POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN HISTORIC AFRICA

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POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN HISTORIC AFRICA
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POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN HISTORIC AFRICA

• Prehistoric Africa
• Ancient Africa
• Medieval Africa
• Early Modern Africa
• 19th Century Africa

Updated Slides 29 Jan
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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.

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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
• By 4000 BC farming began to yield surplus
• By 3500 BC Confederation of Lower and Upper Egypt

Lucy
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ANCIENT AFRICATHE 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.

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ANCIENT AFRICATHE KINGDOMS OF EGYPT

• The Old Kingdom (3100 2180 BC)
• 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)

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THE KINGDOMS OF EGYPT

• The Middle Kingdom (2080 - 1640 BC)
• Living Pharaohs no longer considered divine
• Commerce and Construction revived
• Conquered by Hyksos

Statue of Mentohotep, found at his temple in Deir
El Bahari
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THE KINGDOMS OF EGYPT

• The New Kingdom (1570-1090 BC)
• Began expanding
• Became earliest multicultural empire in Africa
• 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

King Tutankhamen
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THE KINGDOMS OF EGYPT

• 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

Queen Cleopatra
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Other Ancient African Civilizations

• 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

Axum Obelisk
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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

St Mary of Zion Church in Axum
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MEDIEVAL AFRICA

• The Age of Islam (640 1600 A.D.)
• 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

Pilgrimage to Mecca
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Age of Islam

• Originated in 7th century Arabia
• Muhammed assertion of divine revelations
• Messages written in Arabic in the Quran
• After the death of Mohammed, khalifas served as
  political leaders
• Children required to memorize the Quran by heart
• Interpretation of laws varies widely
• Sharia law

Quran
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Age of Islam

• 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

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Spread of Islam 622 - 750
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Age of Islam

• 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

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Age of Islam

• 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

14th century Catalan map showing Mansa Musa, king
of Timbuktu, holding a gold nugget which he is
offering to a Muslim merchant who is approaching
on camel.
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Age of Islam

• 19th Century Developments
• 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

Omani sultans of Zanzibar
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Age of Islam

• 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

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KINGDOMS OF WEST AFRICA

• Ghana (800 1200 AD)
• Mali (1230 1430 AD)
• Songhay (1464-1591 AD)
• Kingdoms eventually fragmented

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GHANA

• Ghana (800-1200 A.D.)
• Strategically locatedable to control the
  lucrative trans-Saharan trade
• Built large armies

Old Kingdom of Ghana
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MALI

• Mali (1230 1430 A.D.)
• 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

Kingdom of Mali
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EARLY MODERN AFRICA

• International Slave Trade (1440 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

Goree The slave island
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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)

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NINETEENTH CENTURY AFRICA

• 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

Muhammad Ali
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NINETEENTH CENTURY AFRICA

• West Africa
• By 1800, British were seizing slave ships and
  returning them to Sierra Leone
• Liberia established in 1847
• Freed African American slaves
• Ashanti Confederation (1690-1874)

The Liberian cabinet in the 1880s.
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NINETEENTH CENTURY AFRICA

• 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

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NINETEENTH CENTURY AFRICA

• East Africa
• Zanzibar
• Ruled by Omani sultans

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NINETEENTH CENTURY AFRICA

• Ethiopia
• Menelik II (1889-1912)
• Battle of Adwa
• Modernized Ethiopia

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POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN HISTORIC AFRICA

• Prehistoric Africa
• Ancient Africa
• Medieval Africa
• Early Modern Africa
• 19th Century Africa