Africa Before European Domination DBQ
Before the 15th and 16th centuries, when the Europeans arrived, Africans developed several advanced civilizations. For instance during the early 300s, kingdoms, empires, and cities in East Africa arose and declined. More specifically, in West Africa, 3 empires: Ghana, Mali, and Songhai took control of the gold and salt trade. Cities on the east coast gained power and wealth through trade as well. Many advanced civilizations, such as Aksum, Ghana, Mali, and Timbuktu formed, and expanded in Africa between 300 and the 14th century.
According to Document 1, the Kingdom of Aksum peaked its existence in Eastern Africa during 325 and 360, and became an important international trade route. Unlike many other kingdoms,
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According to Document 4, Mansa Musa, the emperor of the Mali empire, expanded the Mali empire to twice the size of the Ghana empire. On his hajj to Mecca, Mansa Musa stopped in Cairo, Egypt, and impressed many Egyptians. One specific Egyptian official was blown away by his generosity. “This man Mansa Musa, spread upon Cairo the flood of his generosity: there was no person, officer of the court, or holder of any office of the sultanate who did not receive a sum of gold from him.” This quote explains that people of Mali were considered to be very generous because they were willing to give away their gold, sometimes in trade for nothing. It is said that on Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca, he brought along 60,000 people, and camels loaded with gold. With this entourage and massive display of wealth, Mansa Musa made quite the impression on the foreigners. On this journey, Mansa Musa gave away a significant amount of gold, however he also brought back a lot of new ideas that would improve his empire. Unfortunately, soon after Mansa Musa’s improvements, he passed away from natural causes, and his rule ended. Shortly after, the Mali Empire began to grow weak, and in the 1400s, the empire began to lose control of its borders. Then, the Songhai Empire rose to power in the 1500s, and the Mali Empire officially came to an end in 1610 with the death of the last Mansa, Mahmud IV. After the …show more content…
It was located where the Niger River flows northward into the southern edge of the Sahara desert. As a result of its unique geographical location, Timbuktu was a convenient meeting point for the Songhai, Wangara, Fulani, Tuareg and Arabs. It was also considered to be a “melting pot” and center for knowledge and commerce. In fact, Timbuktu was the first city to have its own university with three main renown departments and 180 Quranic schools. According to Document 5, “Here are many doctors, judges, priest, and other learned men that are well maintained at the King’s costs. Various manuscripts and written books are brought here… and sold for more money than other merchandise.” This quote shows that Timbuktu was the home of many advanced careers, and was an extremely resourceful place, which attracted many scholars and merchants. It was the most developed, and prestigious city of the era, and was considered to have been the golden age of Africa due to all of its accomplishments. Timbuktu was the city of knowledge, the city of trade, and the city of
According to a PDF document by UC Davis created in 2014, it stated “Arab North Africans wanted to buy gold to make coins, and the West African goldfields held one of the largest supplies of gold in the Afro-Eurasian world.” This shows that gold was important to the Arab North Africans because they needed it to make gold coins. West Africa had the most gold, so they went over there to buy that gold. This provides that all the gold that Mali had made a lot of cities and other people got to Mali just for the gold, which was very good for Mali. Therefore, the Empire of Mali became a site of cultural exchange because they had what everyone wanted -
In History of Africa, Shillington focuses on many aspects of African culture and factors that made Africa to be the continent that it is today. Chapter 5 primarily focuses on the Northern region of Africa and how empires took over and spread their ideology technology, and culture all through out the region. Even today some remnants of the Roman and Greek empire live on to this day (Shillington, 69.) Despite many people getting the impression that Northern Africa is only influenced by Arabic and Islam, these empires and their conquests are best understood through topics like intricate trading routes, farming, and the spread of religion. Shillington provides an in depth analysis of how many of these conquests affected Northern Africa centuries ago and today.
But all of this was at a cost for the people of Mali. Taxes. Mali taxed a decent piece on the people they protected, which definitely contributed to the vast treasury of Mali and helped them become the large and powerful civilization that they
During the post-classic period, Africa was home to some of the most influential civilizations of the time. The Mali Empire and the Empire of Great Zimbabwe were two such civilizations that rose to power through the actions of their powerful rulers. The Mali Empire emerged in West Africa in the 13th century under the leadership of Sundiata Keita, a legendary figure who founded the empire in 1235 AD. This mighty empire was known for its vast territories and powerful rulers who used various strategies to expand their influence.
Another crazy thing they began doing was enforcing rules along the lines of if people were to wear their pants too short or even have their phones ringtone were not a part of the Western culture, they could be lashed or even worse. I find this crazy due to the fact that Timbuktu was such a calm and preserved area in Mali and they just got taken over by Al-Qaeda who began to enforce these crazy rules which completely ruined their culture. This prevented them from living the lifestyle they have always known and loved while at the same time being restricted from their religious beliefs they have always followed. The craziest part was when the librarians actually took the manuscripts that they have been hiding and loaded them into trucks and mules and brought them to Bamako. This was such a risky thing to do but this didn’t prevent them from protecting what they believed in and loved and they would have done anything to keep these
The Ghana Empire, also known as Wagadou Empire, was a West African empire that existed from the 6th to the 13th century CE. The empire was founded by the Soninke people and became a major center of trade and commerce in West Africa. One of the reasons why the Ghana Empire was significant is because of its role in the trans-Saharan trade. The empire controlled the trade routes that connected West Africa with North Africa and Europe. They traded gold, ivory, and salt.
The Ancient Mali civilization started as a small province in the kingdom of Ghana, in western Africa, south of the Saharan desert. The Mali kingdom was very well located because the Niger river flowed through their empire which allowed them to have an abundance of fish that made up a big part of their diet. Over time, ancient Mali grew and spread over nearly 2,000 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean to the city of Gao.
Mali or Manden Kurufaba started in 1230. Mali is around the upper areas of the Niger river. Our first King was Sundiata who created the Mali empire. Since Sundiata was the king he conquered Ghana which had salt and gold that was very important for trade. After Sundiata died in 1255 a new king came was Mansa Musa I.
The Benin Empire; now located in what is Southern Nigeria and known for being one of the oldest and highly developed states in West Africa. King Oba Ewuare, previously known as Prince Ogun; came to power after a violent overturn on his own brother; Prince Uwaifaikon. So violent that he ended up destroying much of Benin City in the processes. Oba Ewuare was the son of Ohen and after his death, an altercation arose and Prince Ogun was
The Empire of Mali spread its influence and became one of the world’s main gold suppliers. It was then known for the wealth of its rulers.
Introduction Timbuktu is located in Mali, Sahara Desert, near the edge the Niger River. It was discovered as a World Heritage Site in 1988 and is listed on UNSECO as a cultural site. Timbuktu was a spiritual and intellectual capital and a center for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. Now in the 21st century, it is home of Koranic Sankore University. With a population of approximately 30,000 as for 2017, Timbuktu was the product of African and Arabs architecture but is continuously being restored because the monuments today are under threat from desertification.
INTRODUCTION The Ajuran Sultanate or Ajuran Empire was known as a Somali Muslim empire that ruled over the large parts of the Northeast Africa consists of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia and dominated the regional trade during the 5th to the 15th century during the era of Medieval Ages. Ajuran Sultanate was very well-known during 13th century until the late 17th century because of their strong centralized administration and has an aggressive military towards invaders. This empire also left an extensive architectural legacy, including castles, fortress building and pillar tombs fields attributed to the Ajuran engineers.
The African kingdoms Ghana, Mali, Songhai The African nations of Ghana, Mali, Songhai, shared so many characteristics between each other. For one primary comparison is, all three ancient empires relied on the trans-Saharan trading routes and their lush amount of gold, copper and other natural resources. They established many political ties with many Arab countries and nearby African societies. These three nations shared abundantly cultural similarities from just the rise of Islam.
Africa has one of the most greatest cultures it was even said that “The earliest stages of human evolution began in Africa about seven million years ago.” Early African culture had many great cities and empires like the Kushite/Meroe empire (800B.C.E.-400C.E.). Even though this empire was influenced by Egypt, it developed its own culture, with unique art practices and a writing system. African groups had made contact with other cultures of course and because of this those cultures had influenced the African culture. The Axum empire (100-400 C.E.) had began when Arabic cultures infiltrated Ethiopia in northeast Africa by the seventh century B.C.E., the first Christians arrived from Syria in the fourth century C.E.
While walking through the kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, you could see great, big, bustling markets. These markets are usually full of many people buying and selling goods, as in, books, textiles, books, tools, wood, metal, honey, milk, meat and other foods. Mostly though, gold and salt are traded. When you walk through villages there could be large, mosques made of dried earth and decorated with wooden projections and clay. While you are are visiting the West African Kingdoms, you would need a place to stay.