• Aksum had a trading port along the
Red Sea, which made it quite powerful and wealthy but when the Muslims invaded they cut the Aksumites from their port, forcing them to move their capital from Aksum to Roha (later
Lalibela)

• By 1100 Bantu had moved to the East
Coast of Africa
• Trading ports developed along the coastline to engage in Indian Ocean trade
• Over time Muslim and Persian traders settle there
• Arabic blends with Bantu to create
Swahili
• Persians settle the horn of Africa
• By 1300 more than 35 trading cities dotted the coastline

• Muslim rulers and merchants lived luxurious lives there
• Rich because it was the furthest south a ship from India could sail during one
Monsoon season
• Kilwa also controlled Sofala, a center for gold trade in southern Africa

• 1488 first Portuguese ships rounded the tip of Africa
• Using heavy ships’ guns they take
Sofala, Kilwa and Mombasa

• Muslim traders had introduced Islam to
East Africa
• A Muslim sultan ruled most cities and most officials and wealthy merchants were Muslim
• However, most people remained animist

• Vibrant trade of people, usually captured through raids
• Wealthy used them for domestic tasks
• Slave trade was steady- but small in comparison to the numbers in the
1700s

• In southeast Africa the Shona people established a city called Great Zimbabwe
• By 1100 Shona people had claimed the fertile territory between the Zambezi and
Limpopo rivers in modern Zimbabwe
• Good agriculture and access to gold fields and Sofala to trade
• 1200-1400 Great Zimbabwe became capital of a thriving state
• Taxed traders along trade routes
• By 1450 city was abandoned for unknown reasons

• 60 acres of ruins
• Zimbabwe means “stone enclosure”
• Walls built for defense and to impress visitors
• Construction of the Great Zimbabwe probably took 400 years

• Story says that Mutota left Great
Zimbabwe around 1420 and settled in the north, where he founded a new state to replace Great Zimbabwe
• Conquered people called him Mwene
Mutapa, which means conqueror
• By the time of Mutota’s death they controlled all of the old Zimbabwe territory
• Wealth based on gold
• Southern part of empire broke away
• Portuguese failed to conquer them but interfere in their politics anyway