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Difficulty: MediumWest African Societies and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Read the excerpt below carefully and answer the following question.

'I am not insensible to the high honor which the King your master does me... but I must tell you that the people of this country are very different from the Portuguese, and are easily alarmed... It is far better for us to continue on our old footing, trading together as merchants when you come here, and departing when you have finished, than for you to build a permanent house here to live among us... Friends who meet occasionally remain friends, but neighbors who live together are prone to quarrel.'
— Kwamin Ansah, ruler of Elmina (in modern-day Ghana), responding to Portuguese requests to build a permanent trading fortress, 1482 (recorded by João de Barros in Asia, 1552)

Which of the following characteristics of early West African relations with European powers is best reflected in the excerpt?

  1. A
    West African populations were devastated by the introduction of New World diseases like smallpox brought by Portuguese traders.
  2. West African rulers maintained political sovereignty and actively negotiated the terms of trade with European merchants.Answer
  3. C
    West African leaders were forced to accept the Spanish encomienda system as a framework for labor and trade concessions.
  4. D
    European merchants immediately established a system of hereditary chattel slavery to replace indentured servitude along the African coast.

Answer

West African rulers maintained political sovereignty and actively negotiated the terms of trade with European merchants.
The correct answer is correct because during the initial phase of contact in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, West African states held the balance of power on the coast. Rulers like Kwamin Ansah negotiated the terms under which Europeans could trade, refusing to allow permanent settlements or fortifications that threatened their sovereignty, and forcing Europeans to act as visiting merchants rather than colonizers.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus document for key historical context and arguments.
The excerpt shows a West African ruler, Kwamin Ansah, setting boundaries for Portuguese merchants, explicitly preferring temporary trade over permanent European presence ('trading together as merchants when you come here, and departing when you have finished').
This establishes that the ruler is exercising authority and maintaining his independence.
2
Evaluate the relationship between early European explorers/merchants and West African kingdoms in the late fifteenth century.
During Period 1 (1491–1607), European powers did not have the military or political capacity to conquer major West African states; instead, they established coastal trading posts (feitorias) and traded as equal partners or under the authority of local African rulers.
This contextualizes the document within the broader historical trends of the era.
3
Select the option that matches this historical relationship and rule out incorrect options based on historical errors.
The option describing West African rulers maintaining sovereignty and negotiating trade terms matches the document. Other options are ruled out because they incorrectly apply American colonial labor systems (encomienda), misidentify disease vectors (smallpox flowing from the New World), or conflate early trade with later colonial systems of hereditary chattel slavery.
This leads to the correct identification of the historical trend illustrated by the source.

Key Concept

West African sovereignty and the commercial nature of early European contact
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Topics

West African Societies and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

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