Objectives
•
Explain how religion influenced
the development of Axum and
Ethiopia.
•
Understand how trade affected
the city-states
in East Africa.
•
Describe the economy of Great
Zimbabwe.
Terms and People
•
Axum – trading center and powerful
ancient kingdom in northern presentday Ethiopia
•
Adulis – an Axum port city on the Red
Sea, one of two major cities in the
kingdom that commanded a trade
network in the region
•
Ethiopia – a Greek term used by
Axumite kings to refer to their kingdom
Terms and People (continued)
•
King Lalibela – the ruler of Ethiopia
in the early 1200s
•
Swahili – an East African language
and culture that emerged by the 1000s
from a combination of African, Asian,
and Arabic influences
•
Great Zimbabwe – powerful East
African medieval trade center and citystate between 900 and 1500. Located
in southern present-day Zimbabwe
What influence did religion and trade
have on the development of East Africa?
The kingdom of Axum expanded
across the northern Ethiopian
highlands of East Africa after 100 B.C.
This civilization gained control of the
Red Sea and grew rich from trade.
As East Africans traded and
exchanged ideas with people from
Asia and the Middle East, a new
culture and language emerged.
The kingdom of Axum flourished between 300 B.C.
and A.D. 600.
•
Axum stretched from
the mountains of
present-day Ethiopia
to the Red Sea.
•
The people there
were descended from
African farmers and
Middle Easterners.
•
The two cultures
blended and created
a new language
called Geez.
Axum grew very wealthy
through trade.
• One of its main cities, Adulis, was a
port on the Red Sea. Here, goods such
as ivory, animal hides, and gold were
brought to market.
• Axum controlled a triangular trade
network between Africa, India, and
the Mediterranean.
Axum converted to
Christianity in the 300s.
• This conversion strengthened the
kingdom’s ties with North Africa
and the Mediterranean.
• However, when Islam spread in
the 600s, Axum became isolated
from many of its trading partners.
• Civil war and economic weakness
led to the decline of Axum.
The legacy of Axum survived in medieval
Ethiopia.
• King Lalibela came
to power in Ethiopia
in the early 1200s.
• He directed the
building of Christian
churches, carved into
solid rock.
• Protected by rugged
mountains, Ethiopia
kept its independence
for centuries.
Ethiopian Christians kept ties with the Holy Land
in the Middle East.
Some made
pilgrimages to
Jerusalem.
Ethiopian Christianity
absorbed local
customs over time.
Some Ethiopians practiced Judaism. Jews known
as Falasha lived in Ethiopia until the late 1900s.
A rich cultural mix existed
along the East African coast.
• Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Indian,
Muslim, and Asian traders had visited
since ancient times.
• By the 600s, sailors learned that
monsoon winds would carry them from
India to Africa each year.
• Foreign trade helped local rulers build
strong, independent city-states, such as
Kilwa.
Trade linked distant ports in Africa, Asia,
and the Middle East.
This vibrant
trading culture
on the coast of
East Africa led to
the emergence of
a new language.
• Swahili developed as
greater numbers of
people began to settle
in East Africa.
• Arabic words were
absorbed into the
Bantu-based language
to create Swahili, an
Arabic word meaning
“of the coast.”
South of the coastal city-states, a
great inland empire existed.
• Bantu-speaking people who lived
in this region between 900 and
1500 built huge stone towers in
their capital city.
• The ruins left behind today are
called Great Zimbabwe.
Archaeologists are working now
to learn more about this
civilization.
Great Zimbabwe was part of an
extensive trade network. It reached its
height around 1300.
• It had artisans and skilled
builders. The ruler was
probably a god-king who
presided over a large court.
• Zimbabwe declined by 1500,
probably due to civil war and
slowing trade.
Welcome!
• Get exactly 10 note cards. Make a plan for
getting your own (by Wednesday of this
week)
• Fun with Flags
– 10 points, no writing = all good 10/10
• Review Transatlantic Slave Trade reading
– We will have a quiz in a few minutes! 
– Get out a half sheet of paper, number 1-7
Why?
• How do European nations dominate the
world starting in the 16th century?
• How did the slave trade affect Africa?
Age of Exploration
Talk to your table partners about:
• What do you remember about the Age of
Exploration?
– When?
– Why?
– Who?
• How will this impact Africa?
• There was a
huge demand
for spices in
Europe.
• They were
used to flavor
and preserve
foods.
• They were
used for
medicinal
purposes.
• They showed
Status!
The Silk and Spice Trade
The Europeans want spices: Black pepper,
cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, etc.
The Europeans want silk.
The Muslims are in the way!
By the time spices get to Europe
they can be 100 times as
expensive as they are in Asia!
New Weapons and
Technology
Europeans began to
specialize in sea travel,
naval warfare, and
trade.
New Maritime
Technologies
Hartman Astrolabe
(1532)
Better Maps
Mariner’s Compass
Sextant
Prince Henry, the Navigator
•Lived 1394-1460
•Prince of Portugal
•Focused on maritime technology
•Funded and organized
expeditions
•Founded a school for navigation
in 1419
Authorized the kidnapping of
native Africans to gather
information about the continent.
Motto: Desire to do well
Bartolemeu Dias,
1487, rounds the Cape of Good Hope
Vasco de Gama, 1498reaches India by sea
I’m about to get rich!
3000% profit!!!!
Intelligence Report
In the 15th century Africa was not vulnerable to
European conquest.
– Organized Kingdoms (with guns)
– Disease (especially, Malaria)
– Rivers are difficult to navigate
– Europe is not powerful enough…yet
– African civilizations are too powerful…for now
If you can’t beat them, trade.
Intelligence Report
Assume the role of a sailor and spy for Prince
Henry the Navigator
Europeans aren’t able to colonize Africa, but they
want to…
Explain (suggest) how can Europeans overcome
the following impediments:
–Organized Kingdoms
–Advanced Technology
–Disease (especially, Malaria)
–Rivers are difficult to navigate
–Europe is not powerful enough
–African civilizations are too powerful
Why?
• How do European nations dominate
the world starting in the 16th century?
• How did the slave trade affect Africa?
The Slave Trade
Slavery has existed in Africa, and most of Europe,
for thousands of years
1400s: Portuguese explorers start to interact with
African Civilizations
-Trade guns and manufactured goods for gold/salt
Colonization of the New World destroys Native
Population
-Need for labor arises
The Slave Trade
Europeans see 4 major advantages in using African
Labor
1. Africans have been exposed to European diseases
2. Many Africans have experience in farming
3. Africans were less likely to escape (for good) in new
land
4. Skin Color
How many Africans were transported to the new world?
What role did African societies play in the slave trade?
The Slave Trade
• Introduction of
European goods
• African leaders need
guns/ goods to remain
in power
• Sell or be sold
mentality emerges
• Cycle of war,
encouraged by
European traders
Effects of the Slave Trade
1. Brain Drain in Africa: Youngest, fittest,
brightest minds taken
2. Disruption of African Civilizations Societies
3. Economic and Cultural development of
New World
4. Homogenization of African Cultures (in
the eyes of Europeans)
5. Increased wealth for Europe
Challenges: Intelligence Report
How do you think Europeans will
overcome these challenges?
–Organized Kingdoms
–Advanced Technology
–Disease
–Difficult Rivers
Use the reading to find out if your
predictions were correct – write them in
to your report & be prepared to share!
(note answers to other question)
Challenge: Organized Kingdoms
• Africa had wide variety of cultures and
languages
• Not unified – separated by kingdoms
and languages
• Naturally fought one another
• Europeans played rival kingdoms against
each other
Challenge: Organized Kingdoms
…in 1600, nearly 30% of the world’s population
lives in Africa.
By 1900, under 10% of the world’s population lives
in Africa.
…the population of Africa in 1850 has been
estimated to have been only about half of what it
would have been had slavery and the slave trade
not been a factor in African history.
Challenge: Organized Kingdoms
Challenge: Advanced Technology
African Nations have guns,
and ferocious warriors
1881: Hiram Maxim visits
Paris Electrical Exhibition
Told "If you wanted to
make a lot of money, invent
something that will enable
these Europeans to cut
each other's throats with
greater facility."
The Maxim Gun
Invented in 1884
500 bullets per minute (as many as 100 riflemen)
Why is this key in the conquest of Africa?
Challenge: Advanced Technology
“Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim Gun, and they have not”
-French Poet Hilaire Beloc
Challenge: Disease
Malaria: Deadly disease spread by mosquitoes in
hot/tropical areas
1700s: Death rate for European explorers in Africa
is 50%
Challenge: Disease
Quinine!
Found in the bark of the
cinchona tree
Native to Peru and Bolivia
Treats malaria!
Challenge: Rivers
Africa has rivers
But they flow
towards the
sea…
This makes
Europeans sad.

Challenge: Rivers
Early 1800s: Steam Boats!
Railroads
Early 1800s
Colonization in steps
Step 1: Europeans weren't able to
colonize Africa
2nd: Europeans engaged in the slave
trade, leads to weakening of African
strengths
3rd: The Industrial Revolution
4th: Social Darwinism
5th: White Man's Burden
The Industrial Revolution
18th and 19th Century Europe
New economic systems forced Europeans to look
elsewhere for raw materials
What do they need to justify colonization?
Imperialism
What is imperialism?
Social Darwinism
In table groupsdiscuss & take
notes:
1. What is
Social
Darwinism?
2. What does it
have to do
with
imperialism?
Social Darwinism
• Theory where Darwin’s
“survival of the fittest”
applied to social groups
and races
• Not scientific. Used by
some Europeans to
justify their “superiority”
• Also super racist…
Cecil Rhodes
Diamonds,
railroads
Cecil Rhodes
• British Businessmen
• Supporter of British Imperialism
• “I contend that we are the first race in the
world, and that the more of the world we inhabit
the better it is for the human race...”
• “If there be a God, I think that what he would
like me to do is paint as much of the map of
Africa British Red as possible..."
Cecil Rhodes
"Remember that you are an Englishman,
and have consequently won first prize in
the lottery of life."
Cecil Rhodes
"In order to save the forty million inhabitants of
the United Kingdom from a bloody civil war,
our colonial statesmen must acquire new
lands for settling the surplus population of
this country, to provide new markets... The
Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and
butter question"
Rudyard Kipling
1865-1936
British
Nobel Prize winning
novelist, reporter, and
poet.
Author of the Jungle Book
Proponent of White
imperialism.
Colonization in steps
1st: Europeans weren't able to colonize Africa
2nd: Europeans engaged in the slave trade, leads to
weakening of African strengths.
3rd: The Industrial Revolution - demand for
raw materials, & motivation for colonization
4th: Social Darwinism gave Europeans
further desire to colonize
5th: White Man's Burden allowed Europeans
to justify (wrongly) their actions through
claims that they were helping African
nations in the process