How Did The Europeans Conquer Africa

Europeans were able to conquer the Americas easily but that was not the case in Africa. It took the Europeans until the end of the nineteenth century to conquer Africa. Due to the steep rivers, diseases, and military defenses made it impossible for the Europeans to conquer Africa. During The first half of the nineteenth century, European had to be satisfied with their alliance with African kingdoms and rulers. The Portuguese led the way in European exploration and expansion in Africa. The Portuguese established alliance with Congo kingdom, a Bantu speaking people along the Congo River in west- central Africa. Their king, nzinga Mbemba converted to Christianity, changed his name to Afonso I, and made agreement with the Portuguese that granted …show more content…
One of this letters was about the civil that was taking place in the kingdom of the Kongo and the military support they received during the civil war from the Portuguese kingdom. The king talks about how his kingdom was annex and occupied without justice with many arms and great number of people. This was happening all of around the kingdom and people were rebelling against Afonso I and his kingdom. al fonso I said in his letter that the only solution for his conflict is to stand up and fight against the people who oppose him. The king called 36 men and he went down to the city center to fight his opposition but after the fight started, the opposing forces fled and the city descends into chaos. The king says in the letters how the chaos and the death in the city was so great and for some add reason the king was bragging to the Portuguese about how the chaos was a thing of …show more content…
He mentions how the Portuguese merchants were spreading goods and how that made people to rebel against the kingdom because they had more goods than the kingdom. Prior to this, people were content with everything the kingdom offer them and they were subjected to the jurisdiction of the king. The Afanso goes on to complain about the slave trade which was getting out of control. He says that with desire for merchandise the Portuguese merchants were taking citizens and the children of the noblemen, and vessels because they are thieves and man of bad conscious. Afonso writes to the king of Portugal telling him that he only wants him to send priests and educators, but not merchant or