8/9/2019 Eco of Hist Gold in Africa

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African Civilizations

Economics of History Activity

Lesson 2  Africa's Governments and Religions

The Value of Gold

Background InformationDuring his journey to Makkah in a.d. 1324, Mansa Musa’s caravan carriedlarge amounts of gold. Mansa Musa gave away so much gold to the poorthat the price of gold fell. However, the history of gold actually beginsthousands of years before Mansa Musa’s journey.

Some of the earliest reliable accounts indicate that gold was found in Egyptand Mesopotamia around 4000 b.c. Since then, people have viewed gold asa symbol of power and wealth. As early as 3000 b.c., people began to usegold rings as a form of money. Although Egypt was the primary location of

gold mining, people also found gold in places outside of Africa, such aspresent-day France, Ireland, and India. Gold had another use besidesmoney. Artisans used gold to decorate items such as jewelry, statues, andweapons.

Over time, people developed new techniques for mining and refining gold.Some early mining techniques required a significant amount of labor. Forexample, in a.d. 100 as many as 40,000 enslaved people worked to minegold in Spain. By the 1800s, scientists had developed methods of refininggold that made the process easier and more efficient. The world’s largestdiscovery of gold took place in 1886 in a region of South Africa known asthe Witwatersrand. By 1899, this massive deposit had produced onequarter of the world’s gold. By 1985, that figure had increased to 40percent.

A gold standard is a type of monetary system. In this kind of system, thestandard unit of money is established as a set amount of gold. That is, thevalue of a country’s money is equal to how much gold a country has andhow much that gold is worth. The United States used a gold standardseveral times in its history, although it no longer does so. The use of agold standard proved to be unstable and at times placed the nation at aneconomic disadvantage. The United States last used the gold standardin 1971.

Directions Answer the following questions.

1. Identifying What is the earliest recorded date that goldwas found?

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8/9/2019 Eco of Hist Gold in Africa

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 C o p yr i   gh  t  b  yTh  eM c  Gr  a w-Hi  l  

l   C om p ani   e s  .

NAME DATE CLASS

African Civilizations

Economics of History Activity Cont.

2. Explaining Where and when did the world’s largestdiscovery of gold take place?

Critical Thinking3. Determining Cause and Effect Why do you think people

worked to develop new techniques for mining and refininggold?

4. Making Inferences For a country using the goldstandard, how would changes in the price of gold affect thevalue of that country’s money?

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