Pre-Class

• What good was the backbone of the Trans-Saharan Trade?

• What were the effects of this trade?

Trans-SaharaN Trade

Salt for Gold

Trans-Saharan Trade on sheet

• Trade across the Sahara

• Salt for Gold

10,000 years ago the Sahara was

fertile grassland.

The desert formed slowly over thousands of

years.

Desertification:Land is turned to

desert. The Sahara is still growing.

on sheet

Most people migrated out to

sources of water.

The Nile River

                             

 

The Nile’s regular flooding produced fertile land. This led to farming.

Some adapted to the desert: Pastoralists (nomadic herders)

learned to domesticate animals, but did not

settle in villages. on sheet

The Sahara separated the north from the south and

two cultures developed.

Trade was limited to the Nile Region.

Introduction of the camel from

India began a new age of trade.

• The introduction of the camel to the West-Africans around 750 AD. They were practically built for Saharan trade and travel, and were vastly superior to the horse in their forte. They could carry heavy loads for seemingly endless distances, were able to keep their footing on sandy terrain and also could go for long periods of time without water.

Caravan: group of desert merchants, especially in northern Africa and Asia, crossing the desert together for safety, usually with a train of camels on sheet

Three trade zones developed

on sheet

1. Mediterranean-maintained contact with Middle East and Europe Traded: Mediterranean food manufactured products and iron

                                               

     

2. Sahara:Pastoralist culture – Traded salt for gold to the north and south

                                              

      

Taoudenni

                                   

         

                                   

      

Saharan salt is either mined as at Taoudenni or evaporated from salt pans as at Taggiddan n' Tessoum. The reddish earth containing salt is stirred up with water in large pans. As the earth settles the water is scooped off into smaller pans where it is evaporated leaving salt. The bottom photograph shows the salt caravan which crossed the Erg du Ténéré from Bilma to Agadez.

                                 

         

                                                

    

3. Sahel- Traded gold, ivory, and

animal skins from the south

Rise of West AfricanKingdoms (chart):

•Ghana

•Mali

•Songhai

Ghana• West Africa

• Founded by Soninke

• Powerful army –paid a tax for safety

• Gold for Salt trade (Bebers)

• Decline: Almoravids attacked and broke into smaller states (1076-1235)

• At around 1075, the kingdom of Ghana met its end. Muslim Berbers, calling themselves Almoravids, were unhappy with the ways of the Ghanaians. Therefore they declared a holy war upon them, or jihad with ultimately lead to the destruction of the kingdom.

Mali• West Africa

• Established by Mandingos (Malinke) and founded by Sundiata

• Controlled trade• Mansa Musa (1312-1337):strong army; Islam;

Pilgrimage to Mecca (Crash Course Video)

• Timbuktu• Decline: weakening of central power (1400’s) – Crash

Course Video Mansa Musa

Between the 13th and 14th century, the kingdom of Mali emerged. According to African oral histories it was founded by Sundiata who lived ruled Mali from 1230-1255.

Songhai• West Africa

• Trade

• Sunni Ali – Gao and strong military

• Askia Muhammed

• Timbuktu

• Decline: ethnic conflicts; 1591: Moroccan army

Manuscripts of mathematics and astronomy found in Timbuktu.

Tomb of Askia

Ghana

100 AD Shona people leave Nigeria because of a population explosion.

200 AD Ghana founded

350 AD Ghana learns to smelt iron.

400 AD Trading centers arise in West Africa

700 AD Ghana was the first trading kingdom.

800-1000 AD "Golden Age" of Ghana.

1042 AD Arabs from North Africa start war with Ghana

Mali

1240 AD Ghana part of Mali

1324-1325 Mansa Musa pilgrimage to Arabia.

Songhai

1400's Songhai controlled land that had been part of Mali.

1464 AD Sultan Sunni Ali rules Songhai from city of Gao.

1493 AD King Askia Muhammad, who succeeded Sunni Ali

1591 AD 1591 Morocco seizes Songhai's gold mines.

1700 AD Shona people settle in Zimbabwe

Closure:

How did trade contribute to the rise of strong African

Kingdoms?Trade = wealth =

strong armies =expand empire =

maintain trade routes and benefit from diffusion

The Bantu Migration•People from Northwest Africa called Bantu began moving southward around 1000BC

*Bantu is a language type

and ethnic groupon sheet

*They arrive in Southern Africa during the 18th Century, where they were known as the Xhosa and the Zulu.

East African city-states• East Coast Africa below Equator

– Malindi, Mombasa, Zanzibar• Monsoons (Crash Course Video) Crash Course Video Monsoons

• trade with Islamic kingdoms and India• Swahili: a mixture of the local Bantu

languages and Arabic. on sheet• Zimbabwe gold• Decline: Portuguese 1500’s

Zimbabwe• Southern Africa between Zambezi

and Limpopo Rivers• Means: Great Stone House• Shona: probably unified diverse

group of people• Gold trade• Decline: 1400’s ?

Trade, (controlled by the Muslims of North Africa) found its way to Europe. This got Europe’s attention.

Europe began looking for the source

of gold and a route around Muslim control of trade.