The question of who discovered Africa and in what year cannot be answered unambiguously. The northern coast of the Black Continent was well known to Europeans in ancient times. Libya and Egypt were part of the Roman Empire.
The exploration of the territories located south of the Sahara was started by the Portuguese in the era of the great geographical discoveries. However, the interior regions of the African continent remained unexplored until the middle of the 19th century.
Antiquity
The Phoenicians founded a number of colony cities in the Mediterranean region, the most famous of which was Carthage. They were a people of merchants and seafarers. Around 600 BC, the Phoenicians made a voyage around Africa in several ships. They sailed from the Red Sea in Egypt, headed south along the coast, circled the continent, turned north, finally entered the Mediterranean Sea and returned to their native lands. Thus, the ancient Phoenicians can be considered the first to discover Africa.
Gannon's Expedition
An ancient Greek source has been preserved describing the journey of the Phoenicians to the coast of Senegal around 500 BC. The expedition leader wasnavigator from Carthage. This is the earliest known traveler among those who discovered Africa. The man's name is Hannon.
His fleet of 60 ships left Carthage, passed the Strait of Gibr altar and moved along the Moroccan coast. There the Phoenicians founded several colonies and moved on. Modern historians agree that Hanno reached at least as far as Senegal. Perhaps the extreme point of the expedition was Cameroon or Gabon.
Arab trips
By the 13th century AD, northern Africa was conquered by the Muslims. After that they moved on. In the east along the Nile to Nubia, in the west across the Sahara to Mauritania. There is no exact information about the year in which the Arabs discovered Africa. It is believed that the spread of Islam among the black population of the continent took place in the 9th-14th centuries.
Early Portuguese expeditions
Europeans became interested in the Black Continent in the XV century. The Portuguese prince Enrique (Henry), called the Navigator, methodically explored the African coast in search of a sea route to India. In 1420, the Portuguese founded a settlement on the island of Madeira, and in 1431 declared the Azores their territory. These territories became strongholds for further expeditions.
In 1455 and 1456, two explorers Aloysius Cada-Mosto from Venice and Ouzus di Mare from Genoa reached the mouth of the Gambia and the coast of Senegal on ships. At the same time, another Italian navigatorAntonio de Noli discovered the islands of Cape Verde. He subsequently became their first governor. All these travelers who opened Africa to Europeans were in the service of the Portuguese prince Enrique. The expeditions he organized discovered Senegal, Gambia and Guinea.
Further research
But even after the death of Enrique the Navigator, the Portuguese expeditions along the African coast did not stop. In 1471, Fernand Gomez discovered gold-rich lands in Ghana. In 1482, Diogo Kan found the mouth of a large river and learned about the existence of the great kingdom of Kongo. The Portuguese established several fortified forts in West Africa. They sold wheat and textiles to local rulers in exchange for gold and slaves.
But the search for a way to India continued. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias reached the southernmost point of the African continent. It was named the Cape of Good Hope. When asked about who discovered Africa and when, this event is often meant.
Finally, Vasco da Gama, leaving behind the Cape of Good Hope, went on and in 1498 reached India. Along the way, he discovered Mozambique and Mombasa, where he found traces of Chinese merchants.
Dutch colonization
Starting from the 17th century, the Dutch also begin to penetrate Africa. They founded the West and East India Companies to colonize overseas lands and needed intermediate ports to travel to Asia. The Portuguese tried to thwart the ambitions of the Netherlands. They claimed that who discovered Africa first,he should own the continent. A war broke out between the states, during which the Dutch managed to gain a foothold on the Black Continent.
In 1652, Jan van Riebeka founded the city of Cape Town, which was the beginning of the colonization of South Africa.
Ambitions of other European countries
Besides the Portuguese and the Dutch, other states also sought to establish colonies on the Black Continent. All of them, to a certain extent, can be called those who discovered Africa, because the territories south of the Sahara were completely unexplored at that time, and each expedition made new discoveries.
As early as 1530, English merchants began to trade in West Africa, coming into conflict with the Portuguese troops. In 1581, Francis Drake reached the Cape of Good Hope. In 1663, the British built Fort James in the Gambia.
France has its eye on Madagascar. In 1642, the French East India Company founded a settlement in its southern part called Fort Dauphin. Etienne de Flacourt published a memoir about his stay in Madagascar, which for a long time served as the main source of information about the island.
In 1657, Swedish merchants founded the Cape Coast settlement in Ghana, but were soon forced out by the Danes, who founded Fort Christiansborg near present-day Accra.
In 1677 the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I sent an expedition to the west coast of Africa. The expedition commander Captain Blonk built a settlement called GrossFriedrichburg and restored the abandoned Portuguese fort Arguin. But in 1720 the king decided to sell these bases to the Netherlands for 7,000 ducats.
19th century studies
In the XVII-XVIII centuries, the entire coast of Africa was fairly well explored. But the territories inside the continent for the most part remained a "blank spot". Those who discovered Africa were busy making profits, not scientific research. But by the middle of the 19th century, the hinterland became the subject of European interest. In 1848, Mount Kilimanjaro was discovered, on top of which there was snow. The unusual nature of Africa, previously unknown species of animals and plants attracted European scientists.
Catholic and Protestant missionaries also sought to penetrate deep into the continent to preach among tribes unfamiliar with Christianity.
David Livingston
At the beginning of the 19th century, Europeans knew well where Africa was. But they did not understand very well what it was from the inside. One of those people who discovered Africa from an unexpected angle was the Scottish missionary David Livingston. He made friends with the local population and for the first time visited the most remote regions of the continent.
In 1849, Livingston crossed the Kalahari Desert and met there a tribe of Bushmen previously unknown to Europeans. In 1855, while traveling along the Zambezi River, he discovered a stunningly beautiful waterfall, which he decided to give the name of the English Queen Victoria. Returning to Britain, Livingston published a book about his expedition, whicharoused unprecedented interest and sold 70,000 copies.
In 1858 the explorer went to Africa again. He studied Lake Nyasa and its environs in detail. As a result of the trip, a second book was written. After that, Livingston undertook a third, final, expedition. Its purpose was to search for the sources of the Nile. Livingston explored the African Great Lakes region. He never found the source of the Nile, but he mapped many previously unknown territories.
Livingston was not only an outstanding researcher, but also a great humanist. He spoke out against slavery and racist prejudice.
So who discovered Africa?
There is no single correct answer to this question. It is impossible to say exactly who discovered Africa and in what year. And not only because the northern part of this continent has been known to the inhabitants of Europe since time immemorial. But also because Africa is the birthplace of man. Nobody opened it. It was Africans who discovered other continents and settled them.
