kingdoms and trading states of africa - monroe … and trading states of africa sankore mosque,...
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Geography
• Second largest
continent
• Differences in climate,
vegetation, terrain act
as barriers and
highways; influence
cultural diversity
• Tropical rain forest,
savannas, deserts,
plateaus, rivers with
cataracts
Early Migration
• About 2500 BC the
Sahara dries out;
desertification
• Forces migration
• West African farmers
and herders migrate
south and east
• These are called the
Bantu
4 000
YBP 2 500
YBP
2 000
YBP ? 1 500
YBP
3 000
YBP
Nubia
• About 2700 BC Egypt was growing along the northern banks of the Nile
• Nubia (Kush) was growing on the fertile land of the upper Nile in today’s Sudan
• Trade and rivalry; 1500 BC Nubia under Egypt’s control
Resources and Trade
• 1100 BC Nubia independent
• By 500 BC Assyrians invade; move the capital to Meroe
• Sets up north-south and east-west trade
• Gold, ivory, skins, slaves, perfumes
• Rich in iron ore and lumber for weapons
Kiosk at Naga, Sixth Cataract, South of
Meroë, showing both Greco-Roman and
Egyptian stylistic influences.
Outside Influences on Africa
• Phoenicians build
Carthage; empire
from 800-146 BC
• Rome rules North
Africa
• Late 600s Islam
spreads into Africa
with Muslim traders
and invaders
Page from a Manuscript of the
Qur’an
Tunisia, early tenth century
Gold and red ink on parchment dyed
blue
Kingdoms of West Africa
• As Sahara dries out, Neolithic people migrate south
• By 100 AD settled farming villages on the savanna
• Surplus leads to trade; network goes from the savanna across the Sahara to the Mediterranean and SW Asia
Trade in the Sahara
• From West Africa;
cloth, nuts, leather
goods, slaves
• From North Africa;
silk, metal, beads,
horses
• Most important? Gold
for salt
• Cities develop; strong
monarchs and
kingdoms
The Great
Mosque of
Dienne,
founded in
800, an
important
trading base,
Modern day salt caravan from Agadez
to Bilma, 1985
The Kingdom of Ghana
• 800 AD
• Not the same as present day Ghana
• Kingdom located at the meeting of the Niger and Senegal rivers
• Controls the gold-salt trade; collects taxes
• ‘The land of gold’ Facsimilie of a map drawn in Spain and
dated to 1375, showing the king of Mali
holding a gold nugget. Image courtesy
of the British Library. The original is held
by the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Mali
• In 1235 Sundiata founds empire of Mali on the upper Niger
• Mansas control gold mining areas to the south and salt supplies of Taghaza
• Timbuktu is crossroads of that trade
• 1325 Mansa Musa converts to Islam
Djingerayber Mosque, Timbuktu
Songhai
• 1400s Gao becomes the capital of the kingdom of Songhai
• Develops in the same fertile region as the Mali
• Soldier-kings and city-states
• 1492 emperor Askia Muhammad sets up a Muslim dynasty
Benin
• 1300s-south of the savanna, in the rain forest
• Farming villages
• Trade pepper, ivory, and slaves with the savanna
• Art is bronze and brass
• Walled capital city to protect from war and invasion
Detail of relief carving from
the Memorial Tusk
Kingdoms and Trading States of
East Africa
• Axum in modern day
Ethiopia
• By 400 AD triangular
trade connecting
Africa, India, and the
Mediterranean
• 300s Axum converts
to Christianity
• 600s Islam arrives;
isolates Axum
Judaism in Ethiopia
• In spite of isolation,
Ethiopians keep ties
to Holy Land
• Kings claimed
descent from
Solomon
• They also keep ties
with Christians in
Egypt Page from an Illuminated
Gospel, late 14th–early
15th century
Ethiopia, Amhara region
East African Trading States
• Monsoons carry ships from India to Africa
• Rulers on the East African coast trade with Arabia, Persia, China
• Wealth builds strong, independent city-states
• By the 1000s-cultural diversity
Great Zimbabwe
• South and inland from the great city-states
• Inland capital of trade
• ‘Stone houses’
• 1300 reaches its height
• 1500 in decline
• Population too large; decline in trade; civil war; Portuguese