<P> Following its 8th - century conquest of North Africa, Arab Muslims ventured into Sub-Saharan Africa first along the Nile Valley towards Nubia, and later also across the Sahara towards West Africa . They were interested in the trans - Saharan trade, especially in slaves . This expansion of Arab and Islamic culture was a gradual process, lasting throughout most of the Middle Ages . The Christian kingdoms of Nubia came under pressure from the 7th century, but they resisted for several centuries . The Kingdom of Makuria and Old Dongola collapsed by the beginning of the 14th century . A significant role in the spread of Islam in Africa was taken by Sufi orders during the 9th to 14th centuries, who spread south along trade routes between North Africa and the sub-Saharan kingdoms of Ghana and Mali . On the West African coast, they set up zawiyas on the shores of the River Niger . The Mali Empire became Islamic following the pilgrimage of Musa I of Mali in 1324 . Timbuktu became an important center of Islamic culture south of the Sahara . Alodia, the last remnant of Christian Nubia, was destroyed by the Funj in 1504 . </P> <P> Portuguese explorer Prince Henry, known as the Navigator, was the first European to methodically explore Africa and the oceanic route to the Indies . From his residence in the Algarve region of southern Portugal, he directed successive expeditions to circumnavigate Africa and reach India . In 1420, Henry sent an expedition to secure the uninhabited but strategic island of Madeira . In 1425, he tried to secure the Canary Islands as well, but these were already under firm Castilian control . In 1431, another Portuguese expedition reached and annexed the Azores . </P> <P> Naval charts of 1339 show that the Canary Islands were already known to Europeans . In 1341, Portuguese and Italian explorers prepared a joint expedition . In 1342 the Catalans organized an expedition captained by Francesc Desvalers to the Canary Islands that set sail from Majorca . In 1344, Pope Clement VI named French admiral Luis de la Cerda Prince of Fortune, and sent him to conquer the Canaries . In 1402, Jean de Bethencourt and Gadifer de la Salle sailed to conquer the Canary Islands but found them already plundered by the Castilians . Although they did conquer the isles, Bethencourt's nephew was forced to cede them to Castile in 1418 . </P> <P> In 1455 and 1456 two Italian explorers, Alvise Cadamosto from Venice and Antoniotto Usodimare from Genoa, together with an unnamed Portuguese captain and working for Prince Henry, the Navigator, of Portugal, followed the Gambia river, visiting the land of Senegal, while another Italian sailor from Genoa, Antonio de Noli, also on behalf of Prince Henry, explored the Bijagós islands, and, together with the Portuguese Diogo Gomes, the Cape Verde archipelago . Antonio de Noli, who became the first governor of Cape Verde (and the first European colonial governor in Sub-Saharan Africa), is also considered the discoverer of the First Islands of Cape Verde . </P>

When did the first european arrive in africa
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