p(-)0ENiX
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That's not entirely true. When the first Europeans arrived in West Africa they were beatern back unlike the Aztecs in the New World. That's due to the use of Blommary based Iron technology which was fused with carbon to form steel.
What happened in the 14th century was that the West African central power, Songhai, collapsed after the Islamic-Spaniard (Andulisian) forces invaded them. No taxes and tributes were payed after the invasion and their ancient trade routs and roads could not be maintained and be built. Population centers like Kano and Goa decayed and were devoid of humans by the time European slave traders arrived.
The Songhai empire's main religion was Islam towards its end, & it was civil wars for succession that greatly weakened the empire. These "Islamic-Spaniards" you are referring to is the Saadi dynasty present around Morocco, correct? They themselves were lousy at administration, & from what I recall, that dynasty collapsed & broke up in to pieces itself.
In any case, the Songhai Empire was only present in the Western region of Africa. If you were to look at the African slave trade in general, then you would know that slaves were taken from different regions of Africa. Arab slave traders for instance got slaves from East African regions like Ethiopia.
The point remains, that for the most part, the only technologically advanced & influential civilization in the African continent that most non-Africans care about is ancient Egypt. You may also bring up Carthage, but that was built by Phoenician settlers. Apart from that, most of Africa in general was weaker than European, Asian, & Middle Eastern empires.
Getting back to the Songhai Empire, Moroccan forces alongside British help in terms of fire power & artillery helped defeat the Songhai Empire. The empire's military technology was inferior to that of Britain's.
Actually, one of the Malian kings of the Songhai empire sent an expedition to the Americas but only reached the outskirts of the Caribbeans.
I don't know about that, provide a source for me to read up on.
The main reason why Europeans ventured out to find slaves was because Slavic peoples were getting more power under the rise of Rus therefore they could no longer have Slavic slaves.
It's interesting that you bring up Slavic slaves, as far as I know, the word "slave" is actually derived from "Slavic".