Refugees in Africa, 1490–1820

The history of Africa is marked by human mobility. A large portion of these movements involve people who can be fully or partially classified as refugees. This chapter focuses on early modern Africa, from the end of the fifteenth century to the very beginning of the nineteenth century. It surveys several major historical events and climate episodes: the LIA, the expulsion of Muslims and Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, and the apex of trans-Atlantic, trans-Saharan and trans-Indian ocean slave trades. It includes North and Sub-Saharan Africa. The chapter explores the causes and consequences of refugee migrations from a threefold perspective: the impact of climate on human mobility; the imperial politics that created refugees and the way expanding empires managed refugees flows; and the effects on African landscapes, cultures and societies.