Why did Europe choose to colonize Africa after the Americas even though Africa was a lot closer and discovered earlier?
In: 0
So the two biggest reasons are ease of access and disease. The Sahara was virtually impossible to traverse, so exploring by land south of North Africa wasn’t really feasible.
By ship to the west coast of Africa was doable and was frequently done, but there wasn’t a lot of civilization or ports along the west to support those ships.
By ship to the east wasn’t really desirable either until the Suez Canal was built.
Add to that they were fully aware that mortality rates south of the Sahara were very high due to diseases carried by mosquitoes such as malaria.
Basically it was extremely difficult to explore for a while and was very dangerous.
[This is a very good write-up specifically for your question.](https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/why-europeans-colonized-america-before?triedSigningIn=true)
Latest Answers