第3章近世アフリカと広域世界Early Modern Africa and the Wider World

Kanem-Bornu, which dominated Central Sudan and maintained an active caravan trade with the states of North Africa in the thirteenth century, was destabilized by revolts and rebellions in the fourteenth century. Although it regained preeminence in the sixteenth century, by the end of that century, its power was at an end. The collapse of both Songhai and Kanem-Bornu allowed emergent polities like Dahomey, Oyo, and Segou to flourish, but tensions soon arose among them as competition for trade escalated. As warfare became commonplace, trans-Saharan trade was severely disrupted.

カネム・ボルヌは13世紀に中央スーダンを支配し、北アフリカの諸国と活発な隊商交易を続けたが、14世紀には反乱や内乱によって不安定化した。16世紀には優位を取り戻したものの、同世紀末までにその力は尽きた。ソンガイとカネム・ボルヌの崩壊によって、ダホメ、オヨ、セグーなどの新興国は繁栄できた。しかし交易競争が激しくなると、まもなく相互の緊張が生じた。戦争が日常化するにつれ、サハラ交易は大きく混乱した。

At the same time, European powers such as Portugal began making steady inroads into African trade, establishing trading posts along the coasts in regions like Whydah. By the eighteenth century, the European demand for enslaved captives and the desire of African chiefs to exploit opportunities for financial gain reoriented trans-Saharan trade away from traditional markets, such as those along the Mediterranean coast, to coastal West Africa, with new emphasis on the acquisition and transport of captives. Many of the coastal states became little more than arteries through which passed the caravans of captives destined for the markets of European slavers.

同時に、ポルトガルのようなヨーロッパ勢力は、アフリカ交易へ着実に入り込み、ウィダーなどの沿岸に交易拠点を設けた。18世紀までに、ヨーロッパ側の奴隷需要と、利益の機会を利用したいというアフリカの首長たちの願望が、サハラ交易の方向を変えた。地中海岸などの従来の市場から、西アフリカ沿岸へと向かい、捕虜の獲得と輸送に新たな重点が置かれた。沿岸諸国の多くは、ヨーロッパの奴隷商人の市場へ送られる捕虜の隊商が通過する、単なる交通路に等しいものとなった。