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Africa
Geographic Regions
North Africa
 Along the coast

Mild and rainy
 South

Desert (Sahara)
Sub-Saharan Africa (South
of Sahara)
 Sahel = central plateau
covered by savannas
 Rift Valley
Nubia & Kush
CHAPTER 4
Nubia
3000B.C.
 Located Upper Nile River (Sudan)
 First kingdom in Sub-Saharan Africa
 Close ties w/ Egypt
Kush
2000B.C.
 Nubian Kingdom
 Controlled Egypt but pushed out by Assyrians
 Established new Kingdom at Meroe
 Developed profitable iron trade
 Weapons
 tools
Axum or Aksum
 Located on the Red Sea, Ethiopian Highlands, & Nile




Rivers
Trading power because of its location on the Red Sea
330 AD Became Christian – remain Christian (Still
are in Ethiopia)
350AD conquered Kush
600s AD lose control of trade to Muslims from
Arabia
West Africa
CHAPTER 8
Bantu (language group) Migration
 People called the Nok lived in Niger and Benue River
Valleys
 Skilled farmers = population growth
 Eventually not enough arable land

What does arable mean?

Farmable land
 People moved in search of more land  migrate
central, E, & S. Africa
Religion and Oral Traditions
 Kinship & clan was important
 Matrilineal (mother)
 Patrilineal (father)
 Religion
 One Supreme creator god (sky or heaven)
 Nature spirits, Ancestor worship & Magic
 Oral traditions
 how knowledge, history, morals, and values were passed on.)
 Use of songs, proverbs, fables
Ghana
700-1076 AD
 Ghana (means king)
 Location: W Africa, Upper Niger River
 Controlled trade trans-Saharan trade
 salt (N) & gold (S)
 Salt needed in South for food (preservation & flavor)
 Islam introduced through trade
 AD 1000 attacked by Almoravids – parts of kingdom
began breaking away
Mali
1235-1400AD
 Location: West Africa, Atlantic Coast along Niger
River
 Restored trans-Saharan trade routes

protected them w/ a standing army
 Capital Timbuktu -- Mansa Musa
 Took a pilgrimage to Makkah
 Returned w/ scholars, architects, and legal experts
 built mosques in major cities
 Built a university at Timbuktu, became a center of learning
 Islamic government (many people were not)
Songhai
1400s-1590 AD
 Location: West Africa, along most of Niger River
 Ruler: Askia Muhammad
 Ruled at height AD 1493-1528
 Instituted Islamic Law
 Divided land into 5 provinces @ with a governor, tax collector,
court, & trade inspector
 Timbuktu became a trade center (again) (Europe &
Asia, gold, salt, slaves)
East And Southern Africa
CHAPTER 15
East African Trading Centers
 By AD 1300 trading centers in East Africa were
multicultural (Muslim, Persian, African, & Indian)
 Controlled by Arab and Persian Merchants
 Swahili – blending of Arabic and Bantu languages
Southern Africa= Great Zimbabwe
 AD 1000-1500
 Location: Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers & Indian




Ocean
City of “Great Zimbabwe” as capital of prosperous
empire
Architecture: huge oval enclosures w/ 30 foot walls,
using no mortar
Built on trade between gold in the interior and the
sea.
Decline b/c of civil war and European intrusion
Summary
 Axum
 Location relative to the
Ethiopian Highlands and the
Nile River
 Christian kingdom
 Zimbabwe
 Location relative to the
Zambezi and Limpopo rivers
and the Indian Ocean coast
 City of “Great Zimbabwe” as
capital of a prosperous
empire
 Swahili – blending of Arabic
and Bantu languages
 West African kingdoms
 Location of Ghana, Mali, and
Songhai empires relative to
Niger River and the Sahara
 Importance of gold and salt
to trans-Saharan trade
 City of Timbuktu as center of
trade and learning
 Roles of animism and Islam