XVᵉ siècle – XVIᵉ siècle
Senegambian coast, Cape Verde Islands, Senegal and Gambia river mouths
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Portuguese Atlantic trade transformed Senegambia from the fifteenth century onward by redirecting Sudanese and Senegambian commerce toward the Atlantic. Portuguese merchants established bases at Arguin and in the Southern Rivers, traded gold, ivory, hides, spices, and enslaved people, and connected coastal markets with Cape Verde plantation production. Their intervention contributed to the fragmentation of Jolof and the expansion of Kaabu and other warlike regimes.
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Le récit
Portuguese trade gave Senegambia new geopolitical importance by opening its Atlantic side to European commerce. The Portuguese established themselves at Arguin around 1445 to divert trade from the Sudan and Senegambia away from its traditional northward route across the Sahara. Operating from the Cape Verde Islands, they used coastal cabotage and river mouths to connect Atlantic shipping with inland markets.
Portuguese merchants traded in gold, ivory, hides, spices, and enslaved people, grafting this commerce onto older regional exchanges in kola nuts, salt, cotton goods, iron, and indigo. They became established in the Southern Rivers and the Gambia because of the region's commercial importance. Wuli, a major trading center and caravan starting point, linked the Gambia northward toward the upper Senegal and eastward toward the Niger bend.
The redirection of commerce altered the political balance. Sudanese gold flowing through Wuli and Kantora helped detach Bambuk and Bure from their earlier connections with the Niger bend and Sahara. Leather became Senegambia's second export after gold, while ivory, wax, and especially enslaved people became central maritime exports. In the Cape Verde Islands, a plantation economy based on enslaved labor produced sugar, cotton, and indigo.
By the second half of the sixteenth century, Afro-Portuguese lançados or tangomaos had become indispensable intermediaries between European trade and Senegambia. Portuguese commerce contributed to an economic and political crisis in the Southern Rivers and accelerated the break-up of the Jolof Confederacy in the north.
XVᵉ siècle – XVIᵉ siècle
Senegambian coast, Cape Verde Islands, Senegal and Gambia river mouths
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Portuguese Atlantic trade transformed Senegambia from the fifteenth century onward by redirecting Sudanese and Senegambian commerce toward the Atlantic. Portuguese merchants established bases at Arguin and in the Southern Rivers, traded gold, ivory, hides, spices, and enslaved people, and connected coastal markets with Cape Verde plantation production. Their intervention contributed to the fragmentation of Jolof and the expansion of Kaabu and other warlike regimes.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
Portuguese trade gave Senegambia new geopolitical importance by opening its Atlantic side to European commerce. The Portuguese established themselves at Arguin around 1445 to divert trade from the Sudan and Senegambia away from its traditional northward route across the Sahara. Operating from the Cape Verde Islands, they used coastal cabotage and river mouths to connect Atlantic shipping with inland markets.
Portuguese merchants traded in gold, ivory, hides, spices, and enslaved people, grafting this commerce onto older regional exchanges in kola nuts, salt, cotton goods, iron, and indigo. They became established in the Southern Rivers and the Gambia because of the region's commercial importance. Wuli, a major trading center and caravan starting point, linked the Gambia northward toward the upper Senegal and eastward toward the Niger bend.
The redirection of commerce altered the political balance. Sudanese gold flowing through Wuli and Kantora helped detach Bambuk and Bure from their earlier connections with the Niger bend and Sahara. Leather became Senegambia's second export after gold, while ivory, wax, and especially enslaved people became central maritime exports. In the Cape Verde Islands, a plantation economy based on enslaved labor produced sugar, cotton, and indigo.
By the second half of the sixteenth century, Afro-Portuguese lançados or tangomaos had become indispensable intermediaries between European trade and Senegambia. Portuguese commerce contributed to an economic and political crisis in the Southern Rivers and accelerated the break-up of the Jolof Confederacy in the north.
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