Munsey's Magazine, June 1916

# Munsey's Magazine, June 1916

"The Partition of Africa" by Frederic Austin traces the European colonization of Africa, which divided ten million square miles of territory among Western European nations within thirty-five years. Austin opens with ancient history—Phoenician trading posts before 1000 B.C., Greek settlements in Cyrenaica and Egypt, and Roman dominion extending across North Africa by the first century A.D. Following Rome's decline, the Vandals briefly ruled before Arab conquest in the seventh century introduced Islam and terminated European control for eight centuries.

Portuguese exploration, initiated by Prince Henry the Navigator in the fifteenth century, revived European knowledge of Africa and eventually its colonization. Austin chronicles Portuguese expeditions that rounded Cape Bojador (1433), reached the Rio de Oro (1441), discovered Cape Verde, and extended to Sierra Leone by 1460. Successive Portuguese monarchs continued this work, culminating in Vasco da Gama's 1497-1499 voyage to India via the Cape of Good Hope, establishing the maritime route that transformed global trade.