TOTIC: PORTUGUESE PRE- COLONIAL AND COLONIAL DIPLOMATIC AGENTS OF TERRITORIAL EXPLORATION AND EXPLOITATION OF SAO - TOME AND PRINCIPE ISLANDS OF THE GULF OF GUINEA IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN 1485-1975

Abstract

The present article brings out typologies of pre-colonial and colonial great figures that strongly coordinated, moderated and put in radical human forces of European exploration, exploitation and colonisation activities in the overseas colonies in Sub-Saharan Africa with examples drawn from the following important lucrative region known as the Gulf of Guinea within the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). The two countries used as our case studies include Sao-Tome and Principe from 1485 to 1975 (490 years) with 210 official agents remarkably during the   pre-colonial and colonial periods. Considering the fact that most history books at times mentioned only few colonial administrators of the Continent, we therefore deemed it necessary to carry out this research on the various portfolios of specific foreign actors in full beginning from pre-colonial to end of colonial exploitations. The pre-colonial era brings out some of the foreign agents who in one way or the other prepared the ground work for deeper colonial partition, expropriation, expansion, exploitation and exaggerations of colonial activities as the best means to compensate themselves from the natural providence of the Black Continent in terms of natural and human resources well accessible in to the Atlantic Ocean. The work is divided into two parts using a chronological approach as indicated on the various tables and it brings out the total number of all prominent pre-colonial and colonial agents of the two countries. The scrutiny of specialized documents based on the pre-colonial and colonial Africa actually inspired us in the writing of this paper which can open new avenues to future researchers to find out in detail which of the Portuguese agent did what and when during their tenure of offices characterized with changing portfolios and revision of radical exploitative colonial policies colonialism.