1. 6th Grade UBD - Unit 8 - Growth of African Empires

2.  How did trade influence the politics and culture of African Empires?

3.  Empires Rise- In West Africa, there were three great empires. They gained power by controlling the gold and salt trades. These three empires controlled the Sahel region of West Africa for more than 900 years.  Trading Kingdoms- Other kingdoms developed in Africa based on trade. Some traded in gold, others in rare goods such as ivory and leopard skins. Most participated in the slave trade as well.

4.  Gold was mined in the forests of West Africa. It was desired by markets in North Africa and Europe.  Trade caravans crossed the Sahara to West Africa, carrying salt and other goods. They returned to North Africa with gold.  The empire of Ghana rose in the 300s CE. It grew rich by controlling the gold–salt trade. It was at the height of its power by the 800s CE.  The empire of Songhai was the largest of the West African empires. It was also the shortest-lived. It extended over most of the Sahel.

5.  The oldest fossils of human ancestors have been found in African sites ranging from Ethiopia to South Africa.  Stone tools made 2.5 million years ago have also been found in Eastern Africa.  Slowly, early humans spread across Africa before migrating to other continents. The humans that remained in Africa became farmers and herders.

6.  As the human population in Africa grew, societies became more complex. People began to trade with other regions. The income from trade helped build kingdoms.

7.  Three great African empires grew and flourished between about 800 and 1800.  Their strength was founded on controlling trade for the valuable natural resources of salt and gold.

8.  Salt is needed to replenish the natural salts lost through perspiration, or sweat, caused by the hot, humid climate of Africa.  Salt can also be used to preserve food, or keep it from spoiling.

9.  Salt mines, which were an important part of the trade and economy of early African empires, still exist today in Africa.

10. Video- How It's Made Salt

11.  Arab and Berber traders crossed the desert with camel caravans loaded down with salt.  They also carried cloth, weapons, and manufactured goods from ports on the Mediterranean to African cities.

12. Caravans are groups of people traveling together (normally across deserts) who band together for safety. Caravans are used to transport goods, people, and information from one place to another.

13.  By the 700s the African kingdom of Ghana and its rulers were growing rich by taxing the goods that traders carried through their territory.  Merchants met in trading cities, where they exchanged goods under the watchful eye of the king’s tax collector. In addition to taxing trade, royal officials made sure that all traders weighed goods fairly and did business according to law. Royal guards also provided protection from bandits.

14. Key Term Tax- A charge against a citizen's person or property or activity for the support of government.

15.  The two most important trade items were gold and salt. Gold came from a forest region south of the savanna between the Niger and Senegal rivers.  Miners dug gold from shafts as deep as 100 feet or sifted it from fast- moving streams. Some sources estimate that until about 1350, at least two-thirds of the world’s supply of gold came from West Africa.  Although rich in gold, West Africa’s savanna and forests lacked salt, a material essential to human life. The Sahara contained deposits of salt.

16.  Trade brought gold from southern Africa to northern Africa to trade for salt.  By taxing this trade and benefiting from it directly, Ghana became the first great African empire, followed by Mali and Songhai.

17. Key Term Merchant- A person who provides materials, products, or services to a buyer, usually in exchange for money.

18. Key Term Trade- The exchange of goods and services by sale or barter.

19. Reading Handout- Gold Mining

20.  By the year 800, Ghana had become an empire. Because Ghana’s king controlled trade and commanded a large army, he could demand taxes and gifts from the chiefs of surrounding lands. As long as the chiefs made their payments, the king left them in peace to rule their own people.

21.  In his royal palace, the king stored gold nuggets and slabs of salt (collected as taxes). Only the king had the right to own gold nuggets, although gold dust freely circulated in the marketplace. By this means, the king limited the supply of gold and kept its price from falling.

22. Key Term Supply and Demand- The term supply refers to the willingness and ability of producers to offer goods and services for sale. The term demand refers to the desire for a good or service and the ability to pay for it.

23.  Ghana’s African ruler acted as a religious leader, chief judge, and military commander. He headed a large bureaucracy and could call up a huge army.

24.  Mali’s wealth, like Ghana’s, was built on gold. As Ghana’s power declined, people who had been under its control began to act independently.  Miners also found new gold deposits farther east. This caused the most important trade routes to shift eastward, which made a new group of people—the people of Mali—wealthy. It also enabled them to seize power.

25.  During the time of the Mali Empire, traders from the north brought Islam to areas in West and Southern Africa.  The Mali Empire embraced Islam and built the great Muslim cultural and learning center of Timbuktu.

26. Video- Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa

27.  As Mali declined in the 1400s, people who had been under its control began to break away. Among them were the Songhai people to the east.  They built up an army and extended their territory to the large bend in the Niger River near Gao. They gained control of the all-important trade routes. Gao was the capital of their empire.

28.  At its largest, the Songhai Empire extended over an area as large as modern Europe and was governed by a provincial system.

29.  Empires rose in West Africa. They did this by taking control of trade routes between gold and salt mines.  In many ways, these empires were more developed than cultures in western Europe at the time.

30. Reading Handout- Global Trade in Africa

31.  Trade with Europeans allowed some Africans to gain power over its neighbors.  Merchants took advantage of the seasonal monsoon winds. They used ships called dhows to travel long distances across the ocean.  The Swahili had much contact with Arab traders. Swahili culture became a mixture of African and Arab culture.  The city of Great Zimbabwe controlled the gold trade between gold mines in southern Africa and the city-states on Africa’s eastern coast.

32.  Several smaller cultures benefited from trade with Europe and the Arabian Peninsula, including Kanem- Bornu, Benin, and Aksum.  Swahili traders carried religion and language to areas in central and southern Africa.

33. Key Term Dhow- A type of sailboat used in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea trade. It is still used today along the eastern coast of Africa.

34.  The great African empires were strongly influenced by the introduction of Islam there around 1000.  The pilgrimage of Mansa Musa, the great Muslim leader of the Mali Empire, to Mecca showed the countries of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula the empire’s great wealth.

35. Video- Islam Comes to Timbuktu

36.  Timbuktu, became a center for Islamic culture and education.  Later, the Songhai Empire introduced a political system of provinces and individual rulers to manage the large area under its control.

37.  The kingdoms of Kanem-Bornu, Benin, and Zimbabwe also grew strong because of trade, and their cultures were greatly influenced by foreign traders from other areas of Africa, as well as Europe and India.

38.  Trade between Portugal and Benin resulted in exquisite brass artwork and the introduction of the first guns into Africa.

39.  Aksum on Africa’s east coast remained Christian, while trading with many other cultures and Swahili traders established city- states based on trade across the Indian Ocean and incorporated many Arabian words into their native language.

40.  The Great Zimbabwe is a spectacular stone ruin of a city made up of three parts.  The Great Enclosure is the largest single ancient structure in Africa south of the Sahara.  The Hill Complex, begun in 900, is the oldest section.  The Valley Ruins include remnants of earthen and mud brick buildings.

41. Key Term Great Zimbabwe- Zimbabwe means “stone houses.” Great Zimbabwe refers to the complex stone city that became a center of trade.

42. Video- Clues to a Culture

43. Reading Handout- The Great Zimbabwe