The average European liked riches and getting wealthy. With any new land, there are always people who will believe that the new land will have untold riches. This land also was a place to gather people to sell for use in the western world at the time. The "riches" could have been items like gold or salt, and were sold to many other nations throughout the world to expand Europe's dominance at the time. This type of thing tends to happen whenever a "new land" is discovered, think about what happened to America when people found out it was prosperous. At a certain point, the map of Africa had enormous blank spots where Europeans had not visited, and many explorers were challenged to put on (sometimes fatal) expeditions.
When Europeans found African states, their morality in matters descended because of the slave trade. They easily destroyed kingdoms and states that had been set up, purely because the Europeans needed bodies for the slave trade. I guess the main thing would be that the Europeans didn't exactly think of the Africans as human beings (at least on the same level they thought themselves to be), and so they were able to get by with treating them poorly.
It was smart to point out the similarity between the discovery of "new land" in Africa and America. I agree in that the Europeans seemed to lose touch with their morals out of greed for slaves and other riches, and that they did not view Africans as human beings. Along those lines, they viewed the Africans as primitive humans, who could perhaps be enlightened by the European ways. Were they there to fulfill the "White Man's Burden" or more so to feed their greed?
ReplyDeleteNice pointing out the idea of "untold riches"; I think that is very true. I do tend to associate the search for riches most with the colonialization of the Americas. I also agree that the Europeans thought of the Africans as less than human. I think they thought this because they saw what they viewed as a primitive, and therefore, they thought, savage, lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteYou included a lot of detail and specific examples in your first paragraph, and your observation in your second paragraph is accurate, but I think you could elaborate more in your second paragraph on the slave trade in Europe.
ReplyDeleteI liked your section on the European expansionists enjoying the idea of "riches" in foreign countries. Do you think that the riches they mainly sought after were the gold and resources or the Slaves? Clearly they thought the slaves were dirty and less than human like Sarah said, but did they find the slaves more valuable than the natural resources found on Africa? Clearly every european country is different but seeing as many of them fought over the same territory on African Land, they must have had a common goal. Do you think that the european countries that destroyed the African countries truly had lack of morals? Or do you think that instead the europeans just found the slaves more valuable as property than their kingdom and knowledge was? Do you think that the ignorance of the europeans was lack of knowledge of the African Empire or just denial of "african americans" being anything more than uneducated savages? I enjoyed your aim of focus being on wealth in this post. It made the post engaging to read since as humans we can all relate to the purusual of wealth.
ReplyDeleteYour point about the influence of greed and desire for riches on the exploration of Central Africa was very apt. I definitely agree that greed was a major influence and probably one of the primary reasons for a lack of morality in these expeditions. Also, the fact that Europeans viewed Africans as sub-human and primitive could have been another justification for their brutality.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think they treated them as less than human? It always seems like people just say "race" or color or whatever, but do you think it had to do with their culture seeming super primitive, unhygenic, savage, or something else altogether?
ReplyDeleteIn a way it is halfway justified that they thought they were better, not as humans, but definitely as conquerers and better equipped nations and fighters. Brutality and subjugation has been part of war no matter what races are involved.