AFRICA: Kingdoms and Empires
_______________________ Chapt 20, Sect 2
1.
Why was trade so significant to East Africa’s kingdoms?
The wealth and power of East African kingdoms was based primarily on trade.
Traders paid taxes on the good they brought in to trade; kingdoms also benefitted
from the variety of goods brought into the area to trade.
2.
How did the Islamic religion spread from East Africa to other parts of Africa?
Ideas, religions, and languages also spread along with trade across the trade routes.
3.
What were the important trade routes within and outside of East Africa?
Important East Africa trade routes included those that ran through the Red Sea
and up to the Mediterranean Sea; important East African trade routes that went
outside of the area went to India and China.
Quran
holy book of the religion of Islam
pilgrimage
a religious journey
Swahili
Bantu language with some Arabic words mixed in
city-state
city with its own government; often controlled the surrounding land as well
Aksum
ancient East African kingdom located in an area of what today is Ethiopia and Eritrea
Ghana
kingdom between Senegal and the Niger Rivers
Mail
kingdom that arose in the Upper Niger Valley
Songhai
West Africa’s most powerful kingdom
Mansa Musa
Muslim emperor of Mali
Tombouctou
wealthy Songhai city and center of learning
Kilwa
East African city-state
NOTE TAKING
EAST AFRICA
Aksum was great center
of trade
WEST AFRICA
Power came from
trading gold & salt
Kilwa & other city-states
grew rich from trade
Traded with India, China,
and Europe
Ghana, Mali, and
Songhai were kingdoms
Mansa Musa was a
great emperor in Mali
AFRICA: Kingdoms and Empires
_______________________ Chapt 20, Sect 2
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As early as 1000 AD, traders in East Africa bought and sold goods from many parts
of the world. Traders in East Africa bought animal skins, gold, and ivory and sold
them in India and China.
Aksum, in East Africa, controlled trade in the Red Sea and an area of East Africa
that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to India
Ideas, as well as goods, traveled along the trade routes.
Christianity traveled to Aksum via the trade routes.
As trade declined in Aksum, it began to grow in Western Africa.
The power of the kingdoms in West Africa was based on trade of salt and gold.
Salt needed by people to survive; also used to preserve food.
West Africa had gold, but no salt; North Africa had salt, but no gold; so there
developed a brisk trade between West Africa and North Africa that went through
the kingdoms of West Africa – Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.
o Ghana: located between Senegal and Niger Rivers; Ghana’s kings grew rich
from collecting taxes on the gold, salt, and other goods the traded in their
area; Ghana was called the “land of gold,” not because it had gold, but
because it was traded to often in its area; lost control of the trade routes
to Mali.
o Mali: this kingdom came to power about 1200 AD in the Upper Niger Valley;
the emperor (“Mansa”) controlled the salt mines in the north and the gold
mines in the south.
o Songhai: Soon Songhai became West Africa’s most powerful kingdom,
controlling the important trade routes and trading cities.
Mansa Musa was Mali’s most famous king
o He brought peace to the region during the 25-years of his rule;
o He based his laws on the Quran;
o In 1325 Mansa Musa made a pilgrimage to Mecca. He took 60,000 people
with him, and each of the 80 camels that went with them carried 300 pounds
of gold that they gave to people along the way. This pilgrimage displayed for
all to see the wealth of Mali, and other rulers became interested in Mali’s
gold.
Trade helped East African cities develop. As Aksum decline, trading in other coastal
cities increased.
Swahili was a new language in East Africa that was based on Bantu and included
Arabic words as well; today, many East Africans speak Swahili.
These East African city-states, like Kilwa, controlled many lands along the east
coast of Africa and grew rich from the trade and huge taxes traders paid on goods
they brought into the city.
A visitor wrote of Kilwa that of all the great cities he had visited in China, India,
and West Africa, that Kilwa (East Africa) was the most beautiful; that its people
live in three- and four-story houses made of stone and sea coral.
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SUMMARY: African societies were influenced by traders from other cultures who brought not only goods, but
also new religions and languages.