A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races by Harry Johnston

The part played by Italy in the colonization of Africa after the submergence of Roman civilization in that continent under the Arab invasion was remarkable; it was not, however, a part attributable to Italy as a whole, but to some of her component states. The little principality of Amalfi had early dealings with the Saracens, and imported from them some knowledge of the new navigation, and of that newly-introduced group of fruit trees-the orange family-which was to find a second home in Italy. Pisa, Genoa, and Venice alternately warred and traded with the north of Africa. Naples obtained from Egypt the domestic Indian buffalo so early as the 13th century. Sicily was finally conquered by the Saracens in 832 A. C.; and Sardinia from 712 became intermittently a Saracen possession for more than three centuries until it was definitely rescued by the Pisans after 1015 A. C. Consequently Sicilian and Sardinian renegades figure in the early Muhammadan history of Tunis, Tripoli, and Algeria. But the two states which before the Portuguese era shared most prominently in the commerce of North Africa were Genoa and Venice. Genoa had most to do with the Tunis littoral; she had intermittent establishments at Tabarka and Bona, besides occasionally holding Mehdia on the coast of Tunis. Genoa sent several noteworthy seamen to explore the Atlantic, the north-west coast of Africa, the Azores and Canary Islands; and it is believed that Genoese ships may even have found their way along the west coast of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea as early as the 14th century; for in a volume of eight maps-the famous Laurentian Portulano, executed by a Genoese about 1351 (and subsequently acquired for the Laurentian Library at Florence), Africa for the first time in history is delineated as a continent with a great western projection, a tapering southern extremity and its bold eastern horn of Somaliland. (This information, however, may have been derived from Arabs during the Crusades.) Venice cultivated a friendship with Egypt during and after the Crusades, and in this way obtained control over the Indian trade, until the Portuguese discovered and utilized the Cape route. Even then the interest of Italy in Africa did not slacken. It was displayed chiefly in Rome during the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Roman pontiffs took up geographical research into the problems and possibilities of Africa with some eagerness, especially with regard to the Congo, Abyssinia, and the northern Sudan. Noteworthy amongst the Popes who promoted African studies were Leo X, who encouraged the Italianized Moor, Johannes Leo ("Leo Africanus"), to write in Italian a description of his travels through the Nigeria and Northern Sudan[203]; Sixtus V, who caused his chamberlain Filippo Pigafetta to publish much valuable information from Portuguese travellers and missionaries concerning the Congo and Abyssinia; Paul V, who sent a mission to the King of Kongo in 1621 to report on that West African kingdom; and Urban VIII, who in 1640 erected the Kongo Kingdom into an Apostolic prefecture dependent on the Roman See and despatched many Italian missionaries thither. His efforts were revived in 1652 by his successor, Innocent X.