The question of who discovered Africa and in which year cannot be answered unequivocally. 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 study of the territories located south of the Sahara was initiated by the Portuguese during the era of the great geographical discoveries. However, the internal regions of the African continent remained unexplored until the middle of the XIX century.
Antiquity
The Phoenicians founded a number of colonial cities in the Mediterranean region, the most famous of which was Carthage. These were the people of merchants and sailors. Around 600 BC, the Phoenicians traveled around Africa on several ships. They sailed from the Red Sea in Egypt, headed south along the coast, circled the continent, turned north, finally got into the Mediterranean Sea and returned homeland. Thus, the first to discover Africa can be considered the ancient Phoenicians.
Gannon Expedition
An ancient Greek source has been preserved describing the journey of the Phoenicians to the coast of Senegal around 500 BC. The leader of the expedition was a navigator from Carthage. This is the earliest known history traveler among those who discovered Africa. The name of this man is Gannon.
His fleet of 60 ships left Carthage, passed the Strait of Gibraltar, and marched along the Moroccan coast. There the Phoenicians founded several colonies and moved on. Modern historians agree that Gannon reached at least Senegal. Perhaps the extreme point of the expedition was Cameroon or Gabon.
Arab hikes
By the 13th century AD, North Africa was conquered by Muslims. After that, they moved on. In the east along the Nile to Nubia, in the west - through the Sahara to Mauritania. The exact information about in which year the Arabs discovered Africa was not preserved. It is believed that the spread of Islam among the black population of the continent occurred in the IX-XIV centuries.
Early Portuguese Expeditions
Europeans became interested in the Black Continent in the 15th century. The Portuguese prince Enrique (Henry), called the Navigator, methodically explored the African coast in search of the 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-Most of Venice and Uzus di Mare from Genoa by ship reached the mouth of the Gambia and the coast of Senegal. At the same time, another Italian navigator Antonio de Noli discovered the islands of Cape Verde. Subsequently, he became their first governor. All these travelers, who discovered Africa by Europeans, were in the service of the Portuguese Prince Enrique. The expeditions organized by him discovered Senegal, the 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 the Congo. The Portuguese established several fortified forts in West Africa. They sold wheat and cloth to local rulers in exchange for gold and slaves.
But the search for the path to India continued. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias reached the southernmost point of the African continent. She was called the Cape of Good Hope. When asked about who discovered Africa and when, they often mean this event.
Finally, Vasco da Gama, leaving behind the Cape of Good Hope, set off further and in 1498 reached India. Along the way, he discovered Mozambique and Mombasa, where he discovered traces of the Chinese merchants.
Dutch colonization
Starting from the 17th century, the Dutch also began to penetrate into Africa. They founded the West Indies and East India Companies to colonize overseas lands and needed intermediate ports to travel to Asia. The Portuguese tried to hinder the ambitions of the Netherlands. They claimed that whoever discovered Africa first must 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 Riebeck founded the city of Cape Town, which marked the beginning of the colonization of South Africa.
Ambitions of other European countries
In addition to the Portuguese and Dutch, other states also sought to establish colonies on the Black Continent. To a certain extent, all of them can be called those who discovered Africa, because the territories to the south of the Sahara were completely unexplored at that time, and each expedition made new discoveries.
Already in 1530, English merchants began to trade in West Africa, entering into conflict with the Portuguese troops. In 1581, Francis Drake reached Cape of Good Hope. In 1663, the British built Fort James in the Gambia.
France laid eyes on Madagascar. In 1642, the French East India Company established a settlement in its southern part called Fort Dauphin. Etienne de Flacourt published memoirs 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 driven out by the Danes who founded Fort Christiansborg near modern Accra.
In 1677, the Prussian king Frederick William I sent an expedition to the west coast of Africa. Expedition commander Captain Blonk built a settlement called Gross Friedrichburg 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 research
In the XVII-XVIII centuries, the entire coast of Africa was fairly well explored. But the territories within the continent for the most part remained a “white spot”. Those who discovered Africa were engaged in profit-making, not scientific research. But by the middle of the 19th century, even the inner regions became the subject of interest of Europeans. In 1848, Mount Kilimanjaro was discovered , on top of which lay 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 in order to preach among tribes unfamiliar with Christianity.
David Livingston
At the beginning of the 19th century, Europeans knew well where Africa was located. But very poorly understood what it represents 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 inaccessible regions of the continent.
In 1849, Livingston crossed the Kalahari desert and met there a previously unknown Bushman tribe. 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, which aroused unprecedented interest and spread over a circulation of 70 thousand copies.
In 1858, the explorer again went to Africa. He studied in detail Lake Nyasa and its surroundings. Following the journey, a second book was written. After that, Livingston embarked on a third, final, expedition. Her goal was to search for the origins of the Nile. Livingston explored the area of the great African lakes. He never found the source of the Nile, but mapped many previously unknown territories.
Livingston was not only an outstanding researcher, but also a great humanist. He opposed slavery and racist prejudice.
So who discovered Africa?
The only correct answer to this question does not exist. It is impossible to say exactly who discovered Africa and in which 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. No one has opened it. It was the Africans who discovered other continents and settled them.