text: European influence was felt in other parts of Africa as well. The kingdom of Kongo, which covered the area around the mouth of the Congo River and reached back into pre-European periods, came under Portuguese sway as early as the end of the fifteenth century. After the king of Kongo had been baptized in 1491 and had been recognized by the Pope, he and his aristocratic followers made strong efforts to organize their country along the feudal lines which were the usual social pattern of Western Europe. In later centuries the political prominence of Kongo declined and the kingdom fell into oblivion, so that it was with surprise that explorers of the nineteenth century encountered ruined churches, buried bells and other cult objects, as well as many examples of European motifs in the living art of the Congo Natives. The extent of European impact upon African culture in this region can now only be guessed.