Early European Contacts with the Coastal States – SS1 Nigerian History Lesson Note (Third Term)

Early European contact with Nigeria began in the 15th century, when Portuguese sailors reached the Nigerian coast in search of trade, new territories and converts to Christianity.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. State the reasons why Europeans came to West Africa.
2. Describe how the Portuguese reached and traded on the Nigerian coast.
3. List the items exchanged between the Portuguese and Nigerian coastal peoples.
4. Explain the effects of early European contact on Nigerian societies.

What was early European contact with the Nigerian coast?

Early European contact was the meeting and trade between European sailors and the coastal peoples of Nigeria from the 15th century.

• First visitors: the Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the Nigerian coast.
• Later visitors: the Spanish, Dutch, French and British followed in later centuries.
• Coastal peoples involved: the Edo of Benin, the Itsekiri of the western Niger Delta, and the people of Badagry and Lagos.
• Main result: new crops, goods and ideas came in, but the Atlantic slave trade also grew.

Why did Europeans come to West Africa?

Europeans came to West Africa mainly for trade, new sea routes, adventure, new lands and the spread of Christianity.

1. Search for new territories: European nations wanted new lands and sources of wealth.
2. Search for a sea route to India and the East: Europeans wanted to reach Asian goods by sea, without using the overland routes controlled by Muslim and Italian merchants.
3. Age of Exploration: the Renaissance (14th to 17th centuries) created fresh interest in the world, and better ships made long sea voyages possible.
4. Trading opportunities: Europeans wanted to trade directly with Africans for goods they could not get in Europe.
5. Spreading Christianity: many Europeans believed it was their duty to convert Africans, and missionaries often followed traders.

How did the Portuguese reach the Nigerian coast?

The Portuguese reached Nigeria by sailing down the West African coast and into the Bights of Benin and Biafra in the 15th century.

Contact with the Benin Kingdom

• Explorer: Joao Affonso d’Aveiro, a Portuguese explorer, reached Benin around the 1480s.
• Ruler: Oba Ozolua was the Oba of Benin at the time.
• Port: the Portuguese landed at Ughoton, the port of Benin.
• Trade: they bought pepper and other local goods.

Contact with the Itsekiri

• Area: the Itsekiri lived in the western Niger Delta, around Warri.
• Trade: they exchanged African products for European goods such as glass beads and perfumes.

Contact at Badagry and Lagos

• Ports: Badagry and Lagos grew into trading ports on the western coast.
• Trade: European traders set up trading posts there, and the slave trade became a major business.

What items did the Portuguese and Nigerians exchange?

The Portuguese brought manufactured goods and took away Nigerian raw materials and, later, slaves.

What was the impact of early European contact?

Early European contact changed religion, trade, farming, language and health in Nigerian coastal societies.

Positive effects

• Introduction of Christianity: Portuguese missionaries taught Christianity, and Benin and Warri were early targets.
• Diplomatic relations: Benin sent representatives to Portugal, and the Portuguese king sent messengers to the Oba.
• New food crops: maize and cassava came from the Americas and became important crops in southern Nigeria.
• Direct trade with Europe: before this, trade with the outside world passed through many middlemen across the Sahara Desert.
• New trade goods: mirrors, guns and certain types of cloth reached Nigeria for the first time.
• Cultural exchange: ideas, technologies and beliefs passed between Europeans and Nigerians.
• Language effects: Portuguese words entered some Nigerian languages, and trade led to pidgin languages along the coast.

Negative effects

• Beginning of the Atlantic slave trade: slave trading existed in West Africa before Europeans came, but the Portuguese bought slaves in larger numbers, and the trade grew much bigger in later centuries.
• Change in the balance of power: new goods such as guns changed local economies and sometimes upset the balance of power between states.
• New diseases: Europeans brought diseases that harmed some communities.

How did early contact lead to later events?

Early trading links led, over a long time, to closer European involvement and colonisation.

• Early contact: trade, missions and diplomacy from the 15th century.
• Colonisation: this happened in the late 19th century, hundreds of years after the first Portuguese ships arrived.

Evaluation

1. State four reasons why European countries came to West Africa.
2. Who was Joao Affonso d’Aveiro, and what did he trade at Ughoton?
3. List three items the Portuguese brought and three items they took away.
4. Explain how European contact affected trade, food crops and health in Nigeria.

Assignment

Describe the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade on the Nigerian coast and explain how direct trade with Europe differed from the earlier trade across the Sahara Desert.