How to say "exploration: creating blank spaces it is true that up until the 19th century, europeans had little direct knowledge of africa beyond the coast, but their maps were already filled with details about the continent. african kingdoms had been trading with middle eastern and asian states for over two millennia. initially, europeans drew on the maps and reports created by earlier traders and explorers like the famed moroccan traveler ibn battuta who traveled across the sahara and along the north and east coasts o" in Hindi