Post by anansi on Oct 23, 2024 20:09:41 GMT -5
Answer to a Quora question.
Historically, why have African people been so easy to colonise and enslave?
They were not particularly “historically” more easily enslaved than anyone else, now without going through the whole thing about slavery being universal, our very word "slave" is commonly believed to have originated from the word "Slav," referring to the Slavic people of Eastern Europe. During the early Middle Ages, many Slavic individuals were captured and enslaved by various groups, including Vikings, Franks, and Arabs, as part of the expanding slave trade networks. This connection between the word "slave" and "Slav" is supported by linguistic evidence.
www.bridgemanimages.com/en/ivanov/trade-in-an-east-slavic-state-1909-painting/paint/asset/5345349
In Latin, the term used for enslaved people was servus, but as Slavic populations became increasingly targeted for enslavement, the term "sclavus" (from Medieval Latin) began to emerge, referring directly to the Slavic peoples. This term evolved into "slave" in English and equivalent words in other European languages like esclave in French and schiavo in Italian.
www.etymonline.com/word/slave
Matter of fact enslaved Europeans and Eurasians were traded as far south as Wagdau aka Ghana, Mali Songhai and Kenam Bornu, mainly females and in some cases slave soldiers ( Kenam Bornu) and palace slaves, usually Eunuchs ( Mali) , now it seemed like African slavery was “the Slave trade”, however slavery and slave trade as was said bidirectional, the bulk flowed from the South to North Africa and to the East to by the Swahili to the Arabs, and Swahili who transhipped them across the Pacific to as far east as China, note the main suppliers were Africans, now before someone say..See African sold Africans into slavery. No! there were no pan-Africanism then, just nation states jockeying for power, that especially during the 16th century when trade routes shifted to the Atlantic coast causing intense rivalry, add to the fact there were no clause in most African traditionalist religions that condemned or prohibited the sale of fellow co-religionist or related religions from being trafficked, muchless holding domestic slaves as Muslim and Christians had, nor did they view themselves as particular race, the concept is very new to most Africans, although they recognized obvious difference, everyone was simply another trader/business partner, ally or enemy.
Colonization:
Colonization was not at all an easy process, as from the very beginning those who tried generally died, almost every attempt at colonization ended in failure for the next 400 yrs because they were confronted by massive armies, and although their firepower was better , it was basic and could be overcome by African tactics, it was during the late 19th century when the collapse of the decline and of the great empires, did a combination of improved firepower and transport system were they able to broadly colonize much of Africa.
Effective European colonization in Africa generally lasted from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, a period of roughly 70 to 80 years for most regions. The "Scramble for Africa," when European powers formally began dividing and claiming African territories, started in earnest in the 1880s, following the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, which regulated European colonization and trade in Africa.
That’s basically the life span of an healthy individual,however the changes within that brief span of time was massive, maps redrawn, folks who were historically hostile to one another were thrown together, others who are family members, now find themselves needing a passport to visit their relatives.
A post I did earlier.
letsdiscussancientandmedievalafrica.quora.com/https-www-quora-com-How-and-why-was-Zimbabwe-isolated-from-major-centers-of-technological-advancement-in-Europe-and-al?ch=10&oid=190951936&share=db3cfea5&srid=8GzCi&target_type=post
Historically, why have African people been so easy to colonise and enslave?
They were not particularly “historically” more easily enslaved than anyone else, now without going through the whole thing about slavery being universal, our very word "slave" is commonly believed to have originated from the word "Slav," referring to the Slavic people of Eastern Europe. During the early Middle Ages, many Slavic individuals were captured and enslaved by various groups, including Vikings, Franks, and Arabs, as part of the expanding slave trade networks. This connection between the word "slave" and "Slav" is supported by linguistic evidence.
www.bridgemanimages.com/en/ivanov/trade-in-an-east-slavic-state-1909-painting/paint/asset/5345349
In Latin, the term used for enslaved people was servus, but as Slavic populations became increasingly targeted for enslavement, the term "sclavus" (from Medieval Latin) began to emerge, referring directly to the Slavic peoples. This term evolved into "slave" in English and equivalent words in other European languages like esclave in French and schiavo in Italian.
www.etymonline.com/word/slave
Matter of fact enslaved Europeans and Eurasians were traded as far south as Wagdau aka Ghana, Mali Songhai and Kenam Bornu, mainly females and in some cases slave soldiers ( Kenam Bornu) and palace slaves, usually Eunuchs ( Mali) , now it seemed like African slavery was “the Slave trade”, however slavery and slave trade as was said bidirectional, the bulk flowed from the South to North Africa and to the East to by the Swahili to the Arabs, and Swahili who transhipped them across the Pacific to as far east as China, note the main suppliers were Africans, now before someone say..See African sold Africans into slavery. No! there were no pan-Africanism then, just nation states jockeying for power, that especially during the 16th century when trade routes shifted to the Atlantic coast causing intense rivalry, add to the fact there were no clause in most African traditionalist religions that condemned or prohibited the sale of fellow co-religionist or related religions from being trafficked, muchless holding domestic slaves as Muslim and Christians had, nor did they view themselves as particular race, the concept is very new to most Africans, although they recognized obvious difference, everyone was simply another trader/business partner, ally or enemy.
Colonization:
Colonization was not at all an easy process, as from the very beginning those who tried generally died, almost every attempt at colonization ended in failure for the next 400 yrs because they were confronted by massive armies, and although their firepower was better , it was basic and could be overcome by African tactics, it was during the late 19th century when the collapse of the decline and of the great empires, did a combination of improved firepower and transport system were they able to broadly colonize much of Africa.
Effective European colonization in Africa generally lasted from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, a period of roughly 70 to 80 years for most regions. The "Scramble for Africa," when European powers formally began dividing and claiming African territories, started in earnest in the 1880s, following the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, which regulated European colonization and trade in Africa.
That’s basically the life span of an healthy individual,however the changes within that brief span of time was massive, maps redrawn, folks who were historically hostile to one another were thrown together, others who are family members, now find themselves needing a passport to visit their relatives.
A post I did earlier.
letsdiscussancientandmedievalafrica.quora.com/https-www-quora-com-How-and-why-was-Zimbabwe-isolated-from-major-centers-of-technological-advancement-in-Europe-and-al?ch=10&oid=190951936&share=db3cfea5&srid=8GzCi&target_type=post