International records / OpenAlex research

The political dimension

The whole of Africa, but particularly its most southerly part, has been profoundly affected by its contact with Europe, The earliest European explorers were the Portuguese under Henry the Navigator, who rounded its shores at Senegal in 1460 and made settlements at various points on the West African coast in the years which followed. Lagos, once the capital of Nigeria, was founded in 1475 and bears the name of a Portuguese town in the Algarve, which still exists today. The Portuguese were concerned to engage in trade in gold, ivory and other commodities and, with the passage of time, a substant…