European exploration of Africa
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"European manufacturers dream night and day of Africa, of a lake in the Saharan desert, of a railroad to the Soudan. They anxiously follow the progress of Livingston, Stanley, Du Chaillu; they listen open-mouthed to the marvelous tales of these brave travelers. What unknown wonders are contained in the “dark continent”! Fields are sown with elephants’ teeth, rivers of cocoanut oil are dotted with gold, millions of backsides, as bare as the faces of Dufaure and Girardin, are awaiting cotton goods to teach them decency, and bottles of schnaps and bibles from which they may learn the virtues of civilization." --The Right to Be Lazy (1883) by Paul Lafargue First, white folks discovered Africa
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European exploration of Africa began with Ancient Greeks and Romans, who explored and established settlements in North Africa. Fifteenth Century Portugal, especially under Henry the Navigator probed along the West African coast. Scientific curiosity and Christian missionary spirit soon were subordinated to mercantile considerations, including lucrative trafficking in enslaved persons. Others (Dutch, Spanish, French, English, etc.) joined in African trading, though for centuries European knowledge of Africa's interior was very vague. Much of the blank map was filled in by arduous, often fatal, expeditions in the Nineteenth Century.
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Portuguese explorers
15th century - African Coast
- Diogo Cão
- Diogo de Azambuja
- Bartolomeu Dias
- Pêro de Alenquer
- João Infante
- João Grego
- Álvaro Martins
- Pêro Dias
- Gil Eanes
- Nuno Tristão
- Antão Gonçalves
- Dinis Dias
- António Fernandes
- Pêro de Sintra
- Fernão do Pó
15th century - Atlantic Islands and African Coast
- Alvise Cadamosto
- António Noli
- Álvaro Caminha
- João de Santarém
- Pedro Escobar
- Duarte Pacheco Pereira
- Diogo Dias (and Indian Ocean, discovered Madagascar)
- Lopes Gonçalves (and Atlantic Ocean)
- Vasco da Gama (and discovered sea route to India)
15th century - Other
- Paulo Dias de Novais (Colonizer of Africa)
16th century
- Pêro da Covilhã (15th/16th century diplomat and explorer in Ethiopia)
- Pedro Álvares Cabral (discovered Brazil, explored India along the African coast)
- Lourenço Marques (trader and explorer in East Africa)
- Francisco Álvares (missionary and explorer in Ethiopia)
19th century
- António da Silva Porto
- Serpa Pinto (soldier and colonizer of Africa)
- Hermenegildo Capelo and Roberto Ivens
British explorers
19th century
- David Livingstone
- Richard Francis Burton (African Great Lakes)
- Hugh Clapperton
- Dixon Denham
- Alexander Gordon Laing
- Richard Lemon Lander
- Mungo Park (explorer)
- John Hanning Speke (discovered the source of the Nile)
- James Kingston Tuckey
- Frederick Lugard
- Henry Morton Stanley
Other European explorers
19th century
- Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
- René Caillé
- Heinrich Barth
- Gustav Nachtigal
- Georg Schweinfurth
- Paul du Chaillu
- Emil Holub
- Victor de Compiègne
See also
