European Exploration of Africa

European exploration of Africa began with Ancient Greeks and Romans, who explored and established settlements in North Africa. Fifteenth century Portugal, especially under Henry the Navigator, probed along the West African coast. Scientific curiosity and Christian missionary spirit soon were subordinated to mercantile considerations, including lucrative trafficking in enslaved persons. Others (Dutch, Spanish, French, English, etc.) joined in African trading, though for centuries European knowledge of Africa's interior was very vague. Much of the blank map was filled in by arduous, often fatal, expeditions in the Nineteenth Century.