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IN the contact of Europe with West Africa, Portugal blazed the .ltrail. Whilst her missionaries were zealously trying to proselytize Africans in Benin and Warri, her merchant adventures were
busy, on the Gold Coast, collecting ‘slaves and gold dust’ which they carried home to Lisbon. This was towards the end of the first half of the fifteenth century.
Portugal’s Christianizing mission to Benin and Warri continued intermittently till the sixteenth century. Although, it did not appear to have borne any spiritual fruit among the Edos and ltsekiris, yet; in a temporal sense, it left some permanent imprint on the cultures of the people. To this day, not only are some Itsekiri words of Portuguese origin but also the Oba of Benin and the Olu of Warri, together with their chiefs, shorn of coral beads and other jewellery, still array themselves in the manner of a Roman Catholic. priest.
The Portuguese merchant adventurers were more persistent and successful in their enterprises. By 1482 they had built a fort at Elmina on the Gold Coast; by 1485 they had established a trading connection with Benin in pepper and ivory, in exchange for arms, spirits, and other products; and by.1493 they had secured from
Pope Alexander VI a monopoly of trade in West Africa.
The activities of the Portuguese had not passed unnoticed by their English rivals. But the ambition of English merchant adventurers to participate, at that time, in trade with West Africa was frustrated by two things. The first was the intervention of John II of Portugal, who in 1481 prevailed on Edward IV of England to restrain two of his subjects – John Tintam and William Fabian—‘from proceeding on a voyage which they were preparing for Guinea’. The second was the Papal Bull of 1493, which granted monopoly of trade in practically the whole of Africa to Portugal.
This monopoly was indefinite in its extent. But it was brought to an end after about 60 years, during which period Portugal’s trade with West Africa, particularly in slaves, had grown steadily and appreciably.
In 1492, under the sponsorship of Spain, Columbus had discovered America. In virtue of this, the aforementioned Bull of Pope Alexander VI also assigned the New World to Spain as her exclusive sphere of influence. After a few years of preparations, the Spaniards set out to exploit their newly discovered overseas territories with incredible vigour. Within less than 40 years of Columbus’s discovery they had established settlements in Hispaniola, Cuba, Mexico, and Peru.
The Spanish settlers needed cheap labour for their silver mines in Mexico and Peru and their plantations in Hispaniola and Cuba. At first, they made use of indigenous Indians, with a sprinkling of Negro slaves bought from the Portuguese. But the Indians turned out to be too gentle for the excessive rigour of their forced labour and the soulless cruelties of their task-masters. Indeed, it was the timely suggestion of Bartolomeo de las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa, that saved the Indians from total extinction. He had been moved with compassion for the fast-diminishing Indians, and, in order to save them from complete extermination, had suggested that Negro slaves were better able to withstand the conditions of labour obtaining in the mines and plantations. His suggestion gave a big fillip to the slave-trade in West Africa. As Spain herself had no access to this market, Spanish settlers were obliged to turn to Portugal, in a much bigger way than ever before, for supplies.
Two events occurred, one of which put an end to Portugal’s monopoly, and both of which brought the English people into the slave-trade, and made England the leading country in the traffic. They were the Reformation and the Treaty of Utrecht.
The Reformation led to the liberation of England, Holland, Prussia, and Denmark from the authoritarian control of Rome in spiritual an’d political affairs. With particular reference to England, however, it is more correct to say that it was the affaire de coeur of the inimitable Henry VIII, more than anything else, which wrought the liberation of England from the papal yoke. Henry VIII began by roundly condemning Luther for his heresy, and ended up, after the Katharine affair, by contemptuously describing the Pope as ‘the Bishop of Rome otherwise called the Pope.’ For his act of fidelity, he earned from the Pope the title of Fidei Defensor; for his heresy, condemnation. He retained the former, but spurned the latter.
Thus freed from obedience to the authority of Rome, the English merchant adventures openly violated the Papal Bull of 1493, and Portugal ceased to enjoy monopoly of trading in slaves and other merchandise in West Africa.
The first English voyage to Beni!1 River was in 1553. It came to grief. Its failure was said to be due to the ungovernable temper and incompetence of Windham, who commanded the voyage, and to the heavy toll which death took of his men. It was recorded that of the 140 men who undertook the voyage only 40 returned home to Plymouth alive.
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