AfricaAncient

A former name for Africa;was largely mysterious to Europeans until the 19th century

B.C.

Kushites move capital to Meroe

Axum begins to control extensive trade network

800 400 A.D.

Islam spreads to North Africa

1200

Mansa Musa

journeys to Mecca

1600

Slave trade at

height

Bantu migrations begins

400

Ghana develops

Songhai expands

Great Zimbabwe completed

Axum conquers

Kush

African History Timeline

A forest characterized by high rainfall

An open grassland dotted with shrubs and scattered clumps of trees

SAVANNA

These migrations contributed to the rich diversity of African peoples and

cultures.

Towards History

By 5500 B.C., Stone Age cultures started to develop in North Africa

specifically in the Nile Valley region in Egypt.

Africa cradled the dawning of mankind primarily in the Great Rift Valley

region.

About 2500 B.C., a climate change dried out the Sahara Desert

(desertification) which forced the people to retreat towards the savanna

and rain forest regions.

North Africa

Kush

ites

Nubiatook shape on a wide band of fertile land among the cataracts of the Upper Nile

Also called Kush, located inpresent-day Sudan

Kushites: darker-skinned than the Egyptians

KushitesFrom time to time, Egyptian pharaohs subdued Nubia.

Adopted many Egyptian traditions

Piankhi, conquered Egypt (730 B.C.)Trading center, connecting Egypt, Ethiopia, Red Sea and Central Africa

Trade along the Nile and riches from emerald and gold mines made the kingdom prosperous

Meroë [capital of Kush]Kushites

ADVANTAGES OF LOCATIONRiver’s yearly floods enriched more land; discovery of

iron ore; commanded trade routes

Nubia sent gold, ivory, animal skins, perfumes and slaves to the Mediterranean world and the Middle East; major ironworking center of the ancient world

Fall of Nubia

Desertification may have engulfed Nubian farmlands; armies from the kingdom of Axum

overwhelmed Nubia

Conqueredthe Kushites under King Ezana

Ethiopia

Located SE of Nubia;people were descended from African farmers and from traders who had immigrated from Arabia

Axum culture is an African- Arabic hybrid; brought Hebrew religious traditions and a unique written and spoken language,Geez

Commanded a trade network linking Africa, India and the Mediterraneanworld;Christianized by the Greeks (through trading); Islam and civil war weakened Axum

Axum

Axum

In the 1200s,King Lalibela had a dozen of churches carved into the mountains

Hannibal

CarthageEmpire; N Africa; wealth from trade; founded by the Phoenician traders; rivalry with Rome (Hannibal)

Roman rule brought Christianity to North Africa (St. Augustine, the most influential Christian thinker of the late Roman empire)

The camel revolutionized tradeBy A.D. 200, camels had been brought to North Africa from Asia; they were called

as the hardy ”ships of the desert.”

600s, Arab armies carried Islam into North Africa; Berbers and Arabs joined forces to conquer Spain; replaced Christianity, Arabic replaced Latin; Cairo, Fez and Marakesh, famed for their mosques and libraries; busy trade; carried Islam into West Africa

Spread of Islam

West Africa

Ghana “land of gold”, area north of Niger River;

Kumbi Saleh, capitalpeople were farmers and traders;controlled gold-salt trade routes;

invaded and influenced by the Muslims; declined in the late 1100s

Soninke

Soninke

SILENT BARTER: traders who cannot speak each other’s language can trade without talking and to protect the secrets of where gold and salt came from. One group of traders would go to a location, leave their trading goods, withdraw to a distance and then play a drum to signal other traders that he was having a silent barter. The other group would then take goods (most commonly gold or salt). If the goods met with approval, the second group would then take the goods, leave their own goods in return and depart.

Mali is Arab version of Mandinke, “where the king dwells”; took over

what is left of Ghana controlled caravan routes; Sundiata, brilliant

military leader, crushed his enemies, won control of the gold

trade routes and founded the empire of Mali; king was called as mansa; influenced by the Muslims;

1400s, disputes over succession weakened Mali

Mandinke

Mansa Musa Ruled 25 years; pushed out the borders of his empire; used his power to ensure peace and order; devout Muslim;“There is complete security in their country,” wrote Ibn BattutaM

andi

nke

Mandinke1324, Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca increased Muslim influence in West Africa.

Grew out of Mali ; largest empire in West Africa; Gao, wealthy trading city and capital; prospered until about 1586, when disputes over succession led to civil war; conquered by Morocco

Songhai

Set up a Muslim dynasty; further expanded the territory of Songhai and improved the government; set up a bureaucracy; his pilgrimage to Mecca increased ties with the Muslim world; he built mosques and opened schools for the study of the Quran

Used his powerful army to forge the largest state that had ever existed in West Africa; brought key trade routes and wealthy cities like Timbuktu under his control; he did not adhere to the practices of Islam

Sunni Ali

AskiaMuhammad

Song

hai

Askia Muhammad

Timbuktu Became a leading center of trade and learning

Song

hai

HAUSA

Between 500 to 1500, other kingdoms flourished in various parts of West Africa. Nigeria; successful farmers and traders; built clay-walled cities; Kano, most prosperous city-state; made up of independent city-states that fought each other

BENIN

Rose in the rain forest of the Guinea coast; forest peoples carved out farming villages and traded pepper, ivory and later slaves to their neighbors in the savanna; oba, or king was both a political and religious leader; Benin City, capital

Other Kingdoms of West Africa

BENIN BRONZE CASTING

BANTUMIGRATIONS

The Bantu Migrations. There are over 300-600 tribes of this ethnic group distributed across Central, Eastern and Southern Africa.

Swahili

Khoisan

Movement from western to east and south begun 2,500 years ago;

series of waves until 19th century;probably from Nigeria;

reasons for migrating are not clearThey lived by farming, fishing and some

herding; differed in appearance and ways of living, but spoke related

languagesCame in contact with other African

groups and learned to live in a variety of environments

From Nubia, iron

technology also developed

at Nok. Later waves of

Bantu migrants

carried this knowledge with them.

Iron tools made savanna cultivation and

forest areas easier and

more productive.

Iron weapons were more effective against enemies. Metalworkers also created works of art using bronze, gold and other metals.

East Africa

KILWA

While Axum declined, a string of commercial cities rose along the East African coast.Tanzania; “One of the most beautiful and well-constructed towns in the world.”; a hub for slave trade

SOFALASomalia; famous for its high quality fabric that it exported to Egypt

East AfricanCity-States

MOGADISHU

Mozambique; known for its gold trade

ZANZIBAR Islands off Tanzania; famous for its spices

Great Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe; means “stone enclosure”;massive stone ruins sprawled across rocky hilltops near the Limpopo River

A prosperous capital of a great inland empire; part of a trade network that reached across the Indian Ocean

Built by the Bantus between 900 and 1500

By 1500, Zimbabwe was in decline due to exhaustion of soil, civil war and dwindling trade

The ruler was a god-king who presided over a large court; a central bureaucracy ruled an inner ring of provinces

Little is known about its government

Slave TradeThe Atlantic

In the next 300 years, it grew into a huge and profitable business

Slave came from the word Slav (unpaid laborers in Roman times

History

Began in 1500s; to fill the need for labor in Spain’s American empire

Each year, traders shipped tens of thousands of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to work on tobacco and sugar plantations in the Americas.

Volume and Destinations

Middle Passage: voyage from Africa to the Americas on the slave ships or the “floating coffins”

Africans were packed below the decks of slave ships.

Hundreds of men and women and children were crammed into a single vessel

Up to half of the Africans on board diedfrom disease or brutal mistreatment. Sometimes, enslaved Africans committed suicide by leaping overboard.

Others tried to seize control of the ship and return to Africa

Impact of the Atlantic Slave TradeBy the 1800s, when the overseas slave trade was finally stopped, an estimated 11 million enslaved Africans had reached the Americas. Another two million probably died under the brutal conditions of the Middle Passage.

Loss of countless numbers of young women and men from West Africa and extinction of some societies and small states