Political Development In Historic Africa
• Prehistoric Africa
• Ancient Africa
• Medieval Africa
• Early Modern Africa
• 19th Century Africa
Continental Drift
•
Two hundred million years ago all the Earth's continents formed a single land mass
called Pangea.
•
The continents began to drift apart about 150 million years ago.
•
Today, the drifting continues. For example, every year North America moves 2-3
centimeters (about 1 inch) farther from Europe.
Prehistoric Africa
•
Earliest evidence of prehistoric hominid discovered in the Great Rift Valley
•
Ethiopian girl “Lucy” discovered in 1974 was 3,500,000 years old
•
Theories suggest small band of hunter/gatherers migrated from Africa to inhabit
Eurasia
•
By 6200 BC this bands began settling along the Nile
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By 4000 BC farming began to yield surplus
•
By 3500 BC Confederation of Lower and Upper Egypt
Ancient African Kingdoms
• The Kingdoms of Egypt
• Axum
The Kingdoms Of Egypt
• Egypt
–
Earliest center of food production
–
Ancient Egypt governed by pharaohs grouped into 30 dynasties (3100 B.C. – 332
B.C.)
–
Relied on large government and lived in opulence at the expense of the peasants
–
Farming drive economic prosperity with surplus going to the king
–
Power waned and fell victim to invaders by 1000 B.C.
• The Old Kingdom (3100 – 2180 BC)
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Earliest large-scale political economy
–
Ruled by Pharaohs
•
–
Identified with the Gods Horus and Osiris
The Great Pyramid at Giza (2600 BC)
•
Built for Khufu
•
2.5 million 5,000 lb blocks of limestone
–
Kingdom fell after loss of central authority
–
Began First Intermediate Period (2180-2080 BC)
• The Middle Kingdom (2080 - 1640 BC)
– Living Pharaohs no longer considered divine
– Commerce and Construction revived
– Conquered by Hyksos
• The New Kingdom (1570-1090 BC)
–
Began expanding
–
Became earliest multicultural empire in Africa
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King Tutankhamen ruled only a short while
•
Famous because of tomb discovered in Valley of the Kings in 1922 by Howard
Carter
•
Many people associated with the excavation died suddenly, fueling rumors of a
curse
• Roman Imperial Rule (30 BC)
– Queen Cleopatra negotiated with Roman rulers to keep political autonomy
•
Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony
•
She committed suicide to save face
– Rome imposed law and religion until the fourth century
Medieval Africa
Medieval African Kingdom/Empires
• Axum
• Ethiopia
• Ghana
• Mali
• Kongo
• Zimbabwe
Axum
• Axum (200 b.c. -700 a.d.)
– Modern day Ethiopia
– One of the earliest Christian kingdoms
– Obelisks are considered buy some to be one of the “Wonders of the World”
Medieval Africa
• The Age of Islam (640 – 1600)
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Expanded from Mecca
–
Inspired by the Prophet Mohammed, conquered and converted most of Egypt and
Maghreb
–
Maghreb is modern North African countries of Libya, Morocco, Mauritania,
Algeria, and Tunisia
Age of Islam
• Originated in 7th century Arabia
–
Muhammed assertion of divine revelations
–
Messages written in Arabic in the Qur’an
–
After the death of Mohammed, khalifa’s served as political leaders
–
Children required to memorize the Qur’an by heart
–
Interpretation of laws varies widely
•
Sharia law
• Took two basic routes
– Northern Africa where Arabs established themselves as ruling elite
– Sub-Saharan Africa where Muslim traders introduced Islam living in commercial
enclaves
– Expansion was accompanied by Arabization
– Conquered Northern Africa by mid 9th Century
– Conversion met varying levels of acceptance and resistance
– Altered relations between state, religion and society
– Ottoman Empire united much of north Africa
• Early on, local rulers kept Muslim merchants in exclaves and many African did not
come into contact with Muslims
• Slowly, local merchants were converted
• Kingdom of Mali was first to truly embrace Islam
–
Mansa Musa made hajj to Mecca
–
Timbuktu became a center for religious learning
• Islam transformed African societies
• Arabization occurred in the north, but was limited south of the Sahara
• Europeans were able to conquer because Muslims were not politically, religiously or
economically united
Ethiopia
• Evolved out of fragmented ancient Axum
• Unification of various kings and Christian monasteries
• Claims lineage from Israel's King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
• Held ties with Egyptian Coptic Christian
• Ark of the Covenant
Kingdoms Of West Africa
– Ghana (700 – 1076 AD)
– Mali (1200-1430 AD)
– Kingdoms eventually fragmented
Ghana
• Strategically located—able to control the lucrative trans-Saharan trade
– Built large armies
Mali
• Reputation of a strong economy (commerce/farming)
– Used Islam to create social cohesion
– Defeated by Songhai Kingdom
– Description of Sudan as a large area and not the country today
Early Modern Africa
• International Slave Trade (1140 – 1870)
– European powers built forts of the west coast of Africa that facilitated the slave
trade
– Europeans traded guns for slaves
– Middle Passage
•
Route that took slaves to the Americas
Nineteenth Century Africa
• Early modern African states continued to develop and trade between coastal regions
and the interior
• Confederations establish based along commercial, religious and military lines
• Ended with the European “Scramble for Africa” (1880 – 1900)
• North Africa (1800 – 1900)
– Egypt
•
Muhammad Ali (1805 – 1848)
•
Modernized Egypt by establishing a a national army, colleges, secular schools,
and factories
– Algeria
•
Colonized by France in 1830
• West Africa
– By 1800, British were seizing slave ships and returning them to Sierra Leone
– Liberia established in 1847
•
Freed African American slaves
European “Scramble for Africa
– Berlin Africa Conference of 1884-1885
– Official partitioning occurred by participants from Germany, France, Britain,
Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany and Portugal
• East Africa
–
19th Century Developments
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Demand for resources increased need for labor
–
Egypt grew to be a powerful imperial Muslim state
–
Omani sultans used Zanzibar to run plantations and control the Indian Ocean trade
on the Swahili coast
–
After the partitioning in the late 19th Century, European relationships with Muslim
elites were complicated
–
Muslims resisted expansion
– Ethiopia
• Menelik II (1889-1912)
–
Battle of Adwa
–
Modernized Ethiopia