Answer:
Increasingly improved weaponry arrived in Africa and assisted the expansion of hunting of both animals and men and made warfare more murderous. Firearms made access to European traders of vital importance to African rulers if they hoped to keep up with their neighbours and rivals.
Step-by-step explanation:
Crucial to this development, as Freund illustrates, was the development of more sophisticated weaponry. Industrialisation in Europe not only created an increased demand for raw materials in Africa, but also led to advances in technology which had a direct impact on the performance and efficiency of firearms.
In the eighteenth century, flintlock rifles were the main trade weapon to Africa, along with older matchlock versions. For the first half of the century, many improvements and alterations were made in the design and function of flintlocks but the real breakthrough came in the 1860s with the breech-loading revolution. This revolution brought about significant changes in the functioning of arms that made them more suited to warfare and hunting. They were easier to load and fired faster and this, together with precision production techniques, meant that firearms were more reliable, handled better and were more durable. Equally as important, the first metal cartridge bullets were developed at the same time which provided the gunpowder with greater protection from rain and humidity, and made the process of firing much quicker.30 The breech-loader revolution of the 1860s created millions of obsolete military weapons available for dumping. Roberts, for example, mentions African markets absorbing 'huge quantities of obsolete weaponry' after the breech-loader revolution.31 No attempts at quantification of the firearms trade into Africa are included in the Lamphear collection. Lamphear noted that scholars such as Inikori and Richards have attempted quantification of the trade in West Africa, but chose not follow this debate and the issues it raises. (This is discussed in more detail below.) Nor does Lamphear ask any questions about the obvious impacts the scale of the trade may or may not have had on African deployment of firearms.
The second shortcoming is that there is very little overview given to the increasing levels of European intrusion into the continent and the changing nature of interactions between Europeans and Africans, be it military, economic or political.32 In his introduction, Lamphear expressly stated that he wished to limit the collection to pre-colonial military history.33 However, the reasons given for doing so are weak and take very little cognisance of the ambiguities between colonial and pre-colonial during such a contested and turbulent period in African history. Neither did the arrival of Europeans and colonialism necessarily result in the abolition or corruption of many African modes of militarily organisation and practice. The works of Smaldone and Guy illustrate the ambiguities of European intrusion remarkably well.