Europe's desire to trade goods from the Far East drove men like Bartolomeo Diaz and later Vasco da Gama around the Horn of Africa in search of a trade route to produce luxury goods from China and India; where, later, it was necessary to establish supply depots somewhere along the coast of the African continent: the Portuguese built several along the east coast while the Dutch built in Cape Town. While the initial establishment of supply ports was built and manned by both the Dutch and the Portuguese; both would soon discover a truth discovered in the New World not many years earlier: Africans were not as industrious as their European counterparts, much like the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and coastal regions of the Americas and, later, deep in the interior . Africans began to resent the presence of the Dutch and Portuguese: both were treated equally, but were doomed as the drive for land, minerals and livestock pushed Europeans deeper into the veldt, highlands and savannah of the 'Southeast Africa. Vasco da Gama was the first to start trading along the border of the Indian Ocean: surprised to have found so many Muslim cities along the eastern coast of Africa, da Gama hastened to develop an alliance with the city of Malindi against the Swahili city of Mombasa for access. to a drive across the Indian Ocean to Calicut. The Portuguese were surprised by the apathetic attitude towards religion when revenue was in sight. “…the merchants of the Western Indian Ocean seem to be more interested in profits than in prophets” (Gilbert, 221). For all the bravado and pride of the Portuguese, their influence in Africa and trade in the Indian Ocean were nothing more than the bite of a common housefly. With no settlers to pioneer, quite a... middle of paper... the owner was taken away with the key to the ammunition crates - the British troops ran out of ammunition - this is the reason for the escape today the clips are put on the ammunition cases, without locks). An action resulting from an encounter with the Zulus carried on to the present day. African encounters with European citizens influenced Africans immensely, but what affected Africans had far-reaching effects on Europeans as well. Case in point: ammo boxes. If the Arabs and Europeans had not made inroads into Africa and the lives of its people with technology, language, religion and culture, Africa would still be the "dark continent" and the rest of the world would also be in the 'darkness. After all, we wouldn't have peanut butter. Works Cited Gilbert, Erik & Reynolds, Jonathan T., Africa in World History. Third edition. Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, 2012.