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Fewer players as a result of the World War I. The Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russian Empire collapsed in the war. Britain and France, the winners in the war, dominate the continent.
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Early Civilizations Early Man Religion
Early hominids: 2,000,000 years ago 10,000 civilizations began to develop Economy Farming Trade: Romans, Arabia, & India Prospered because of iron & gold supplies Society Village community: center of life Women subordinate to men, different roles Slavery practiced Religion Christianity became official religion in 324 A.D. Faced conflict with Muslims starting in 12th c. Culture Early African arts served religious purposes African music & dance had significant & lasting influence Oral tradition WG1A, 2A, 13A, 15A, 18A The earliest known evidence anywhere in the world of the existence of man and the appearance of human civilization comes from Africa: the cradle of civilization and the origin of human society. In order to understand Africa's place in human evolution, one must first examine the geography of Africa. Geography is a great factor in history and nowhere is this more powerfully illustrated than in Africa. A landscape of tropical rainforest and winding rivers that existed 40 million years ago, in what is today the Sahara region of western Egypt, was the cradle of the primates from whom humanity has evolved. Despite the fact that this area of Africa is perceived to be the true cradle of humanity, not many fossils can be found. This again goes back to geography. Unlike the rest of the continent, East Africa transformed through faulting and volcanic activity between 23 and 5 million years ago. This was also true for South Africa. Because of this, these areas are characterized by rift valleys and highlands. These variations of height provided a range of environments in which living creatures, particularly early man, could flourish and survive such climatic changes as the ice age. The volcanic activity and the creation of soft new rock helped the discovery and dating of prehistoric remains. It is for these reasons, eastern and southern Africa provide a continuous and accurate record of human evolution. Around 6000 BCE, the River People emerge along Nile, Niger, and Congo Rivers (West-Central Africa). Spread of agriculture south of the Sahara Desert supporting a growing population, which mastered animal domestication and agriculture. Egypt ( BCE), Kingdoms of Ghana (300 AD-1240 AD), Songhai ( AD), Mali ( AD) : Prosperity based on trade, invasions led to decline (see textbook readings) There was a sharp gender division of labor: women dominated crop cultivation and domestic tasks; men cleared the forest, hunted, and traded. The population resided in small, family-based villages. Egyptians, among others, raided neighboring civilizations for slaves. Considering proximity of Africa to Israel, the spread of Christianity is not surprising. Both were part of the Roman Empire. Mansa Musa, King of Ghana, made a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 – which helped spread Islam along the route. Animist religions continue in many areas. No written language in many areas. Information passed orally. Arts important to maintaining heritage and history.
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“Scramble for Africa” 1881-1914
Source for Raw Materials European Nationalism Missionary Activity Industrial Revolution European Motives For Colonization Markets for Finished Goods Military & Naval Bases Social Darwinism A process of invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the New Imperialism period, between 1881 and World War I in This process was aided by European technology – steamships that allowed them to move inland upriver, improved rifles, and treatments for malaria. As a result of the heightened tension between European states in the last quarter of the 19th century, the partitioning of Africa at the Berlin Conference ( ) may be seen as a way for the Europeans to eliminate the threat of a Europe-wide war over Africa. The last 59 years of the 19th century saw transition from 'informal imperialism' of control through military influence and economic dominance to that of direct rule. Many African polities, states and rulers (such as the Ashanti, the Abyssinians, the Moroccans, the Dervishes and the Zulus) sought to resist this wave of European aggression. Technological superiority and a lack of unified opposition led to European domination in Africa. European Racism Places to Dump Unwanted/ Excess Popul. Humanitarian Reasons Soc. & Eco. Opportunities “White Man’s Burden”
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Berlin Conference 1884 Boundaries produced at the conference took little stock of realities on the ground and laid the framework for more than a century of civil strife Combined peoples of differing ethnic groups, religions, culture Grazing rights, water rights, and land rights become issues of conflict, as well as access to political power, education, and jobs Note Gambia on the map "The Berlin Conference was Africa's undoing in more ways than one. The colonial powers superimposed their domains on the African continent. By the time independence returned to Africa in 1950 At the time of the conference, 80% of Africa remained under traditional and local control. What ultimately resulted was a hodgepodge of geometric boundaries that divided Africa into fifty irregular countries. This new map of the continent was superimposed over the one thousand indigenous cultures and regions of Africa. The new countries lacked rhyme or reason and divided coherent groups of people and merged together disparate groups who really did not get along.
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Fewer players as a result of the World War I. The Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russian Empire collapsed in the war. Britain and France, the winners in the war, dominate the continent.
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Africa Culture Regions Today… Does it match current country borders?
Nations without states, states without regard to culture
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Apartheid in South Africa
: Apartheid (legal segregation) enforced by the white/British (Afrikaner) gov’t in South Africa Apartheid: legal racial segregation S – South African President de Klerk began negotiations to end apartheid in response to international pressure 1994 – Nelson Mandela elected first black president, after serving 27 years in prison for protesting against the govt
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Nelson Mandela jailed for 27 years in his fight against apartheid…
Nobody could’ve foreseen the end of apartheid.. Years of protest, violent and non-violent, had yielded little progress.
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Lived to vote in the first racially democratic election….1994
After retiring from the presidency, he became an international advocate for human rights
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And become president of South Africa…
Mandela was president from , building a coalition government of whites and blacks. (The movie “Invictus” depicts this well.) South African President Nelson Mandela, center, flanked by his two deputy presidents, Thabo Mbeki, left and F.W. de Klerk, right, celebrate the new constitution, May 8, 1996.
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South Africa post-Apartheid
Apartheid has ended but inequalities remain. Whites enjoy a standard of living similar to that of the most developed countries. Unemployment, AIDS, lack of housing, poverty and crime are the major problems today. Many blacks continue to live in slums surrounding the major cities.
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Nigeria’s Oil Industry
Oil found here in 1950’s Government corruption, civil war Oil $$ goes to the gov’t, not the infrastructure or the people of the country. Nigerian regulations are weak – foreign-owned oil companies self- regulate. Criticized for not protecting the various ethnic groups/tribes & the wildlife. Oil spills common One of the greatest threats facing the people of the Niger River Delta has actually been their own government. The leadership of the Niger Delta region are responsible for most of the underdevelopment in the region. There is large scale corruption amongst the elected leaders, especially governors. The leaders have helped sponsor the militant groups kidnapping innocent people and sabotaging efforts by the federal government for any infrastructure development. The Nigerian government has total control over property rights and they have the authority to seize any property for use by the oil companies. A majority of every dollar that comes out of the ground in the delta goes to the government of Nigeria. As the government officials siphon off all the money generated from oil sales, the infrastructure suffers. Most of the villages do not have electricity or even running water. They do not have good access to schools or medical clinics. For many, even clean drinking water is difficult to come by. The region could experience a loss of 40% of its inhabitable terrain in the next thirty years because of extensive dam construction in the region.
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Republic of South Sudan
Sudan in civil war since 1965. South became independent: July 9, 2011 (last summer!) Conflicts still exist Contested boundary lines (Abyei – see video link) S. Sudan gained billions of dollars worth of oil Sudan has been at war with itself for almost its entire post-colonial history, starting in After decades of fighting for independence from the north, southern Sudan seceded on July 9, 2011, and became the Republic of South Sudan, six months after nearly 99 percent of the region’s voters approved the split in an internationally-backed referendum. The south’s departure did not put an end to conflicts. Both nations face separatist movements within their own borders, and clashes along the new border have flared up regularly. While the two nations continued to discuss how to split lucrative oil revenues and the fate of the contested region of Abyei, a spreading rebellion inside Sudan prompted the Sudanese government to accuse the south of providing military support to the rebels. In November 2011, Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, denounced the Sudanese government for threatening what he called a “military invasion” of South Sudan. Mr. Kiir has accused the Sudanese government of bombing the South Sudanese area of Guffa, killing at least seven people and potentially moving insurgencies on both sides of the border closer to an international conflict. When South Sudan declared independence, it took billions of dollars’ worth of oil with it, gutting Sudan’s economy and creating one of the deepest crises that President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has faced in his more than 20 years in power.
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Rwanda Hutu-Tutsi Genocide
Belgian colonists favored Tutsi tribe. Divided into tribes based on looks. Tutsi believed to be of European descent (lighter skin, taller, larger skulls) Tutsi hold key jobs, Hutu treated poorly Belgians left Rwanda in 1961; Hutu fought back for the years of Belgian/Tutsi repression. April July 1994 Hutu killed Tutsi Goal: Eliminate all of the Tutsi (genocide) – Seen as a Civil War by the world, nothing was done to stop the Hutu 100 days – Over 1 million people dead/ 20% of the country’s population (men, women, children) Both groups speak the same Bantu tongues. as well as French, and generally practice Christianity -- and many geneticists have been hard-pressed to find marked ethnic differences between the two, though the Tutsi have generally been noted to be taller. German and Belgian colonizers tried to find differences between the Hutu and Tutsi in order to better categorize native peoples in their censuses. Generally, the Hutu-Tutsi strife stems from class warfare, with the Tutsis perceived to have greater wealth and social status (as well as favoring cattle ranching over what is seen as the lower-class farming of the Hutus). The Tutsis are thought to have originally come from Ethiopia, and arrived after the Hutu came from Chad. The Tutsis had a monarchy dating back to the 15th century; this was overthrown at the urging of Belgian colonizers in the early 1960s and the Hutu took power by force in Rwanda. In Burundi, however, a Hutu uprising failed and the Tutsis controlled the country. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda represents one of the clearest cases of genocide in modern history. From early April 1994 through mid-July 1994, members of the small Central African state's majority Hutu ethnic group systematically slaughtered members of the Tutsi ethnic minority. An extremist Hutu regime, fearing the loss of its power in the face of a democracy movement and a civil war, made plans for the elimination of all thoseoderate Hutu as well as Tutsit perceived as threats to its authority. The genocide ended only when a mostly Tutsi rebel army occupied the country and drove the genocidal regime into exile. Over a period of only one hundred days, as many as one million people lost their lives in the genocide and waraking the Rwandan slaughter one of the most intense waves of killing in recorded history. On April 6, 1994, the Hutu president of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana, was assassinated when his plane was shot down near Kigali International Airport. The current Hutu president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was also killed in the attack. This sparked the chillingly well-organized extermination of Tutsis by Hutu militias, even though blame for the plane attack has never been established. Sexual violence against Tutsi women was also widespread, and the United Nations only conceded that "acts of genocide" had likely happened after an estimated half-million Rwandans had already been killed. After the genocide and the Tutsis regaining control, about two million Hutus fled to Burundi, Tanzania (from where 500,000 were later expelled by the government), Uganda, and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the great focus of Tutsi-Hutu conflict is today. Tutsi rebels in the DRC accuse the government of providing cover for the Hutu militias.
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