West Africa

===European contact and enslavement===
{{Main|Atlantic slave trade}}
[[File:Africa de l'Oèst en 1875-es.svg|thumb|right|260px|West Africa {{Circa|1875}}]]
Portuguese traders began establishing settlements along the coast in 1445, followed by the [[France|French]], [[England|English]], [[Spain|Spanish]], [[Denmark|Danish]] and [[Netherlands|Dutch]]; the [[African slave trade]] began not long after, which over the following centuries would debilitate the region's economy and population.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24156 |title=Historical survey: Slave-owning societies |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223090720/http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24156 |archive-date=February 23, 2007}}</ref> The slave trade also encouraged the formation of states such as the [[Bono state|Bono State]], [[Bambara Empire]] and [[Dahomey]], whose economic activities include but not limited to exchanging slaves for European [[firearm]]s.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Peterson|first1=Derek R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Om12BgAAQBAJ|title=The Politics of Heritage in Africa|last2=Gavua|first2=Kodzo|last3=Rassool|first3=Ciraj|date=2015-03-02|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-09485-7|language=en}}</ref>