Afonso I of Kongo

They were baptized in hopes to strengthen their relationships with the Portuguese. Their fluency in the language also aided in planning tactics directly with the people in power in Portugal. Nzinga was able to negotiate with the Portuguese and when the Portuguese did not follow through, she had to fight for her people. Unlike Nzinga, king Afonso negotiated slavery in a different way with the Portuguese, as he allowed them to take slaves that were captured by his kingdom. After doing so, both rulers wanted to expand their kingdoms and modernize it in order for them to be able to compete on an international trade level. They wanted to educated themselves further and their people so that their kingdom would be able to grow and in hopes to put an end to slavery in their region. Although Nzinga and Afonso had their minor failures, they both had a big impact in the history of slavery in Africa. Without their intelligence and love for their kingdom, the Portuguese would have had slavery spread across African regions at a much faster…

Portugal’s Influence on The Kingdom of Kongo The slave trade has been argued to be one of the world’s most disastrous eras and its history is deeply rooted in Central-West Africa. In the early 16th century, The Kingdom of Kongo’s ruler, King Afonso I, addressed the King of Portugal in a series of letters where he expressed his concerns about their interconnected trading system; in which merchandise and slaves were exchanged between both states. Portugal noticed the naivety of the Kongo’s…

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,…

the Portuguese entered into a relation with Benin and Kongo. The kingdom of Benin entered into a trading relationship with the Portuguese which facilitated the Portuguese to buy pepper, cloth, and slaves from Benin. The Portuguese then exported the slaves, pepper, and cloth to European countries and in the Americas. However, the selling of slaves to Portuguese came to an end in the 1550’s because the kingdom of Benin was in a state of war to colonize other African territories. So, in order to…

on the amount of raw material exports from Africa to Europe. In response to European influence, African Kings and their Kingdoms would undergo cultural changes, as demonstrated in Documents 1 and 4. Nzinga Mbemba, the African King of Kongo provided his account during the 16th century in Document 1. He was a Christian convert and had adopted the name Afonoso I. In a letter to the King of Portugal Jao III, Afonso I proposed an agreement regarding issues in the trade of slaves. Typically,…