The African Atlantis was a civilization thought to have once existed in southern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, initially proposed by German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 ethnologist

Ethnology

Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...

 Leo Frobenius

Leo Frobenius

Leo Viktor Frobenius was an ethnologist and archaeologist and a major figure in German ethnography.-Life:He was born in Berlin as the son of a Prussian officer and died in Biganzolo, Lago Maggiore, Piedmont, Italy...

 towards the end of the 19th century. Named for the mythical Atlantis

Atlantis

Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....

, this lost civilization was conceived to be the root of African culture and social structure, the existence of which contradicted the ideas of white social and cultural superiority which prevailed in Europe during the period. Using studies of language, anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 and political economy, Frobenius surmised that a white civilization must have existed in Africa prior to the arrival of the European colonisers

Colonisation of Africa

The colonisation of Africa has a long history, the most famous phase being the European Scramble for Africa during the late 19th and early 20th century.- Ancient colonialism :...

, and that it was this "white residue" that enabled native Africans to exhibit traits of "military power, political leadership and... monumental architecture."

Background of African study

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the dominant historical school was that derived from Leopold von Ranke

Leopold von Ranke

Leopold von Ranke was a German historian, considered one of the founders of modern source-based history. Ranke set the standards for much of later historical writing, introducing such ideas as reliance on primary sources , an emphasis on narrative history and especially international politics .-...

 and other historians who followed his teachings. These historians argued that without a verifiable history gleaned from written sources and written historical fact, no history existed. As African history was, at the time, maintained through oral folklore, language, and culture, it was often argued by Europeans that Africa was a continent without history. Therefore, the true origins of African culture, political identity and language were unknown to Europeans. In light of the socially acceptable racism of the time, which portrayed non-white ethnic groups as inferior to whites, it was difficult to explain the development of sophisticated levels of culture and social structure in Africa and other areas without white intervention. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.Hegel developed a comprehensive...

's historical theories served as the basis for the idea that ethnic groups deemed unable to manufacture such advanced civilized traits had either been conquered by more advanced civilizations or had imitated them. This was backed up by anthropological research at the time, which supplemented the lack of what was then the main acceptable historical source, the written document.

Migration from the Mediterranean

With the arrival of colonial empires from Europe in Africa during the 19th century, many were at a loss to explain the advanced traits of the native populations. The European explorers came across what they recognised as "vestiges" of civilization, and struggled at times against African military strength and organisation. Frobenius's theory stated that "historical contact with emigrant 'whites' of Mediterranean origin" were responsible for these traits in the native African population. He stated that such a civilization must have disappeared long ago, to allow for the dilution of their civilization to the levels that were encountered during the period.