august 29 the african continent

7/29/2019 August 29 the African Continent

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THE AFRICAN

CONTINENT: AN

OVERVIEWHist. 123August 29, 2013


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Map of Africa


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A Vast and Diverse Continent

Africa is often portrayed in the media as being amonolithic entity and events that are thousands of milesapart are often clumsily interconnected.

The African continent has a wide variety of climates

including: glaciers on Mt. Kilimanjaro, skiing in MoroccosAtlas Mountain, the Sahara Desert, tropical forests,savannahs, cool highland areas, The Great Lakes, andtemperate Mediterranean regions in the northern andsouthern extremes of the continent.

Africa is the second largest and second most populouscontinent. Africa as 11.7 million sq. miles accounting forover twenty percent of Earths total land area. Africa isalso now home to a billion people.


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The Sahara Desert


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The Sahara Desert

Sahara is the Arabic word for desert

The Sahara is currently 3.6 million sq. mi.-the UnitedStates is 3.79 million sq. mi.- and is expanding in nearlyevery direction. The Sahara covers the vast majority of

North Africa and is seen as a political and cultural dividingline for Africa.

From 30,000 to 10,000 years ago the Saharathe Sahara experienced a wet period in which a band ofswamps and lakes stretched across the continent, withLake Chad being the last remnant of the lakes of theNorth Africa.

Directly to the south of the Sahara is the Sahel, a largedry savannah region that runs from Senegal in the west to

the Sudan.


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Forest Regions


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Forest Regions

Tropical Forest Regions are densest around the equator,

with large forested regions in the Democratic Republic of

Congo, Gabon, and the Central African Republic.

The West Africa used to have areas with large forest

coverage, but the vast majority of the regions virgin

forests have been cut down.

Madagascar has also seen a high rate of deforestation

since the arrivals of humans to the island nation around

2000 years ago.


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The Serengeti


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Savannah Regions

Most of the land area of Africa is comprised on savannah

regions.

Savannah regions receive little annual rainfall and are

characterized by grass and shrubs. With the exception of

large Baobab trees, savannah regions have few trees.

Savannah regions like East Africas Serengeti are home to

a wide variety of Africas fauna and the image of large

herd animals or lions on the savannah is the first image

that comes to mind for most Americans when they think ofAfrica.


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Mediterranean Climate in South Africa


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Mediterranean Climate

The northern and southern extremes of the Africancontinent feature a temperate climate similar to that foundin Southern Europe and California.

In North Africa this climate is found only on the coast and

its direct hinterland. The limited amount of arable landsouth of this region was a source of tension between theEuropean settler community and Algerians in colonialFrench Algeria. This region also was home to thePhoenician city of Carthage, the pirates of the Barbary

Coast, and produced wheat reserves for the RomanEmpire.

South Africas wine industry resides within itsMediterranean climate zone.


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The Great Lakes


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The Great Lakes Part One

Lake Victoria- Luo Name: Nam Lolwe. Lake Victorias shoresborder the present days nations of Tanzania, Kenya, andUganda It is the third largest lake in the world by surface areaand eighth largest by volume. Lake Victoria is the source of theWhite Nile. There are around three thousand islands in Lake

Victoria including the Ssese Islands which were an importantspiritual center for the Kingdom of Buganda.

Lake Tanganyika- The second largest fresh water lake in theworld and the longest fresh water lake in the world. The lakeborders Burundi, DRC, Tanzania, and Zambia. Tanganikya wasalso the name of the colony that would become present day

Tanzania. Lake Nyasa- Also known as Lake Malawi, is the third largest

lake in Africa and eighth largest in the world. It borders Malawi,Mozambique and Tanzania. The modern nation of Malawi wasknown as Nyasaland during the colonial period. This lake isbelieved to have more species of fish than any fresh water lake

on earth.


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The Great Lakes Part II

Lake Albert- Borders the DRC and Uganda it is the

seventh largest lake in Africa.

Lake Kivu- Borders Rwanda and The DRC

Lake Edward- the smallest of the Great Lakes this lakeborders the DRC and Uganda.

Lake Turkana- In Kenyas Rift Valley is the forth largest

salt lake in the world. It borders Kenya and Ethiopia.


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Major Rivers of Africa


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Important Rivers in African History

The Nile- The Nile is the longest river in the world. It runs fromLake Victoria to the south to the Mediterranean Sea in theNorth. European explorers during the 19th century were fixatedon finding the source of the Nile.

The Congo- The deepest river in the world this river offers theDemocratic Republic of Congo an important potential sourcefor hydro-electric power. The Kingdom of Kongo was formed inthe 13th Century by the BaKongo at the mouth of the river.

The Niger-Africas third largest river this West African riverruns from the Guinea highlands in the west to the Niger RiverDelta in south eastern Nigeria in the east. Mungo Parkexplored the river in the late eighteenth century.

The Zambezi- This is Africas fourth largest river. Its mostfamous feature is Victoria Falls.


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The African Environment and History

If it is universally acknowledged that geography and climate shape andmould the course of history, it is a truism particularly self-evident in Africa,where humankind has had to contend with environmental conditionsoften harsh and always challenging Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore,Medieval Africa: 1250-1800, 1

Africas environmental zones have been an important factor in shaping

African civilizations. John Iliffe argues that Africans ability to colonize aninhospitable environment has been their chief contribution to history.

Africas soil is poor and rain patterns are cyclical due to the IntertropicalConvergence Zone.

For the majority of the continents history this limited population size.African societys developed power structures that took into account anabundance of land and a lack of people.

African societies have both adapted to their environment and attemptedto shape the environment in order to survive.

The environment also created a partial isolation for the continent. NorthAfrica, East Africa near the Indian Ocean, and Western Africa hadextensive contact with the outside world, but the interior of the continentwas only tangentially connected to the outside world.

august 29 the african continent

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