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World History to 1500 A.D.-Ch8-Africa

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    Chapter 8

    Early Civilizations in Africa

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    The Continent of Africa

    The Continent of Africa

    1. Africa covers twenty percent of the earth's land surface. There are five climatic zones to the continent. In the north along the Mediterranean are

    fertile lands rimmed by mountains. Though unpredictable, there is sufficient rainfall for agriculture in these areas. Similar fertile lands are found on

    the southwestern Cape of GoodHope. South of the northern mountains is the great Sahara Desert stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the RedSea, covering 3.5 million square miles. Bracketing this and other deserts of Africa is the sahel, a dry, treeless semi-arid grass-covered plain. TheSahara gives way to savannahs and then to tropical rain forests along the coast in the area of the Niger River. These forests extend into the interiorof central Africa until met by the mountains, upland plateaus, and lakes of eastern Africa. In the East African Rift Valley of modern Kenya, hominids

    made their appearance. Further to the south are the dense jungles of equatorial Africa watered by the Congo (Zaire) River. These lands give way tothe hills, plateaus, savannahs, and deserts of the south.

    2. While evidence suggests that agriculture was pursued in the lowerNile valley around 5000 B.C.E., there may have been even earlier activity in thearea ofNubia at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile. Here farmers may have cultivated sorghum and millet on the upperNile as early as theeleventh millennium B.C.E. By at least 3000 B.C.E. farming had spread throughout the savannas and between 1500 and 1000 B.C.E. settled

    agriculture had reached south into the Rift Valley. From the Nile valley, agriculture also moved west to the central and western Sudan. By the firstcentury B.C.E. settled agriculture was in West Africa from where it spread to the forests.

    3. By the third millennium B.C.E. the upper and lower Niletrade ofNubia included ivory, ebony, frankincense, gold, oils, cotton, and slaves. Meroe

    was strategically located at the intersection of the northern African trade routes and the Nile. It was here that iron working was perhaps developed(either introduced indigenously or brought by the Phoenicians to Egypt). From the Nile, iron smelting spread west and was present in West Africa by250 B.C.E. and sub-Saharan Africa by 600 C.E. Some evidence, however, suggests iron smelting took place as early as 500 B.C.E. in the regions ofthe Niger River.

    4. One of the most important areas of West Africa was Ghana with its capital at Saleh, a city of 15,000-20,000 by the twelfth century.Emerging in the fifth century C.E. north of the Senegaland Niger Rivers, it was located near one of the richest gold producing areas in Africa. Thegold was procured from neighboring people and transported to Marrakech and Morocco where it was distributed to the northern world. Ghana alsoexported to the Mediterranean ivory, ostrich feathers, hides, leather goods, and ultimately slaves. In 992 Ghana captured the Berber town ofAwdaghast which controlled the southern portion of the major trans-Saharan trade routes. By the thirteenth century, Ghana was destroyed and in itsplace grew several states including Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, and the Hausa. Mali extended from the Atlantic coast to the Niger River.

    Timbuktu was not only a main trading center for the gold that was used to build the power of Mali but also by the f ifteenth century it had developedinto a center of scholarship and learning. Songhai, at the eastern end of the Niger, was under Mali's control until 1375. By the late fifteenth century

    Songhai dominated the entire upper Niger and had captured Timbuktu. UnderSonghai trans-Saharan trade reached its height focusing on gold,slaves, and ivory. At the end of the sixteenth century Songhai collapsed. The fourth significant state was Kanem-Bornu near Lake Chad. Kanemfrom 1100 to 1500 controlled the trade routes north to the Mediterranean and east to the Nile. In the fifteenth century power shifted to Bornu.

    Question:

    1.How did geography shape the development of ancient Africa?2004Wadsworth,adivisionofThomsonLearnin

    g,Inc.ThomsonLearningisa

    trademarkusedhereinunderlicense.

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    Ancient Africa

    2004Wadsworth,adivisionofThomsonLearning,Inc.ThomsonLearningisa

    trademarkusedhereinunderlicense.

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    The Land

    5,000 miles long

    Sahara is the great divide

    The Emergence of Civilization

    Kush Agriculture may have first appeared in Nubia rather than the

    lower Nile valley

    Perhaps here the first true African kingdom Nubia became an Egyptian tributary

    Disintegration of the Egyptian New Kingdom (end of secondmillennium B.C.E.) resulted in the independent state of Kush

    Kush became a major trading state

    Axum, Son of Saba Conquered Kush in first millennium C.E.

    Axum founded as a colony of the kingdom of Saba (Sheba) infirst millennium B.C.E.

    Saba a trading state, goods from South Asia to the Mediterranean

    Axum continued the trade after Saba declined

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    Ancient Ethiopia and Nubia

    Ancient Ethiopia and Nubia

    1. The origins of agriculture in Egypt may have been in the area called Nubia at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile. It would appear thatcrops such as sorghum and millet were being cultivated as early as the eleventh millennium B.C.E. By the third millennium B.C.E. the upper and

    lowerNile trade ofNubia included such goods as ivory, ebony, frankincense, gold, oils, cotton, and slaves.

    2. Neolithic groups were migrating east from the Sahara Desert by at least 2200 B.C.E. and around 1500 B.C.E. these dark skinned people hadcreated their own kingdom of Kush.

    3. About 750 B.C.E. the Kushites took advantage of Egyptian decay and conquered Thebes, the capital ofLower Egypt. The Kushites, however,soon withdrew back to their homeland as the Assyrians burst into Egypt in 670 B.C.E. Their rule centered on the important trading center ofMeroefrom which the Kushites served as the conduit for goods from Central and East Africa as well as the Red Sea to Rome and its tributaries. The zenithof Kush was from 250 B.C.E to 200 C.E.

    4. Axum was located in the northern highlands of Ethiopia. It was colonized about 500 B.C.E. by the kingdom of Saba (Sheba) across the Red Seaon the southern tip of the Arab Peninsula (Yemen). When Saba declined, Axum became independent. Its prosperity was based upon trade movingbetween India and the Mediterranean. Key was the Red Sea port ofAdulis. Among the items exported were ivory, frankincense, myrrh, and slaveswhile imports included textile, metal goods, wine, and olive oil. In about 330 C.E. Kush was eliminated as a rival when it was conquered.

    5. The zenith ofAxum was from about 200 to 400 C.E. In the sixth and seventh centuries the kingdom was Christianized and the church becameMonophysite in doctrine (the single, unitary nature of Jesus). Christianity became the tool for unifying the various chieftains of Axum into thekingdom ofEthiopia. By the tenth century the AxumiteKingdom had disappeared, replaced by Christian Ethiopia. In relative seclusion due tomountainous and almost inaccessible highlands, a stable monarchy and distinctive Christian culture were created.

    Questions:

    1. How was Kush an important link to the Mediterranean civilizations?

    2. What was the role of geography and location in the rise of Axum and its successor Ethiopia?

    2004Wadsworth,adivisio

    nofThomsonLearning,Inc.ThomsonLearningisatrademarkusedhereinunderlicense.

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    Followed Egyptian Christianity (Coptic)

    The Sahara and Its Environs

    From 8000 to 4000 B.C.E. a warm, humid climate that createdlakes, ponds, grasslands, and game

    Desiccation begins in 6th and 5th millennium B.C.E.

    After 3000 B.C.E. and farming spread to the savannas

    Agriculture, c. 7000 B.C.E.

    Trade Ironworking by the people along the Niger River in the middle

    of the first millennium B.C.E., Nok culture

    East Africa Bantu language group

    Introduced cultivation of crops and ironworking

    Rhapta a commercial metropolis

    Trade across the Indian Ocean

    Southern Africa Khoisan language group

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    Trans-Saharan Trade Routes

    Trans-Saharan Trade Routes

    1. One of the keys to the trans-Saharan trade was Carthage, established about 813 B.C.E. in North Africa by Phoenicia. Carthage did not directlycarry out the African trade but used the nomadic Berbers as intermediaries. Utilizing camels that were domesticated sometime at the beginning of

    the Christian era, the traders could move about 500 pounds for each animal and travel around twenty-five miles a day. Merchants usually walked and

    guided the animals. Travel, which could last three months, was predominantly at night since the desert day temperatures reached well over a

    hundred degrees while the low at night would be in the twenties. One caravan in the fourteenth century reportedly contained 12,000 camels. After

    about the fifth century the Berbers adapted the saddle for the camel thereby giving them powerful political and military advantage, especially in

    controlling the trade routes.

    2. Ancient trade routes included trans-Saharan links between North Africa and the Nile River. There was also an ancient route connecting the Nileand Niger Rivers. Since at least 130 B.C.E West Africa shipped north and east gold, precious stones, cola nuts, slaves, and wild animals. In turn,horses, cattle, millet, leather, cloth, and weapons came from the north.

    3. One of the most important areas of West Africa was Ghana with its capital at Saleh, a city of 15,000-20,000 by the twelfth century. Emerging inthe fifth century C.E. north of the Senegal and Niger Rivers, it was located near one of the richest gold producing areas in Africa. The gold wasprocured from neighboring people and transported to Marrakech and Morocco where it was distributed to the northern world. Ghana also exportedto the Mediterranean ivory, ostrich feathers, hides, leather goods, and ultimately slaves. In 992 Ghana captured the Berber town of Awdaghast

    which gave it control of the southern portion of the major trans-Saharan trade routes. By the thirteenth century, Ghana was destroyed and in itsplace grew several states including Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, and the Hausa. Mali extended from the Atlantic coast to the Niger River.Timbuktu was not only one of the main trading centers from which gold was traded to build the power of wealth ofMali but also by the fifteenthcentury had developed into a great center of scholarship and learning. Songhai, at the eastern end of the Niger, was underMali's control until 1375.By the late fifteenth century Songhai dominated the entire upperNiger and had captured Timbuktu. UnderSonghai the trans-Saharan tradereached its height focusing on gold and other commodities of West Africa such as slaves and ivory. At the end of the sixteenth century Songhaicollapsed. The fourth significant state was Kanem-Bornu near Lake Chad. Kanem from 1100 to 1500 controlled the trade routes north to theMediterranean and east to the Nile. In the fifteenth century power shifted to Bornu.

    Question:

    1. What was the relationship between the growth of empire and trade?

    2004Wadsworth,adivisionofThomsonLearning,Inc.ThomsonLear

    ningisatrademarkusedhereinunderlicense.

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    The Coming of Islam

    African Religious Beliefs before Islam Single creator god

    Sometimes accompanied by a pantheon of gods

    Sasa (first stage of life on earth) andzamani (eternal existence)

    Ancestral souls

    Rituals

    Challenged by Islam but not always replaced

    The Arabs of North Africa Egypt

    Arab forces in Egypt in 641

    Arabs welcome due to high taxes and Coptic Christians often

    persecuted by the Byzantines

    Arabs seize Carthage in 690

    Al Maghrib

    Berbers

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    The Emergence of States in Africa

    The Emergence of States in Africa

    1. In the tenth century the Muslim Umayyads of Spain gained control of Morocco but lost it to the Almoravids in the middle of the eleventh century.They soon conquered western Algeria and southern Spain. The Almoravids were succeeded in 1140 by the Almohads (Muslim Berbers) from theAtlas Mountains of Morocco.

    2. In 909 a claimant of descendentcy from Fatimah (Muhammad's daughter) seized Algeria and Tunisia. By the second half of the tenth centuryEgypt had fallen to the Fatimids who built a new capital at Cairo. Before the empire crumbled in the eleventh century, they controlled southern Syria,

    the Hijaz, and Yemen.

    3. Ghana built its power in the fifth century on the gold trade coming from the Senegal and Niger Rivers. It also had substantial agricultural landthat supported a population of about 200,000. By the thirteenth century Ghana's empire was destroyed. Nearby Songhai did not get involved in thegold trade until the fourteenth century. Its orientation was toward the forest trade of the lower Niger and the trans-Saharan trade to eastern Algeria.Developing between the eighth and ninth centuries, Kanem's formation was as a nomadic federation of black tribes that eventually formed a singlepeople, the Kanuri. These people took over the sedentary societies ofKanem east of Lake Chad and laterBornu, west of the lake. By the thirteenthcentury Kanem-Bornu controlled the southern terminus of the trans-Saharan trade route to the Mediterranean . To the south was Benin on thesouthern Niger. Existing at least by the twelfth century, its villages were directed by a powerful king in the fifteenth century.

    4. Zimbabwe, south of the Zambezi River, was located in a rocky, savanna-woodland watershed far enough inland never to be influenced by Islam.It was founded by eleventh century Bantu speakers called the Shona and flourished until the sixteenth century. The area consisted of at least 150settlements that were apparently involved in the trade of East Africa. Among its products was gold found to the west and north and traded to Sofalaon the coast.

    5. Ethiopia, centered at Axum, had commercial ties to Rome, Byzantium, as well as to the east across the Indian Ocean. It also exercisedsignificant military and political power in eastern Africa but in the eighth century the Muslims cut offAxum's commercial contacts with the ByzantineEmpire. Soon, Ethiopia lost its control of the Red Sea trade routes.

    6. Kongo, located near the mouth of the Kongo River, was formed in the fourteenth century by a Bantu prince. Ultimately, six states were broughtunder the Mani Kongo ("lord of the Kongo"). By the 1400s, Kongo was a bureaucratic monarchy.

    Question:

    1.How did the African states differ in their organization?

    2004Wadsworth,adivisionofThomsonLearning,Inc.ThomsonLearningisatrademarkusedhereinunderlicense.

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    The Kingdom of Ethiopia: A Christian Island in aMuslim Sea Christian Ethiopia

    Shift in trade routes and overexploited agriculture Axum became an isolated agricultural society

    Source of ivory, resins, and slaves

    Attacked by Muslim state of Adal in early 14th century

    East Africa: The Land of Zanj Trade with the Indian Ocean and as far away as China

    Mixed African-Arab culture

    Swahili

    The States of West Africa Expansion of Islam has impact on political system

    Introduction of Arabic for a writing system

    Ghana

    Farming

    Gold and trade

    Divine right monarchy assisted by hereditary aristocracy

    Did not convert to Islam

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    Mali

    Ruinous wars by the twelfth century in Ghana

    New states of Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, and Hausa states

    Greatest state was Mali

    Gold trade

    Mansa Musa (1312-1337)

    States and Stateless Societies in Southern Africa Zaire River to the Cape of Good Hope

    Zimbabwe (sacred house) Great Zimbabwe

    Trade

    The San (Bushman) people

    Hunting and foraging

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    African Society

    Urban life

    Fortified villages Government

    Craftsmen

    Clans lived in own compounds

    Relationship between the king and merchant class

    Village Life Most people lived in small villages

    Nuclear families and larger kinship communities

    Village was usually composed of a single lineage group

    Role of women Usually subordinate to men

    Polygamy not uncommon

    Many societies had matrilinear lineage

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    Slavery

    Practiced in Africa since ancient times, probably originating inprisoners of war

    Common in ancient Egypt

    Berbers raided agricultural villages and the slaves were soldthroughout the Mediterranean

    Could gain freedom

    Living conditions often decent

    African Culture

    Painting and Sculpture Rock paintings, wood carving, Nok pottery, metalwork

    Music and Dance Rituals

    Architecture Pyramid

    Stone pillars

    Stone buildings

    Literature Professional storytellers

    Women

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    Example of Middle Eastern Islamic ironwork on window

    2004Wadsworth,adivision

    ofThomsonLearning,Inc.ThomsonLearningisatrademarkusedhereinunderlicense.

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