Here, two purposes were in play: to ease the psychological blow of its loss to the United States, and the securing of a tropical realm that could become an inexhaustible source of the kinds of agricultural products and raw materials that would be needed as the Industrial Revolution deepened. This became what was, in effect, the third incarnation of Africa as a European El Dorado, following the Iberian-led age of African gold and the long centuries of the slave trade. Unlike the others, this new age, which is all but forgotten now, would prove merely evanescent.
