World History lesson for chapter 7

1. Early African Civilizations
2000 B.C.- 1500 A.D.

2. Development of African
Civilizations
7.1

3. Impact of Geography
• Africa includes a wide variety of landforms
and a number of different climate zones that
have influenced its history and culture.

4. Impact of Geography
• Landforms of Africa:
– In the north, mountains run along the coast of
the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile River
empties into the Mediterranean, and the
Sahara is the largest desert in the world.
– The so-called hump of Africa extends to the
Atlantic Ocean in the west. Here the Sahara
gradually gives way to grasslands, while the
coastal regions are mostly tropical jungles.

5. Impact of Geography
– Eastern Africa has a unique terrain of mountains,
upland plateaus, and lakes. The Great Rift Valley
contains mountains overlooking deep canyons.
Wildlife is abundant in this region.
– In the south, the mighty Congo River waters the
Congo Basin, an area of lush vegetation. These
tropical jungles gradually fade into the plateaus
and deserts, such as the Kalahari, that dominate
the south.

6. Impact of Geography
• Africa has four distinct
climate zones:
– Mild climate of the
north: 10%
– Sahara and Kalahari
Deserts: 40%
– Rain forest: 10%
– Savannas: 40%

7. Emerging Civilizations and Religions
• Kush and Axum arose as strong early
civilizations. Later, Islam would influence Africa.
• The Agricultural Revolution gave rise to the
African civilizations of Egypt, Kush, and Axum.
• By 2000 B.C., Egyptian traders were traveling to
Nubia to acquire ivory, ebony, and leopard skins.
• Around 1000 B.C., Nubia became the state of
Kush.

8. • The Kushite capital of Meroë was a major trading
center. It was located where a land route across
the desert met the Nile River.
• Kush had an abundance of resources, such as iron
ore.
• Kush was an urban society and eventually
declined because of the rise of Axum.
• Axum, located in what is now Ethiopia,
conquered Kush in the fourth century A.D.
• King ‘Ezānā of Axum converted to Christianity,
which became the official state religion.
• Islam, which began on the Arabian Peninsula,
soon spread to northern and eastern Africa in the
seventh and eighth centuries A.D.

9. Kingdoms and States of Africa
7.2

10. The Kingdom of Ghana
• Trade in gold helped create a strong economy in
Ghana, bringing wealth to its merchants and its
kings.
• Ghana became the first great trading state in
West Africa around A.D. 500.
• Ghana contained an abundant supply of gold and
iron ore.
• The Berbers brought goods such as salt, textiles,
and metal goods from the Mediterranean Sea
region in exchange for Ghanaian gold, iron, ivory,
and slaves.

11. The Kingdom of Ghana
• Camel caravans were crucial in the trade
across the Sahara.
• Ghanaian kings grew wealthy from taxing the
trade between the regions. Islamic merchants
also became wealthy during this exchange of
goods.

12. The Kingdom of Mali
• Powerful leadership helped Mali thrive.
• After the fall of Ghana, Sundiata Keita
established the Kingdom of Mali in the middle
of the thirteenth century.
• Sundiata united the people of Mali and
defeated the Ghanaians in 1240.
• The empire of Mali extended from the Atlantic
Ocean to Timbuktu. Local administrative
leaders collected taxes for the king.

13. • Mansa Mūsā came to power in 1312. He doubled
the size of the kingdom and created a strong,
centralized government.
• Mansa Mūsā made a pilgrimage to Makkah in
which he demonstrated his wealth and power.
He was joined by thousands of soldiers and
servants, and gave gold to the peoples along the
way.
• Mansa Mūsā’s pilgrimage inspired him to make
Timbuktu an intellectual center of Islamic
learning and culture.
• The Mali kingdom began to decline with civil war
and the rise of the Songhai Kingdom.

14. The Kingdom of Songhai
• Situated along the Niger River, the Songhai
became powerful traders.
• In 1464, Sunni Ali united the rural and urban
people along the Niger River. He established the
Kingdom of Songhai.
• The Songhai grew wealthy from controlling trade
on the river. They captured Timbuktu and
Djenné, gaining more wealth from the salt and
gold trade.
• The height of the Songhai Kingdom came under
Muhammad Ture, a military leader and devout
Muslim.

15. • Muhammad Ture continued the expansionist
policies of his predecessor. His large military
was able to maintain peace and security
throughout the empire.
• The Songhai Empire ended when the sultan of
Morocco’s forces occupied the country near
the end of the sixteenth century.

16. Societies in East Africa
• The migration of the Bantu and Indian Ocean
trade changed East Africa.
• The Bantu communities were based on
subsistence farming. They also spread across
Africa their knowledge of iron-smelting and
high-yield crops such as yams and bananas.
• The Bantu settled in trading communities
along the coast of the Indian Ocean.

17. • Great Zimbabwe was a
prosperous city on the
coast.
• Muslims began to settle
with the Bantu people on
the coast. They formed
commercial port cities such
as Mogadishu, Mombasa,
and Kilwa.
• Ibn Battuta, an Arab
traveler who went through
most of the Muslim
countries and China,
remarked that Kilwa was
one of the most beautiful
cities in the world.
• Eventually, the cultures of
the Bantu and Muslim
traders mixed and formed a
new culture known as

18. Societies in South Africa
• In southern Africa, independent villages organized into
states, the most powerful of which was Zimbabwe.
• In southern Africa, most of the people lived in stateless
societies, which were groups of independent villages
organized by clans and led by a local ruler.
• Zimbabwe was the wealthiest and most powerful state in
the region, trading gold to the Swahili communities on the
east coast of Africa.
• The capital of the kingdom was Great Zimbabwe. The city
was surrounded by The Great Enclosure that illustrated the
kingdom’s power and influence. Eventually, it was
abandoned.

19. African Society and Culture
7.3

20. Aspects of African Society
• African society was strongly influenced by
values and customs, such as the importance of
the family, common ancestors, and community
education.
• African kings were generally closer to the people
than in other societies. The king often spoke with
commoners about complaints or other issues.
• For most Africans, life consisted of a village and
their sense of identity to an extended family or
clan, consisting of parents, children,
grandparents, and other family dependents.

21. • Families lived in larger communities known as
lineage groups. Elders maintained the power in
the group.
• While women were generally subordinate to men
in Africa, many societies were matrilineal rather
than patrilineal societies.
• In typical African villages, a child’s education was
a shared responsibility by parents and village
elders.
• Africans utilized slave labor, like many other
ancient societies.
• Slaves included people captured in war, debtors,
and criminals, and became an important
commodity to be traded.

22. Religious beliefs
• Most African societies held similar, traditional
beliefs; the spread of Islam challenged these
African beliefs.
• Although African religious beliefs varied from
place to place, most shared the idea of a single
creator god.
• In Nigeria, the Yoruba people believe that their
chief god sent his son down from heaven in a
canoe to create the first humans. Many slaves
transported to America practiced this religion.

23. • The Ashanti people of
Ghana believed in a
supreme joined by a
group of lesser gods.
Because the lesser gods
could not be trusted,
humans needed to
appease them to avoid
their wrath.
• Africans communicated
with the gods via
diviners.

24. • There were rituals dedicated to founding
ancestors. Ancestors were seen as closer to
the gods, and were needed for positive
influence over everyday life.
• The influence of Islam followed the Arab
traders, and Islam gained in popularity
because of its acceptance by the wealthy and
upper class.
• Islam often ran in contrast to traditional
African religion. Over time, a unique form of
Africanized Islam appeared.

25. African Culture
• Africa’s rich culture of paintings, carvings, sculpture,
music, and dance often served a religious purpose.
• Early African art was influenced by religion.
• Rock paintings, wood carvings, and terra cotta
figurines are all thought to have religious significance.
• At Ife, the capital of the Yoruba people, metalworkers
fashioned handsome bronze and iron statues.
• African dance and music often served a religious
purpose.
• Griots transmitted African history by song or
storytelling.