Respuesta :
Trade among European and African precolonial nations developed relatively recently in the economic history of the African continent. Prior to thein the fifteenth century, African rulers and with the Mediterranean world, western Asia, and the Indian Ocean region. Within the continent itself, local exchanges among adjacent peoples fit into a greater framework of long-range trade.
The merchants from Britain,
, and the Netherlands who began trading along the Atlantic coast of Africa therefore encountered a well-established trading population regulated by savvy and experienced local rulers. European companies quickly developed mercantile ties with these indigenous powers and erected fortified “factories,” or warehouses, on coastal areas to store goods and defend their trading rights from foreign encroachment. Independent Portuguese merchants called lançadossettled along the coasts and rivers of Africa from present-day Senegal to Angola, where they were absorbed into African society and served as middlemen between European and African traders.
Those goods imported to Africa in greatest volume included
, iron and copper in raw and worked form, and cowry shells used by local populations as currency. Nonutilitarian items such as jewelry, beads, mechanical toys and curiosities, and alcohol also met a receptive audience. Catholic countries such as Portugal were, in theory at least, forbidden by papal injunction from selling items with potential military uses to non-Christians, although it is unclear how closely this order was followed in practice. In exchange for their wares, Europeans returned with textiles,
Contrary to popular views about precolonial Africa, local manufacturers were at this time creating items of comparable, if not superior, quality to those of preindustrial Europe. Due to advances in smiths in some regions of sub-Saharan Africa were producing steels of a better grade than those of their counterparts in Europe, and the highly efficient.
The merchants from Britain,
, and the Netherlands who began trading along the Atlantic coast of Africa therefore encountered a well-established trading population regulated by savvy and experienced local rulers. European companies quickly developed mercantile ties with these indigenous powers and erected fortified “factories,” or warehouses, on coastal areas to store goods and defend their trading rights from foreign encroachment. Independent Portuguese merchants called lançadossettled along the coasts and rivers of Africa from present-day Senegal to Angola, where they were absorbed into African society and served as middlemen between European and African traders.
Those goods imported to Africa in greatest volume included
, iron and copper in raw and worked form, and cowry shells used by local populations as currency. Nonutilitarian items such as jewelry, beads, mechanical toys and curiosities, and alcohol also met a receptive audience. Catholic countries such as Portugal were, in theory at least, forbidden by papal injunction from selling items with potential military uses to non-Christians, although it is unclear how closely this order was followed in practice. In exchange for their wares, Europeans returned with textiles,
Contrary to popular views about precolonial Africa, local manufacturers were at this time creating items of comparable, if not superior, quality to those of preindustrial Europe. Due to advances in smiths in some regions of sub-Saharan Africa were producing steels of a better grade than those of their counterparts in Europe, and the highly efficient.
Answer:
Early West African society
West Africa stretches from modern-day Mauritania to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It encompasses lush rain forests along the equator, savannas on either side of the forest, and much drier land to the north. Until about 600 CE, most Africans living in this area were hunter-gatherers. In the driest areas, herders maintained sheep, goats, cattle, or camels. In the more heavily wooded area near the equator, farmers raised yams, palm products, or plantains. The savanna areas yielded crops including rice, millet, and sorghum.Although there were large trading centers along the rivers—the Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Volta, and Congo—most West Africans lived in small villages and identified primarily with their extended family or clan, rather than an ethnic or national identity. Wives, children, and dependents were a sign of wealth; men frequently practiced polygyny, or the custom of having more than one wife. In times of need, West Africans relied on relatives from near and far for support. Hundreds of separate dialects emerged from different west African clans; in modern Nigeria, nearly 500 languages are still spoken.
African societies practiced human bondage long before the Atlantic slave trade began. Famine or fear of stronger enemies might force one tribe to ask another for help and give themselves in bondage in exchange for assistance. Similar to the European serf system, those seeking protection or relief from starvation would become the servants of those who provided relief. Debt might also be worked off through some form of servitude. Furthermore, prisoners of war between different African societies oftentimes became enslaved.
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