AFRICA CHAPTER 8   

A LAND OF MOUNTAINS, DESERTS, JUNGLE, COASTLINES, AND RIVERS WERE SPREAD THROUGHOUT AFRICA.

TWO DESERTS ON THE CONTINENT, SAHARA DESERT IN THE NORTH WAS THE SIZE OF THE UNITED STATES. THE KALAHARI IN THE SOUTH IS SMALLER.

THE RAIN FOREST COVERS 5 PERCENT Of THE CONTINENT.

THE NORTHERN COAST AND THE SOUTHERN TIP OF AFRICA ARE THE MOST FERTILE AND HAVE LARGE DENSE POPULATION.  THE LARGEST NUMBER OF PEOPLE LIVE ON THE SAVANNAS. MAJOR GRAINS WERE SORGHUM AND MILLET, RICE, WHEAT, AND MAIZE.

THE DESERT SPREADS EACH YEAR, DRYING OF THE SOIL IS CALLED DESERTIFICATION.

ADAPTING TO THE ENVIRONMENTS

            NOMADIC LIFESTYLE.  THE PEOPLE WERE HUNTER GATHERERS, THUS NOMADIC THEY CARRIED THE WEAPONS NEEDED FOR THE SPEAR POINTS.

PASTORALISTS THESE PEOPLE HERDED DOMESTIC ANIMALS COW, GOATS, SHEEP, AND THEY WERE LESS NOMADIC. WHEN GROUPS BEGAN SETTLING AND PLANTED AGRICULTURE AND GAVE THE TRIBES MORE TIME TO DEVELOP ARTS CRAFTS AND WORKING METALS AS WELL AS BUILDING PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.

CLANS AND EXTENDED FAMILIES GREW TOGETHER AND WORSHIPPED ONE CREATOR OR GOD AND THEY PRACTICED A RELIGION THAT HAS SPIRITS REGULATING THEIR DAILY LIFE,

THIS IS KNOWN AS ANIMISM.

NOT HAVING WRITTEN HISTORY, THE CULTURE WAS PASSED DOWN THROUGH THE YEARS BY GRIOTS, STORY TELLERS.

THE OLDEST KNOWN CITY IN AFRICA SOUTH OF THE SAHARA DESERT, DJENNE-DJENO

IT WAS A GREAT TRADE CENTER WITH BEING ON THE NIGER RIVER AND THE DESTINATION OF TRADE CARAVANS.

NOK IS EARLIEST KNOWN CULTURE LOCATED IN NIGERIA

THE KINGDOM OF AKSUM AND EAST AFRICAN TRADE

            AKSUM WAS THE CULTURE THAT DEVELOPED ON THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA.

THE LOCATION OF THE KINGDOM ALLOWED THEM TO CONTROL TRADE INTERNATIONALLY BY CONTROLLING THE GULF OF ADEN AND THE STRAITS SEPARATING THAT FROM THE RED SEA. THE KINGDOM’S BEGINNINGS WERE TRACED TO THE KING OF SOLOMON AND QUEEN OF SHEBA, THEIR SON CONTROLLED THIS KINGDOM.

NOT ONLY DID THEY CONTROL TRADE, THEY ALSO CONTROLLED PORTIONS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN PART OF ARABIA.

THIS KINGDOM WAS NEAR THE KUSH NATION

BELIEVING IN ONE GOD, BUT PRAYING TO ANCESTORS AND ARES THE GREEK GOD OF WAR CHRISTIANITY WAS EASILY AND WIDELY ACCEPTED. WHEN THE CHURCH SPLIT IN ROME AND BYZANTINE, RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHIES IN AFRICA SPLIT AS WELL, THE COPTIC CHURCH OF EGYPT AND ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH.

THE KINGDOM OF ASKUM LASTED 800 YEARS UNTIL THE MUSLIMS OVER RAN IT.

MIGRATION: CASE STUDY BANTU-SPEAKING PEOPLES

Chapter 15

Efe was a gathering –hunting society in Africa the family lives in a main shelter with room for everyone and were rarely permanent. The women were the gathers, finding yams, mushrooms and wild seeds. The men hunted animals and then collected honey from wild hives. Also the men would band together and hunt larger antelopes and then at times trade with other tribes or families for things that they did not have.

Did not have written laws but did have guidelines that needed to be followed. The families grouped themselves due to lineage, lineage includes past generations spirits of ancestors, and future generations and they have strong loyalties to each other.

They followed the same matriarchal and patriarchal ideas with ancestor or lineage traced through father or mother.

Muslim states in North Africa known as Maghrib. Based their laws on Muslim laws. Other groups, one was the Almoravid Dynasty, these people were called the Moor.

Almohads were move directed toward following the true path of Islamic peace.

Section 2

            Ghana, the leader of the Soninke and this name stuck for the naming of the territory. They grew rich from taxing the goods that the caravans carried. Gold and salt were the greatest trade items. Gold came from the Niger river and the salt came from the Sahara desert.  Some homes were mad e with blocks of salt. The leaders of Ghana accepted Islam and converted over the members of the area.

Mali emerged south of Ghana did much like Ghana did and soon the trade routes went through Mali. The first great leader of the Mali was Sundiata became the mansa or emperor. The most famous leader of the Mali was mansa musa he built great temples in Timbuktu. Mali lost power and then the next great empire flourished.

The Songhai built up an empire with the center city at Gao and controlled the trade routes. One great leader of the Songhai was Sunni Ali captured the city of Timbuktu and the great city of Jenne, which took seven years.

Askia Muhammad the leader for 35 years, and centralized the government. The Moroccan armies armed with gunpowder and guns defeated the Songhai and ended 1,000 years of rule.

The Hausa developed empire east of Mali and Songhai and was located in northern Nigeria. Zazzau had a great deal of slave trade between north or west Africa for horses, harnesses, guns.

Another group in Africa was the Yoruba, Ife and Oyo were the two largest kingdoms the political leaders decisions were reviewed by secret group of people. Near the delta of the Niger River, the Benin kingdom grew. Leader was descendant of the first king of Ife.  The people of Benin traded with the Portuguese using people as goods for the trade between Europe, North America, and Africa.

Section 3

            Eastern city states and southern empires

The Swahili language was created by the combination of Bantu and Arabic languages. The seaports grew wealthy as centers of trade.

Kilwa and Sofala were the center of trade for the eastern coast of Africa. The Muslims came to the area and created a great trade between the two areas for the trade of slaves.

Southern Africa and the great Zimbabwe an important area for trade and was a huge stoned city that had a stone wall surrounding it. Zimbabwe was settled by the Shona people and these people created another great empire according to oral tradition, Mutapa Empire was created.

Chapter 9            the Americas a separate world   

Hunters and farmers in the America

            First people to come to America came over the land bridge. This land bridge was between the Alaska and Russia was connected and then the bridge was named as Beringia

First people arrived in the Americas at the end of the Ice Age. Herds of animals from Siberia migrated across the flat treeless plains of the beringia land bridge, soon the people followed. Two locations, Clovis, New Mexico earliest evidence of mankind in Americas and Monte Verde, Chile believe people came to the Americas by 20,000 years ago.

Farming develop domestic crops for early inhabitants of the area. The settled people started maize, squashes, gourds, beans, avocados, and chilies. 

Section 2

            Early Mesoamerican civilization

Olmec is the people of southern Mexico known as the first civilization. The olmec known as “Mother Culture”

The olmec prayed to a variety of nature gods and built a series of temples. They moved 44-ton stones by follow structured organized by ruling class of priest and nobles. One city was San Lorenzo and the La Venta was another city where the researches discovered a 100-foot structure. Known as the great pyramid.

Worshipped natural occurring events or animals. The jaguar was worshipped because it was thought to have been the rain god. The religion of the area was based on nature. The decline of the Olmec was due to a variety of reasons but cant be exactly stated. Many believed that the olmec tore down their temples when there great leaders died. The olmec did not use writing or recorded records.

Zapotec was another civilization growing in Oaxaca lasted for a thousand years.

The first real urban center was in this region known as Monte Alban.  The loss of this civilization was the result of loss of trade or other economic difficulties without written records their fate is left unknown.

SECTION 3 EARLY CIVILIZATIONS OF THE ANDES

THE ANDES MOUNTAINS RANGE FOR 4000 MILES ALONG THE WEST COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA. MOST PEAKS ARE OVER 20000 FEET AND IN THE NORTHERN PART OF THE ANDES IN THE COUNTRY OF PERU.

CHAVIN PERIOD IN SOUTH AMERICA

            IN THIS AREA, ABOUT 10000 FEET HIGH BUILT TEMPLES AND OTHER ARTIFACTS RELIGIOUS IN NATURE.

NAZCA ACHIEVEMENTS

            KNOWN FOR THE BEAUTIFUL TETILES AND POTTERY, WHICH REPRESENTED IMAGES OF ANIMALS AND MYTHOLOGICAL BEINGS.

SOME OF THESE HUGE DRAWINGS COULD ONLY BE SEEN FROM THE AIR.  THIS WAS ALONG THE SOUTHERN COAST OF PERU.

            THE MOCHE CULTURE WHICH LASTED 600 YEARS, THEY BUILT HUGE IRRIGATION DITCHES TO PLANT CORN, BEANS, POTATOES, SQUASH, AND PEANUTS.

THEIR GROUP WAS THE WORKING OF THEIR RECORD INTO THE POTTERY OF THE

Chapter 16 section 1

            Complex societies grow, northwest coast growth of social classes

            Rank and wealth displayed by potlatch dinners.