A sentence from an Excerpt

Hi,

"It is typical of hundreds that were to follow in the generations to come, and we may pause to examine the event as described by its guiding spirit."

Would anyone tell me what “typical of hundreds” means?

Consider this simpler example.

Th

Hello, tifacat

The preceding statement (or remark), referred to in your sentence by "it", applies to hundreds of people in the following generations.

Let us know if it is still recondite to you. A wider context might help us to explain it better.

Anton

Hi Clive, thanks for your reply.

The context is:

It started with Europeans invading the West African coast and seizing its inhabitants, in a rather crude and unorganised fashion, for sale on the European market, especially, in the first years, in Portugal and Spain.
The earliest extant record of a slave-catching expedition is that kept by Azurara, leader of a Portuguese ven

Hello Anton,

Thanks for your reply.

the wider context is:

It started with Europeans invading the West African coast and seizing its inhabitants, in a rather crude and unorganised fashion, for sale on the European market, especially, in the first years, in Portugal and Spain.
The earliest extant record of a slave-catching expedition is that kept by Azurara, leader o

Hi again,

OK. The idea is that the slave-catching expedition of 1446 is typical of hundreds of similar expeditions that followed. The 'guiding spirit' of the 1446 expedition refers, most likely, to its leader, Azurara.

Best wishes, Clive

Then your sentence says: Hundreds of slave-catching expeditions followed this (first) one. And they were equally, if not more, cruel.

Anton