Assess the Impact of European Commecial Activities in the Atlantic Island and West Africa from 1415-1600

Assess the Impact of European moneymaking(prenominal) message-grade activities in the Atlantic Islands and wolfram Africa from 1415 to 1600. When one queries the assess custodyt of the European commercial activities and its impact in the Atlantic Islands and West Africa between the years 1415 and 1600, trickery, well-disposed violence, intrusion and the horrors of knuckle downholding comes to mind. There were galore(postnominal) negative impacts such as population outlet, press release of self worth and loyalty, the Europeans involved ca functiond the demise of the European framework industry. The Lusitanian were the first Europeans to set foot in this argona in the ordinal century.During the history of Portugal (1415-1542), Portugal discovered an eastern route to India that rounded the Cape of faithful Hope, established commerce routes throughout most of southern Asia and they colonized selected areas of Africa. It was the principal of Prince Henry the Navigator(1) tha t coordinated all these quests of expansion. Prince Henry placed at the judicature of his captains a plethora of resources, of which he was the head, and the best information and most stainless instruments and maps that could be obtained.He sought to meet with the infamous Christian imperium of Prester John(2) by way of the westward Nile (the Senegal River), and, in alliance with that to nail the Turks and liberate the Holy Land. Sla real was practiced in Africa before the begin of the European buckle down look at. Slavery and the slave trade were an integral range of African societies and the Arab world was supplied with African slaves for centuries before the arrival of the Europeans. The African slave trade provided a large number of slaves to Europeans and their African agents.Initially, the Portuguese started trading in copper, brass, European cloth, etc in exchange for gold, which was in high have in Europe. Above all things, the most impact full commercial activity of all was the European Slave care and its economic and tender effects it had on West Africa and the Atlantic Island. The Atlantic Islands which were involved with the European commercial activities were The Azores, Madeira, Sao Tome & Principle, Cape Verde, and Goree Islands.The African countries that were involved in the Portuguese trade were the coast of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Liberia, Angola and Morocco. In order to assess the impact or extent to which West African and the Atlantic societies were affected by the European commercial activities, one must certainly look into the number of slaves that were both traded or raided from their homelands. Population loss is certainly a focal argue when assessing the impact of the European Commercial activity.According to Walter Rodney in How Europe develop Africa he states that One of the uncertainties concerns the basic question of how many another(prenominal) Africans were trade. This has long been an quarry of speculat ion, with estimates ranging from a few millions to over one hundred million. A recent study has suggested a figure of about ten million Africans arrive alive in the Americas, the Atlantic islands and Europe. The actual number of slaves is certainly a very serious figure to ascertain.However there is no interrogative that it was an absolutely staggering number of natives that were taken from their homelands, sold and enslaved. Population loss is a very serious loss when it comes to the developing of a people. The economy and the social fabric of the people are utterly destroyed, leaving Africans in a state of chaos. The impact of the population loss as it relates to commercial activity is so severe that at present more than a bicentenary horse opera Africa is still in shambles, with an economy barely satisfactory to stand.It was even more difficult during the years of the slave trade for West Africans to replenish their population simply because when trading the adult males were high in demand in opposed to that of the females, so leaving the remaining proportion of men to women in West Africa in trouble. John Thornton, in his bind Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World says that In addition to the cyberspace demographic drain, which began premature in some areas (like Angola), the loss of adult males had potentially damaging impacts on sex ratios, dependency rates, and perhaps the sexual section of labor.This goes to show the gravity of impact the population loss had or still has on West Africa. In Walter Rodneys How Europe underdeveloped Africa he states that The massive loss to the African labour force was make more critical because it was composed of able-bodied one-year-old men and young women. Slave buyers preferred their victims between the ages of 15 and 35, and preferably in the early twenties the sex ratio being about two men to one woman. The people, or lack thereof, of West Africa undercoat it very difficult to rep lenish the population, not to mention the interruption of the family structure in his detonate of Africa. Like most cultures, in African culture the men are the head of the household and were the chiefs of the various villages. In the absence of these men, many women found it very difficult to survive having lived as housewives and depending on men as the bread winners of the household. As a result, thre was social chaos in the westerly part of Africa. Social Upheaval and Low Self Worth was other one of the major impacts of the European commercial activities on West Africa. As a result of the slave trade through raids and trade, there is no doubt concerning the social ills that plagued Western Africa.Many Africans were betrayed by their own political leaders who sold their African people to Europeans for items such as guns, horses and cowrie shells(3). As a result of this vicious betrayal there was social upheaval and chaos. Raids occurred and many villages were uprooted. Walter Rodney mentioned in his book How Europe underdevelop Africa that The chance presented by European slave dealers became the major (though not the only) stimulus for a great deal of social violence between different African communities and within any given community.It took the form more of raiding and pussy than of regular warfare, and that fact increased the element of fear and uncertainty. West African people tried to protect themselves and tried to fight back against the Europeans as they were all very unwilling to participate in the Slave Trade. This slave trade caused social disruption and increased inequality and intensified exploitation. In James Duffy Portugal In Africa he says that On the Gold Coast Portuguese traders could not move with the freedom and security through the interior.They were obliged to use whatever force or methods of terror they had at their disposal, and when this failed they relied on interest and bribery. The moral fabric and self worth of African s were in any case hugely damaged as a result of European influence. Lives were destroyed, and whole heathen groups wiped out.. African Pride years and materialism was born into the African outlook and thought process. The African man, who was once concerned with skill, prowess, strength and knowledge had changed to extreme materialism.African chiefs sold their own people for simple items such as cheap gin, gunpowder, pots and beads. These items were not coveted and demanded by the African chiefs and they continued to tell on their people for their selfish gains. This bring into beingd suspect and bitterness between the African villagers and their leaders, thus causing internal conflict amongst West African societies. European commercial activities caused a stand still in technology and as a result in the economy of Western Africa. During the European Slave Trade there began a demand for cloth in Africa.There became a strong dependency on Europe in Africa. There was cloth ma de in Africa when the European Slave Trade began and there were also imports from Europe and Asia. Soon Europe and Asia were copying African cloth designs and materials and they were import into Africa creating stiff competition with the topical anaesthetic producers. European cloth was then imported in volume thus having more supply and at cheaper rates. The local cloth industry was certainly in trouble. Europeans produced cloth on a large scale by using energy from wind, water and coal. and then the local cloth manufacturers were forced to end their work leaving African cloth producing industry at a stand still and it eventually was shut down. In Walter Rodneys book on How Europe Underdeveloped Africa he says that Therefore, there was what can be called technological arrest or stagnation, and in some instances actual regression, since people forgot even the simple technique of their forefathers. The abandonment of traditional iron smelting in most parts of Africa is believabl y the most important instance of technological regression.European activity halt the industrial life of many West African countries and caused West Africa to shape completely dependant on Europe. The European Commercial activities did very atomic if any to contribute to the development of Western Africa. In fact the development of West Africa was retarded and was undoubtedly damaged and destroyed in many ways. Europeans did not just uproot the West Africans physically by ways of loss of population and death but socially because their pride was broken, they were state to be useless and inferior to the Europeans.Initially, the Europeans never set out to create suck havoc in Western Africa but within their exploration it turned out to be nothing but exploitation of the African people. There is no hiding the number of slaves that were taken form Western Africa and took to various islands to work and to be enslaved. Families were shattered, populations depleted and lives scattered fo r economic gain. alarm and inferiority was also driven into the hearts and minds of Africans. From the raiding Africans were left in a state of chaos and fear for their families and the estruction of homes and entire villages. There was bloodshed, deaths and killings as a result of these many raids that the Europeans carried out. It was through trickery and bribery that many of the trading occurred. Europeans brought useless items to the chiefs in the West Africa for them to trade for their own people. This bred mistrust and betrayal in the hearts of African people. Chiefs became materialistic and selfish and became very interested in riches and gain that they forgot their people.European commercial activities caused the African cloth industry to come to an end by their mass producing and gruelling and stiff competition for the Africans. The cloth made Europeans, which copied African styles was created in bulk and was much cheaper thus running the African cloth makers out of busin ess. In essence, the impact of the European commercial activities was very severe and hindered the development of Western Africa and its people it changed the mindset of the African man and crushed a boom civilization and culture.