This paper starts with the assertion that the international system is a home to great and small, powerful and weak, developed and underdeveloped states/entities. It supports the notion that interaction or interrelationship is a major characteristic of the system due to the gregarious nature of states. The principal aim of the paper is to examine the nature and pattern of the intercontinental relations of Africa and Europe in pre-colonial and colonial times. In an attempt to realise the aim, the study employed historical-chronological research method, with data generated mainly from relevant textbooks, journals and online sources. The data used in the study were both qualitative and qualitative. Marxist as well as dependency theory was used in explaining the complex, but interesting subject of African-European relations. The paper concludes that the activities of the Europeans in Africa in the periods under consideration benefited the former more than it did to the latter; thus, the relations were never a partnership of equals, it was lopsided and parasitic.