African and Portuguese Trade

Trade with Europeans and the growing demand of slaves caused local African customs and trading patterns to change. Relationships between the Africans and Portuguese resulted in African kingdoms relying more heavily on long-distance trading. Initially, African kingdoms like those in the Kongo and others relied on arts, crafts, agricultural goods and more in order to trade with each other. However, as Portuguese explorers brought items like cloths, they became forms of exotic foreign goods which were coveted by most African kingdoms. Also, the introduction of maize (corn) from the Americas introduced a whole new dimension to agriculture in the African regions that had arable soil with access to the rain forests. Eventually, African kingdoms began to trade with one another for similar goods and kingdoms like Kongo lost power. As more trade routes opened up with Europeans, Africans relied more heavily on long-distance trading rather than local. 

While the Portuguese initially sought goods that were agricultural and domestic in exchange for European goods like cloths, more trade routes opened to accommodate the slave trade. Tribes like the Edo from Benin came to rely on long-distance travel for goods like salt and fish in exchange for domestic goods. However, as more trade routes opened up, Kingdoms like those in the Kongo undermined each other in order to gain a competitive advantage in the slave trade. The use and need for local goods were diminished as foreign goods came to prominence. The Edo from Benin began to heavily rely on slaves for trading and domestic production and this carried over to the Europeans. Ultimately, many more trade routes opened up into various parts of African kingdoms such as Botswana that used to be more excluded. 

Kingdoms that engaged in trade with Europeans reacted by opening up old trade routes and focusing more attention on slavery. For example, Vili and Loango tribe merchants began to travel farther inland for trading and eventually heavily participated in the slave trade. They capitalized on the trading opportunities by taking captives from civil wars (over trading routes) and using them for domestic production and commercial transactions. Tribes like the Nsoyo also capitalized by opening up more trading routes on the mouth of the Congo River. This exchange benefited tribes that had political and economic control over key trading routes that the Europeans wanted access to. However, kingdoms like the Kongo that saw their power diminish were subject to capture and slavery, thus suffering from the increased interaction between African kingdoms and European traders. In essence, tribes began to commoditize one another for commercial gain.

Christianity played an important role because it undermined local traditions through goods and caused wars. For instance, many of the cloths from Europe were replacements for religious symbols of power and traditional practices. This caused problems for African kingdoms because many tribes like those in Benin derived lots of power from the notion of a mythical and powerful King that was feared. This meant that there was a greater emphasis on using political power in order to keep the kingdom cohesive and productive. Finally, some tribes like the Ndongo engaged in warfare with the Portuguese on the basis of a new power entering the geographical space. Christianity was a major reason for the war in the case of the Ndongo. Ultimately, while tribes used symbolic and traditional spirituality through kingship to derive power, Christianity slowly came to undermine that.