Page 61 - Volume 1_Go home mzungu Go Home_merged with links

Prelude to m’zungu colonisation of Africa

"Veni, Vidi,"

The Colombian Exchange

A widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases

and ideas between the Americas, West Africa and the Old World. Whilst the New World
provided soils suitable for cultivation, Native American Indian populations were decimated

by Old World diseases. This fuelled the demand for slaves and gave rise to the

transatlantic slave trade.

The Atlantic Trade

The influx of global luxury products into European markets supplanted the Italian and

German trading powers. The European economic centre shifted from Mediterranean to
Western Europe.

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The 'zuŋ u slave trade
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The m'zuŋ u demand for slaves for the New World fundamentally changed the nature of
African slavery, with wide ranging long-term impacts on African societies. The prevalence

of malaria in southern plantations of United States led to higher premiums being paid for
those African slaves brought from areas within Africa which had a higher immunity to

malaria. This further distorted African societies as now Africans, neighbours included,

sought to profit from :

Missions & Missionaries

Catholic missionaries and colonialism
Portuguese and Spanish monarchs received papal sanction to establish monopolies;

Iberian powers adopted ecclesiastical expansion as official state ideology.

Protestant missionaries and colonialism

Underwent rapid expansion at the turn of the 18th century into the 19th century,

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The Age of Discovery

" The Age of Discovery, or the Age of Exploration (approximately from the beginning of
the 15th century until the middle of the 17th century), is an informal and loosely defined

term for the period in European history in which extensive overseas exploration, led by
the Portuguese, emerged as a powerful factor in European culture, most notably the
European rediscovery of the Americas. It also marks an increased adoption of