So i was just thinking about when the Dutch and British first started making colonies is Africa. At that time both nations did have a large fleet of ships, army’s and “modern” technology. My question is: was there any country in Africa that could match the western nations and their technology?
In: Other
I think there is a context problem – Sub-Saharan Africa didn’t have “nations” in the European sense when the Dutch/British arrived. Actually the Europeans artificially carved ‘nations’ out of Africa during colonization and that’s part of the legacy of problems the Europeans left behind.
The shortest answer is No. European (and Mediterranean African) nations had developed seafaring technology, labor animals, and metallurgy to a degree that contemporary Sub-Saharan African nations lacked. While African groups at that time were maturing and developing culturally and technologically, they simply couldn’t cover distances (at sea or on land) or extend military power in the way that Europeans were capable.
If you want another example, the Native Americans had very sophisticated societies with quasi-European Nation-states, transportation & communication systems, weapons, and technology. But a single shipload of conquistadors with guns, armor, and horses conquered the continent in a matter of weeks.
Alexandria was the intellectual capital of the world for a time, but the [scientific revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Revolution) was a discrete, specific event that happened in Western Europe. It took a while to diffuse out.
Africa is a big place and there was a lot going on there throughout history that is largely ignored in European historical scholarship.
One great example is Mansa Musa of Mali. When he went on Hajj (Islamic religious pilgrimage to Mecca) in 1324 he and his entourage spent so much gold in North Africa that they broke Europe’s economy for a generation.
The European slave trade generally focused on exploiting militarily and economically weak regions.
Colonization of Africa is primary after the slave trade ended.
Most of it occurs in what is called the [Scramble_for_Africa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa) 1884- 1914. Africa was only controlled by 10% by Europeans in 1884 and in 1914 it was 90% with Ethiopia and Liberia as independent nations. So we talk about a period of 30 years that stated 137 years ago,
The colonization of Africa was primarily by France and British. The Dutch had come colonies but not a lot, it was primarily the Dutch Cape Colony 1652-1806
The late colonization is in large part because of Malaria and other tropical diseases. It was when Quinine become available at a large scale that most of the colonization started in Africa.
So there was a huge technological difference at the time. European armies had breach-loaded gun with metal cartridges with black power when is started and the same rifles that were used in WWI in the later part of the colonization. The Maxim gun that was the first machine gun as we know them today was introduced in 1886 and use a lot in Africa.
The result is even if the Africans had older firearms like muskets that were exported earlier the range and fire rate was a lot slower than the European weapons.
You need to have rifled muskets with Minié ball to have the same range but you have a lower fire rate. These will be the guns that were introduced in 1850 so before the US Civil war and the primary gun used there. So you need gun design in the last 30 years to have something that might have a change.
To win in a land battle you need enormous numerical advantages like in the [Battle_of_Isandlwana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana) where the British had 1837 soldiers versus 20 000 Zulu.
During the slave trade, there were European fort and trad station along the coast that purchased slaves from African tribes that capture people of other tribes and sold them into slavery.
Slave trade from Africa did not start with the Europeans with the Atlantic slave trade but in northern Africa and along the Indian ocean from ancient time with Egypt and Babylonian and Persian empire and continue wit the Islamic countries to present day. Saudi Aribi and Yemen abolish slavery in 1962.
Slavery is in no way unique to Africa but have exist all over the world as long as recoded history exist. The exception is no slavery not slavery.
Latest Answers