fell under the rule of the warlike Saracens, who were fighting Western crusaders in the Holy Land and were unwilling to tolerate other Christians in their immediate vicinity.Thus, they ravaged much of Nubia in the late 13th century.Still, those isolated regions survived for another two centuries.
In an individual examination of the various societies in Africa - and this is only an individual examination, not a comprehensive survey - some of the most primitive societies should not be overlooked, since their long existence reflects the geographical division of the African continent into several parts.Pygmies and Bushmen remained in the food-gathering stage of development because they were confined and isolated in inaccessible desert and rainforest areas.While they continued to exist in their primitive way of life as hunters and food gatherers, the world ignored them.But that doesn't mean their culture doesn't have meaning or impact.The few who have observed Pygmies closely have reported highly developed talents for dance, chorus, acting, imitation, and storytelling.Likewise, the Bushmen are known for their petroglyphs and carvings; these paintings and carvings are drawn with natural, flowing, rhythmic lines and generally depict animals, hunting and war scenes, and rituals accompanied by dance Activity.
This argument, advanced by British Africa expert Thomas Hodgkin, describes a process that is certainly not unique to Africa.From the previous chapters it is clear that it is a worldwide process.The reason is simple: the West took the lead in modernization and thus ahead of all other societies.The fact remains, however, that the gap between the West and Africa is much greater than the gap between the West and the rest of Eurasia.Monarchs Constantinople, Delhi, and Peking have indeed declined relative to London, Paris, and Berlin, but not to the point of practical extinction, as Timbuktu has.Chapter 17 has discussed why the West took the lead in modernization and suddenly ran ahead of other regions.However, another problem is faced here, namely: Why does Africa generally lag behind not only the West, but also the entire Eurasian continent?
The question is hardly ever asked, let alone answered.When analyzing the development of various civilizations in Eurasia in the previous chapters, some factors that may be related to it were put forward, and they will be considered here for the time being.The relative significance of these factors; if they are meaningful at all, they cannot be evaluated without more research and reflection.
A striking feature of African development that immediately comes to mind is that the general stimuli created by agriculture, metallurgy, and long-distance trade soon began to stagnate and failed to develop further.Africa did not experience the climax of the chain reaction that occurred in northern Europe, the Ganges and Yangtze River basins when iron tools were used to exploit and exploit them.One possible reason is that Africa lacks commensurately fertile, potentially productive areas.Factors such as poor land, harsh climate and tsetse flies made it impossible for farmers and craftsmen in Africa to carry out productive production like farmers and craftsmen in Eurasia.Even Sudan with favorable conditions mainly relied on exporting gold and selling slaves, which could not provide a very broad foundation for continuous economic development.
The external and internal isolation described in section I also appears to be holding back Africa's development.For example; Africa has neither rivers and coastal outlets comparable to Europe, nor does it enjoy the advantages of a nearly advanced Byzantine and Islamic civilization like Europe.On the contrary, there are many deserts and rain forests in the interior, while the outside is a vast ocean.This prevents the efficient use of even the limited products that natural resources allow.Indeed, unlike the Americas, Africa was close enough to Eurasia to benefit from the spread of basic technologies such as agriculture and metallurgy.However, Africa is far away from Eurasia, too far away to accept the long series of inventions that the various regions of Eurasia have been exchanging and benefiting from each other for thousands of years.
Finally, Africa is vulnerable to attack from the outside, because stagnation means weakness, and weakness everywhere begets aggression.Earlier we have described the disastrous results of the Berber invasion of Sudan and the Portuguese invasion of Southeast Asia.They are significant if one considers the fact that Western Europe, by contrast, was free from any invasion for the crucial five centuries before rising to world leadership in 1500.This element of vulnerability later found expression in the deadly form of the painful slave trade, which not only depopulated vast areas but caused economic and political chaos.
These various factors may explain why Africa's development lags far behind the levels achieved by Eurasian societies.The continuation of collective land ownership and the failure of urban centers to dominate the economies of any part of Africa reflects this stagnation.On the other hand, this stagnation has in turn maintained the seductive egalitarianism and slow pace of life; both of which are common in areas where kinship and common ownership of land are still effectively maintained (see III. Chapter IV).Basil Davidson, a British expert on Africa, has concluded: "...a comparison between Africa and Europe may be beneficial to Africa. . . . and his wife, probably more dangerous and more annoying."
This clear judgment is undoubtedly justified.但从世界历史的观点看，值得注意的一点是，非洲社会引人注目的特征之所以能幸存下来，就因为它缺乏欧亚大陆各社会的推动力和不断的发展。只要非洲人与外界比较隔绝，他们就能维持和享有一种在欧亚大陆诸文明中早已消失的生活方式。但是，当西方的扩张主义抵达非洲沿岸时，非洲人不得不付出沉重的代价。因为地区越不发达，越容易遭受侵略，结果遭到的破坏也越大。班图农民牺牲“不发达”的狩猎民族的利益，向全非洲扩张，这是事实在近代，工业化的西方的代表牺牲“不发达”的农民的利益，尤其是牺牲那些仍停留在新石器阶段的人们的利益，间向全球，这也是事实。
最后，应该指出，尽管非洲人没有赶上欧亚人，但却超过了更与世隔绝的美洲印第安人和澳大利亚士著居民。这在很大程度上说明了欧洲人进入非洲内地比进入美洲和澳大利亚晚得多的原因。如第一节所述，这里也包括地理因素，但更主要的是非洲人，尤其是那些同欧洲人做买卖的非洲人所达到的较高的发展水平。这些人自然是最先进的，因为这也意味着他们是最具有生产能力的，因此，他们为有利可图的贸易提供了最好的机会。
随着欧洲人的到来而发展起来的商业，仅在规模方面使这些先进的非洲人感到新奇。商业活动本身并不是什么陌生的东西，因为长期以来，他们一直同遥远的摩洛哥和埃及地区保持着贸易关系。因此，非洲人对葡萄牙人的反应完全不同于这时的美洲印第安人对西班牙人的态度。确实，森林里的居民由于同阿拉伯人没有直接的接触，对欧洲人的白皮肤、对他们的火器所产生的巨大声响、对这些新来者从海上而来——沿海居民对此十分崇敬——感到非常惊奇。但事实仍然是，葡萄牙人的到来并没有在非洲引起象西班牙人在美洲所引起的混乱和分裂。因此，非洲人按他们自己提出的条件同欧洲人进行贸易。几个世纪以来，沿海地区的酋长不准欧洲人进入内地，因为他们想继续保持他们作为欧洲买主和内地生产者之间的经纪人的有利地位。1793年，一位英国官员写道，非洲之所以仍是一块未知的大陆，“是由于沿海居民在允许白人旅行他们的国家方面所存在的猜忌，而不是由于伴随进入非洲而来的危险或困难。”他把这种猜忌归因于经纪人的害怕——“害怕同欧洲贸易的利益被减少，害怕同欧洲的贸易从他们一边转移到邻居那里，害怕内地王国”因得到欧洲武器而成为危险的竞争者。
亚当·史密认识到美洲印第安人和非洲黑人在抵抗欧洲人入侵的能力方面所存在的差别，他于1776年写道：
Iron was used in Africa long before European invasion.Here is an illustration from David Livingstone's The Last Days: Africans forging hoes.
The Carthaginians, Kushites, and Axumites played a decisive role in spreading ironmaking widely to sub-Saharan Africa.Around 500 BC, local residents had begun to manufacture their own tools and weapons.By 200 BC, the technology had spread west as far as central Nigeria, and by the 1st century AD, as far south as the Zambezi River.As a result, Africa entered the Iron Age, and its impact was as profound as the impact of the aforementioned iron on Eurasia.
Iron hoes and axes earlier made possible the extension of agriculture to the forested regions of central Europe, the Ganges and Yangtze River basins, and today it is possible to expand agriculture to the forested regions of Africa.As a result, agricultural production increased and there was a surplus of product that could be used for business.As in Eurasia, this in turn led to the division of societies into rulers and ruled, replacing simple kinship.Therefore, around the 9th century AD, a clear national organization appeared, which had military institutions, administrative agencies, and tax sources necessary to maintain the national organization.
Another effect on Africa was to bring about a fundamental change in the ethnic composition of the continent.It was the accessible Black Foresters and Caucasians of the Sudanese steppes who adopted and benefited from the techniques of agriculture and ironmaking, not the inaccessible Pygmies and Bushmen of the rainforest and southern regions.Thus it was also the Negroes and Caucasians who increased the population disproportionately; and with their iron implements and weapons they pushed southward at the expense of the Bushmen and Pygmies.This expansionism is particularly pronounced among the Bantu, a predominantly black-speaking group.Starting from the Cameroon Plateau, where the center originated, they invaded the Congo Basin at the beginning of AD and eliminated or conquered the sparsely populated Pygmy hunters.Between 600 and 900 AD, some Bantu people moved southeast from the Congo Basin to the fertile and open Great Lakes region.Then, continuing south through the savannah, they conquered the Bushmen; the Bushmen suffered the same fate as the Pygmies.At the same time, another part of the Bantu traveled directly south along the Atlantic coast, and finally encountered a new ethnic group, the Hottentots.These Hottentots are now believed to be Bushmen who had earlier learned to keep cattle, which improved their diet, and became taller than other Bushmen, but in other respects the same as the Bushmen. People are very similar.These migrations explain why blacks were the dominant ethnic group in Africa before the European invasion, and why they shared the continent fairly evenly with Caucasians, Bushmen, and Pygmies 1,000 years earlier.
Another historically significant force originating in Eurasia, Islam, strengthened the influence of agriculture and ironmaking. When Islam spread rapidly to North Africa in the 7th century, it encountered little resistance from the Byzantine rulers, but met with stubborn resistance from the local Berbers.Eventually, however, the Berbers embraced Islam; they then joined the Arabs in conquering Spain and crossing the Sahara Desert to bring Muslim faith and culture to Sudan.Berber traders converted the beliefs of African traders they encountered along the trans-Saharan trade route.Tolerant black rulers allowed Muslims full freedom to practice their religion and propagate their beliefs.Thus, around the ninth century, Islam first appeared in the commercial centers of western Sudan.By the 13th century it had become the state religion of what was then the Great Marian Empire, and it spread steadily with official support.
Islam also gained a much smaller foothold in East Africa; there, Muslim Arab societies were established very early.Arab immigrants intermarried with Bantu women, creating a new nation, the "Swahope", or "coastal dwellers", whose language became a mixed language of East Africa.In East Africa they settled only in coastal enclaves or islands, which were safer from mainland tribes.Islam did not attempt to conquer the interior, so, unlike in North Africa and Sudan, Islam never gained a large base in East Africa.
The influence of Islam on Africa is far-reaching and multifaceted.The most obvious point is the surface of life, that is, names, clothing, home furnishings, architectural styles, festivals, etc.In addition, it is also evident in the development of agriculture and technology with the expansion of the field of communication with the outside world.In East Africa, the Arabs imported rice and sugar cane from India.According to records, Hai Idris Aloma, king of the Bornu Kingdom, who was about the same time as Queen Elizabeth of England, once said: "Among the graces bestowed on the Sultan by the tolerant, merciful, generous, and eternal God, there is A rare Turkish musketeer and many domestic slaves skilled at musket shooting."
Islam also facilitated trade by linking African economies to Eurasia's extensive network of trade routes controlled by Muslim traders.Muslims used much more camels than Romans, and correspondingly added several trade routes across the Sahara Desert, increasing trade volume.From bases in North Africa, they shipped southwards cloth, jewellery, shell rosaries and, above all, salt; an urgent need throughout the Sudan.In return, the Africans offered them ivory, slaves, ostrich feathers, civet cats for spices and, most importantly, gold from the upper Niger, Senegal and Volta rivers.Most of these golds eventually flowed into Europe, and the large amount was very important for adjusting the trade deficit balance between Europe and the East in the Middle Ages.This is the mutual promotion and mutual influence between the Sudanese economy and foreign trade.Thus, by 1400, all of West Africa was criss-crossed by commercial roads and dotted with trading centers.
Meanwhile, a similar business model is taking shape in East Africa.Muslim brokers from the coast sent agents inland to buy ivory from Rhodesia, slaves, gold and copper from Katanga.These goods were shipped via commercial shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean then controlled by Muslim traders.In the following centuries, they also obtained iron ore from the interior and shipped it to southern India to make so-called Damascus swords.In turn, Africans exchanged their products for Chinese and Indian cloth, various luxury goods, and especially Chinese porcelain; relics of these porcelains can still be found in coastal areas today.This trade was the basis of some prosperous port cities and city-states along the coast of East Africa.By the 13th century, two of the cities, Kilwa Island and Zanzibar, had established their own mints and minted a large number of copper coins.
Now, a word about the role of Islam in Africa.Islam also greatly contributed to the cultural life of Sudan.With the establishment of schools, more and more people can read and write.Scholars can pursue advanced research in Sudanese universities.Of these universities, Timbuktu's Sankor University was the most outstanding and was emulated by other Muslim universities in Fez, Tunisia and Cairo.It was customary for scholars to travel freely to these schools and to other universities in the Muslim world, to conduct research under a certain mentor.The Muslim traveler Leo (of Africa) who visited Timbuktu in 1513 found that this flourishing of learning was due to the support of the ruler Askia the Great. "Here in 'Timbuktu' there are large numbers of doctors, judges, priests and other scholars who are well supported by the king. Manuscripts or books of all kinds are brought here from Barbury 'North Africa' and they are more valuable than any other commodity. Can sell for money."
Belief in Islam also strengthened the political unity of the Sudanese kingdoms.Traditionally, the rulers of the Sudanese kingdoms demanded the allegiance of themselves only from groups or families with direct kinship, and from other groups that were kinship and acknowledged bloodliness to a great ancestor.But when kingdoms expanded into great empires, such kinship was clearly inadequate as the basis of imperial organization.The wider the empire expanded, the more at odds the relationship between the emperor and most of his subjects seemed.Local chiefs could not be trusted as loyal vassals, instead they often led their own people against imperial rule.Islam helped to solve this institutional problem by strengthening the administrative machinery of the empire.Madrassas and universities produced a cadre of literati who could form an effective imperial bureaucracy.These men were not dominated by kinship alliances, their vital interests were aligned with the imperial power, and they were usually men who could be counted on to serve that power faithfully.
The development of agriculture and iron smelting, and the corresponding increase in economic productivity, the prosperity of interregional trade, and the promotion of Islam all combine to explain the process of state formation on the African continent from the eighth century onwards.Not surprisingly, the most complex political organization arose in Sudan, where long-distance trade developed fastest and Islamic influence was strongest.Thus, three great empires arose in this region; the Ghana Empire (700-1200), the Mali Empire (1200-1500) and the Songhai Empire (1350-1600).
These three empires shared certain basic features.First, they were both commercially based, so each empire extended its sphere of authority outward, controlling the import of salt to the north and the buying and selling of gold to the south.The greater part of the revenue of each empire came from taxes on the purchase and sale of these and other commodities.Bakery, a scholar of the time, enumerates the taxes levied in the Ghanaian Empire on "the salt of every donkey," and other goods carried by donkeys and camels, as they pass across the frontier.He said: "Every piece of gold found in this empire belongs to the King of Ghana, and all that the King leaves to his people is dust on that gold. …"
Revenues from these taxes gradually made possible a more sophisticated administration of the empire.Therefore, the Songhai Empire was more complex than the previous two empires.The country is clearly divided into several provinces, and each province has a long-serving governor.The empire also had an early professional army, and even several ministries in charge of finance, justice, state affairs, agriculture, forestry, and "whites", that is, Arabs and Berbers in the Sahara border area of the empire.
The Mali and Songhai empires were able to develop trade, provide a well-trained bureaucracy, and promote cultural life in large part due to the influence of Islam.Islam also changed Sudan from an isolated part of Africa to an integral part of the Muslim world.Thus, the 14th-century Arab traveler Ibn Boututa included Mali in his journey; this journey went as far east as China. In June 1353, Pituta arrived in the capital of Mali. The administration of the empire and the habits of the people left a good impression on him.He said:
Although Islam played a major role in the formation and role of the Sudanese empires, it should be noted that it was primarily an urban religion.Only the merchants and townspeople became Muslims, while the countrymen largely remained faithful to their traditional god worship and beliefs.Thus the reliance of many emperors and their imperial administration on Islam was both a cause of strength and a source of decline.As we have seen, Islam had much to offer, but it was based on a narrower basis than was remembered by observers who visited urban centers and traveled along trade routes.Thus, in times of crisis, city-centered empires can suddenly splinter and collapse quickly.
Another weakness of the Sudanese empires was their vulnerability to attack by the Berbers of the north, who were either looking for sources of African gold or seeking to impose their particular form of faith on others. In 1076, the fanatical Almoravids overthrew the Ghanaian Empire.Likewise, in 1591, the Moroccan invasion destroyed the Songhai Empire.The demise of the Songhai Empire marked the end of the era of the Sultan Empire.In the words of a historian of Timbuktu in the seventeenth century: "Since then everything has changed. Danger has replaced safety, poverty has replaced wealth, misfortune, disaster and violence have replaced peace. …"
The three empires mentioned above are the most famous political products of the African Middle Ages.In other parts of the continent, however, various other political structures exist.For example, in South-East Africa, there is something similar to Sudan.Just as Sudan was famous in the Mediterranean basin for exporting gold, so South East Africa was famous in the Indian Ocean basin for the same reason; The Monomotapa Empire and the coastal city-state of Kilwa Island.
The word Monomotapa was changed by the Portuguese from the king's title "Mwana Motapa".This empire included present-day Rhodesia and Mozambique, and thus, like the Sudanese empires, controlled the gold fields and the roads to the coast.It was the monarchs of Monomotapa who built the Great Temple of Zimbabwe; the temple's surrounding walls soaring 32 feet provide the proper setting for royal formal ceremonies.The merchant rulers of Kilwa Island, calling themselves sultans, were trade brokers, controlling the exchange of goods between Monomotapa and the Muslim merchant ships that sailed to and from the Indian Ocean and even as far as the China Sea. "The island of Kilwa is one of the most beautiful and well-built cities in the world. The architecture of the whole city is first-rate," wrote Ibn Batuta.Later, the Mali Empire left a deep impression on this Pituta.
17th Century European Illustration: Capital of the African Kingdom of the Congo.This kingdom was established before the Europeans invaded.
Just as the Sultan's kingdom was plundered by Berber invaders from the north, so Monomotapa and Kilwa Islands were pseudo-ravaged by Portuguese invaders from overseas.Within a decade of Vasco da Gama's voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, the Portuguese sacked many coastal cities in southeastern Africa and remained in the Indian Ocean as if it were a Portuguese lake.Da Gama did not find Kilwa Island on his first voyage, but a Portuguese fleet took refuge there in 1500.Five years later, another fleet repaid the hospitality with merciless plunder.Meeting no resistance from the stunned inhabitants, one expedition member described capturing the city of "many fortified houses of several storeys high."Then "the vicar and some elders of the Franciscan order went ashore with two crucifixes, singing a hymn of thanksgiving. They went into the palace, put down the crucifix, and the captain of the fleet said a prayer. all the commodities and provisions of the city."
A painting from the 19th century: a typical rural village in Africa, which is in stark contrast to the capital of the Congo Kingdom, which has a grand appearance in the previous picture, and looks very primitive in comparison.
Later, the Portuguese moved upriver along the Zambezi, and in similar fashion destroyed the Monomotapa empire.They first occupied the strategic points along the river, and extended their influence in all directions until the inevitable final attack in 1628.With their firearms, the Portuguese easily defeated the two armies of Monomotapa, and as a result, on the ruins of the former empire, several small kingdoms arose.
If we turn our attention from South East Africa to Northeast Africa, the diversity on the African scene is quite evident.In north-east Africa, among the Ethiopians and Nubians, there existed obscure and isolated Christian kingdoms.Before the 4th century AD, the Aksum people in Ethiopia had been pagans, and the gods they believed in were also the gods of the southern Arabian peninsula.In 333 AD, the Syrian Frumentius introduced Christianity here and converted the king to Christianity.Since then Christianity has been the official religion and has penetrated into all aspects of Ethiopian life. In the 7th century, the Muslim conquest cut off Ethiopia's connection with the Mediterranean Sea; from the 8th to the 10th century, the Red Sea ports were lost to Muslims, completely cutting off the country's connection with the outside world.However, Ethiopia has an extremely vast interior made up of mountains and plateaus that has survived virtually in isolation until modern times.In this environment, what formed and endured was a unique society, a Christian feudal society with a court and a king; Political pressure forced him to move his court constantly from one region to another.
As mentioned in the third section of this chapter, in 325, the Nubian Kush Kingdom was defeated by Axum.Successive states, through a mission from Alexandria, converted to Byzantine or Coptic Christianity in the sixth century.A large number of churches were built to reflect belief in this new religion; some were preserved because they were buried by sand, and their exquisite frescoes still show their original colors today.A Polish archaeological team discovered the murals a few years ago, rescued them from the rising waters of Egypt's new Aswan High Dam, and housed them in museums in Khartoum and Warsaw, respectively.
Like Ethiopia, these Christian Nubian kingdoms were isolated from the rest of the world by the Islamic conquest of Egypt in the seventh century.Despite constant wars with the Muslims in the Nubian frontiers, Nubian Christianity survived in secret for another six centuries. In the thirteenth century, Egypt fell under the rule of the warlike Saracens, who were fighting Western crusaders in the Holy Land and were unwilling to tolerate other Christians in their immediate vicinity.Thus, they ravaged much of Nubia in the late 13th century.Still, those isolated regions survived for another two centuries.
In an individual examination of the various societies in Africa - and this is only an individual examination, not a comprehensive survey - some of the most primitive societies should not be overlooked, since their long existence reflects the geographical division of the African continent into several parts.Pygmies and Bushmen remained in the food-gathering stage of development because they were confined and isolated in inaccessible desert and rainforest areas.While they continued to exist in their primitive way of life as hunters and food gatherers, the world ignored them.But that doesn't mean their culture doesn't have meaning or impact.The few who have observed Pygmies closely have reported highly developed talents for dance, chorus, acting, imitation, and storytelling.Likewise, the Bushmen are known for their petroglyphs and carvings; these paintings and carvings are drawn with natural, flowing, rhythmic lines and generally depict animals, hunting and war scenes, and rituals accompanied by dance Activity.
This argument, advanced by British Africa expert Thomas Hodgkin, describes a process that is certainly not unique to Africa.From the previous chapters it is clear that it is a worldwide process.The reason is simple: the West took the lead in modernization and thus ahead of all other societies.The fact remains, however, that the gap between the West and Africa is much greater than the gap between the West and the rest of Eurasia.Monarchs Constantinople, Delhi, and Peking have indeed declined relative to London, Paris, and Berlin, but not to the point of practical extinction, as Timbuktu has.Chapter 17 has discussed why the West took the lead in modernization and suddenly ran ahead of other regions.However, another problem is faced here, namely: Why does Africa generally lag behind not only the West, but also the entire Eurasian continent?
The question is hardly ever asked, let alone answered.When analyzing the development of various civilizations in Eurasia in the previous chapters, some factors that may be related to it were put forward, and they will be considered here for the time being.The relative significance of these factors; if they are meaningful at all, they cannot be evaluated without more research and reflection.
A striking feature of African development that immediately comes to mind is that the general stimuli created by agriculture, metallurgy, and long-distance trade soon began to stagnate and failed to develop further.Africa did not experience the climax of the chain reaction that occurred in northern Europe, the Ganges and Yangtze River basins when iron tools were used to exploit and exploit them.One possible reason is that Africa lacks commensurately fertile, potentially productive areas.Factors such as poor land, harsh climate and tsetse flies made it impossible for farmers and craftsmen in Africa to carry out productive production like farmers and craftsmen in Eurasia.Even Sudan with favorable conditions mainly relied on exporting gold and selling slaves, which could not provide a very broad foundation for continuous economic development.
The external and internal isolation described in section I also appears to be holding back Africa's development.For example; Africa has neither rivers and coastal outlets comparable to Europe, nor does it enjoy the advantages of a nearly advanced Byzantine and Islamic civilization like Europe.On the contrary, there are many deserts and rain forests in the interior, while the outside is a vast ocean.This prevents the efficient use of even the limited products that natural resources allow.Indeed, unlike the Americas, Africa was close enough to Eurasia to benefit from the spread of basic technologies such as agriculture and metallurgy.However, Africa is far away from Eurasia, too far away to accept the long series of inventions that the various regions of Eurasia have been exchanging and benefiting from each other for thousands of years.
Finally, Africa is vulnerable to attack from the outside, because stagnation means weakness, and weakness everywhere begets aggression.Earlier we have described the disastrous results of the Berber invasion of Sudan and the Portuguese invasion of Southeast Asia.They are significant if one considers the fact that Western Europe, by contrast, was free from any invasion for the crucial five centuries before rising to world leadership in 1500.This element of vulnerability later found expression in the deadly form of the painful slave trade, which not only depopulated vast areas but caused economic and political chaos.
These various factors may explain why Africa's development lags far behind the levels achieved by Eurasian societies.The continuation of collective land ownership and the failure of urban centers to dominate the economies of any part of Africa reflects this stagnation.On the other hand, this stagnation has in turn maintained the seductive egalitarianism and slow pace of life; both of which are common in areas where kinship and common ownership of land are still effectively maintained (see III. Chapter IV).Basil Davidson, a British expert on Africa, has concluded: "...a comparison between Africa and Europe may be beneficial to Africa. . . . and his wife, probably more dangerous and more annoying."
This clear judgment is undoubtedly justified.但从世界历史的观点看，值得注意的一点是，非洲社会引人注目的特征之所以能幸存下来，就因为它缺乏欧亚大陆各社会的推动力和不断的发展。只要非洲人与外界比较隔绝，他们就能维持和享有一种在欧亚大陆诸文明中早已消失的生活方式。但是，当西方的扩张主义抵达非洲沿岸时，非洲人不得不付出沉重的代价。因为地区越不发达，越容易遭受侵略，结果遭到的破坏也越大。班图农民牺牲“不发达”的狩猎民族的利益，向全非洲扩张，这是事实在近代，工业化的西方的代表牺牲“不发达”的农民的利益，尤其是牺牲那些仍停留在新石器阶段的人们的利益，间向全球，这也是事实。
最后，应该指出，尽管非洲人没有赶上欧亚人，但却超过了更与世隔绝的美洲印第安人和澳大利亚士著居民。这在很大程度上说明了欧洲人进入非洲内地比进入美洲和澳大利亚晚得多的原因。如第一节所述，这里也包括地理因素，但更主要的是非洲人，尤其是那些同欧洲人做买卖的非洲人所达到的较高的发展水平。这些人自然是最先进的，因为这也意味着他们是最具有生产能力的，因此，他们为有利可图的贸易提供了最好的机会。
随着欧洲人的到来而发展起来的商业，仅在规模方面使这些先进的非洲人感到新奇。商业活动本身并不是什么陌生的东西，因为长期以来，他们一直同遥远的摩洛哥和埃及地区保持着贸易关系。因此，非洲人对葡萄牙人的反应完全不同于这时的美洲印第安人对西班牙人的态度。确实，森林里的居民由于同阿拉伯人没有直接的接触，对欧洲人的白皮肤、对他们的火器所产生的巨大声响、对这些新来者从海上而来——沿海居民对此十分崇敬——感到非常惊奇。但事实仍然是，葡萄牙人的到来并没有在非洲引起象西班牙人在美洲所引起的混乱和分裂。因此，非洲人按他们自己提出的条件同欧洲人进行贸易。几个世纪以来，沿海地区的酋长不准欧洲人进入内地，因为他们想继续保持他们作为欧洲买主和内地生产者之间的经纪人的有利地位。1793年，一位英国官员写道，非洲之所以仍是一块未知的大陆，“是由于沿海居民在允许白人旅行他们的国家方面所存在的猜忌，而不是由于伴随进入非洲而来的危险或困难。”他把这种猜忌归因于经纪人的害怕——“害怕同欧洲贸易的利益被减少，害怕同欧洲的贸易从他们一边转移到邻居那里，害怕内地王国”因得到欧洲武器而成为危险的竞争者。
亚当·史密认识到美洲印第安人和非洲黑人在抵抗欧洲人入侵的能力方面所存在的差别，他于1776年写道：