The history of
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
begins with the first emergence of
Homo sapiensArchaic Homo sapiens is a loosely defined term used to describe a number of varieties of Homo, as opposed to anatomically modern humans , in the period beginning 500,000 years ago....
in
East AfricaEast Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
, continuing into its modern present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states.
Africa's written history starts with the rise of Egyptian civilization in the 4th millennium BC, and in succeeding centuries follows the development of the many diverse societies beyond the Nile Valley. From an early date this has involved critical interactions with non-African civilizations. These ranged from the Phoenicians, who established the merchant empire of Carthage, to the Romans, who colonised all of North Africa in the first century BC.
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
began its spread through large areas of northern Africa at this time, reaching as far south as Kush and Ethiopia. In the late 7th century, North and East Africa were heavily influenced by the
spread of IslamMuslim conquests , also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad...
, which eventually led to the appearance of new cultures such as those of the
Swahili peopleThe Swahili are a people and culture found on the coast of East Africa, mainly the coastal regions and the islands of Kenya and Tanzania, and north Mozambique. According to JoshuaProject, the Swahili number is at around 1,328,000. The number of Swahili speakers, on the other hand, numbers at around...
in East Africa, and powerful kingdoms including the
Songhai EmpireThe Songhai Empire, also known as the Songhay Empire, was an African state of west Africa. From the early 15th to the late 16th century, Songhai was one of the largest African empires in history. This empire bore the same name as its leading ethnic group, the Songhai. Its capital was the city of...
in the sub-saharan west. Farther south,
GhanaThe Ghana Empire or Wagadou Empire was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania, and Western Mali.This is believed to be the first of many empires that would rise in that part of Africa. It first began in the eighth century, when a dramatic shift in the economy of the Sahel area south of the...
,
OyoThe Oyo Empire was a West African empire of what is today southwestern Nigeria. The empire was established by the Yoruba in the 15th century and grew to become one of the largest West African states encountered by colonial explorers. It rose to preeminence through wealth gained from trade and its...
, and the
Benin EmpireThe Benin Empire or Edo Empire was a pre-colonial African state of modern Nigeria. It is not to be confused with the modern-day country called Benin .-Origin:...
developed with little influence from either Islam or Christianity. The rise of Islam led to an increase in the
Arab slave tradeThe Arab slave trade was the practice of slavery in the Arab World, namely West Asia, North Africa, East Africa and certain parts of Europe during their period of domination by Arab leaders. The trade was focused on the slave markets of the Middle East and North Africa...
that would culminate in the 19th century. This presaged the forced transport of African people and cultures to the
New WorldThe New World is one of the names used for the non-Afro-Eurasian parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and possibly Australia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia,...
in the
Atlantic slave tradeThe Atlantic slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trading, primarily of African people, to the colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. It lasted from the 16th to the 19th centuries...
, and the beginning of the European
scramble for AfricaThe Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa, was the result of conflicting European claims to African territory during the New Imperialism period, between the 1880s and the First World War in 1914....
. Africa's
colonialThe colonisation of Africa has a long history, the most famous phase being the European Scramble for Africa of the nineteenth century.- Ancient colonization :...
period lasted from the late 1800s until the advent of African independence movements in 1951, when Libya became the first former colony to become independent. Though
LiberiaLiberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2008 Census, the nation is home to 3,476,608 people and covers ....
being the first post-colonial independent country, established 1847. Modern African history has been rife with revolutions and wars as well as the growth of modern African economies and democratization across the continent.
African history has been a challenge for researchers in the field of
African studiesAfrican studies is the study of Africa, and can encompass such fields as social and economic development, politics, history, culture, sociology, anthropology or linguistics...
due to the scarcity of written sources in large parts of
Sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa is a geographical term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara, or those African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
. Scholarly techniques such as the recording of
oral historyOral history can be defined as the recording, preservation and interpretation of historical information, based on the personal experiences and opinions of the speaker....
,
historical linguisticsHistorical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages;...
, archeology and genetics have been crucial.
Prehistory
Paleolithic
According to paleontological, early hominid skull anatomy was similar to their close cousins, the great African apes, but they had adopted a
bipedBipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs, or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning "two feet"...
al form of locomotion, giving them a crucial advantage, as this enabled them to live in both forested areas and on the open
savannaA savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close...
at a time when Africa was drying up, with savanna encroaching on forested areas.
By 3 million years ago several
australopithecineAustralopithecus is a genus of extinct hominids, made up of the gracile australopiths, and formerly also included their larger relatives, the robust australopiths...
hominid species had developed throughout
southernSouthern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
,
easternEast Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
and
central AfricaCentral Africa is a core region of the African continent often considered to include Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
.
The next major evolutionary step occurred approximately 2 million years ago, when primitive stone tools were first used to scavenge kills made by other predators, and harvest carrion for their bones and marrow. In hunting,
H. habilis was probably not capable of competing with large predators, and was still more prey than hunter, although s/he probably did steal eggs from nests, and may have been able to catch small
gameGame is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...
, and weakened larger prey (cubs and older animals).
Around 1.8 million years ago
Homo erectusHomo erectus is an extinct species of the genus Homo, which originated in Africa and spread as far as China and Java. Depending on the definition of the species, it is considered to be either a direct ancestor of modern humans, or a separate species which co-existed with the distinct Homo...
first appeared in the fossil record in Africa, but nearly simultaneously in the fossil record of the
CaucasusThe Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
region. Some of the earlier representatives of this species were still fairly small brained and used primitive stone tools, much like
H. habilis. The brain later grew in size and
H. erectus eventually developed a more complex stone tool technology called the
AcheuleanAcheulean is the name given to an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture associated with prehistoric hominins during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia and Europe...
. Possibly the first hunters,
H. erectus mastered the art of making
fireFire is the rapid oxidation of a combustible material releasing heat, light, and various reaction products such as carbon dioxide and water. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma. Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the color of the flame and the...
, and were the first hominids to leave Africa, colonizing the entire
Old WorldThe Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans, Asians, and Africans in the 15th century.-Regions:The Old World includes Europe, Asia, and Africa , plus surrounding islands...
, and perhaps later giving rise to
Homo floresiensisHomo floresiensis is a possible species in the genus Homo, remarkable for its small body and brain and for its survival until relatively recent times. It was named after the Indonesian island of Flores on which the remains were found...
. Although some recent writers suggest that
H. georgicus, a
H. habilis descendant, was the first and most primitive hominid to ever live outside Africa, many scientists consider
H. georgicus to be an early and primitive member of the
H. erectus species.
The fossil record shows
Homo sapiens living in southern and eastern Africa at least 100,000 and possibly 150,000 years ago. Around 40,000 years ago, their expansion out of Africa launched the colonization of our planet by modern human-beings. Their migration is indicated by linguistic, cultural and (increasingly) computer-analyzed
geneticGenetics, , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding...
evidence.
Emergence of agriculture
NeolithicThe Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BCE in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age...
rock engravings, or '
petroglyphPetroglyphs are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...
s' and the
megalithA megalith is a large stone which has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. Megalithic describes structures made of such large stones, utilizing an interlocking system without the use of mortar or cement.The word 'megalith' comes from the...
s in the
SaharaThe Sahara , , "The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean...
desert of
LibyaLibya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa...
attest to early hunter-gatherer culture in the dry grasslands of North Africa during the glacial age. At the end of the
Ice AgeThe general term "ice age" or, more precisely, "glacial age" denotes a geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in an expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Within a long-term ice age, individual...
(perhaps around 10,500 BC), the Sahara had again become green and fertile, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands south of the Sahara. In
sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa is a geographical term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara, or those African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
agriculture arose possibly as early as the 15th millennium BC.
The region of the present
SaharaThe Sahara , , "The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean...
was an early site for the practice of
agricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
(in the second stage of the culture characterized by the so-called "wavy-line ceramics" ca. 4000 BCE.).
From this time the climate of the Sahara region gradually became drier. The population trekked out of the Sahara region in all directions, including towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Since then dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa.
After the
desertificationDesertification is the degradation of land in arid and dry sub-humid areas, resulting primarily from man-made activities and influenced by climatic variations...
of the Sahara, settlement in North Africa became concentrated in the valley of the
NileThe Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world....
, where the pre-literate
Nomes of EgyptA nome was a subnational administrative division of ancient Egypt. Today's use of the Greek nome rather than the Egyptian term sepat came about during the Ptolemaic period. Fascinated with Egypt, Greeks created many historical records about the country...
laid a base for the culture of
ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
. Archeological findings show that primitive tribes lived along the
NileThe Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world....
long before the dynastic history of the pharaohs began. By 6000 B.C., organized
agricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
had appeared.
People from the
Great Lakes RegionThe Great Lakes of Africa are a series of lakes in and around the geographic Great Rift Valley formed by the action of the tectonic East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second largest fresh water lake in the world in terms of surface area, and Lake Tanganyika, the world's second...
settled along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea to become the proto-Canaanites who dominated the lowlands between the Jordan River, the Mediterranean and the Sinai Desert.
By 3000 BC agriculture arose independently in
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
, where
coffeeCoffee is a brewed beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of "coffee cherries" that grow on trees in over 70 countries. It has been said that green coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world behind crude oil. Due to its...
,
teffTeff or taf , Amharic ጤፍ ṭēff, Tigrinya ጣፍ ṭaff) is an annual grass, a species of lovegrass native to the northern Ethiopian Highlands of northeastern Africa. It has an attractive nutrition profile, being high in dietary fiber and iron and providing protein and calcium. It has a sour taste...
,
finger milletFinger millet , also known as African millet or Ragi ರಾಗಿ in Kannada), is an annual plant widely grown as a cereal in the arid areas of Africa and Asia. Finger millet is originally native to the Ethiopian Highlands and was introduced into India approximately 4000 years ago...
,
sorghumSorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, some of which are raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
,
barleyBarley is a cereal grain derived from the annual grass Hordeum vulgare. It serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food. It is used in soups, stews and barley bread in various countries, such as Scotland and in Africa...
, and enset were grown. Donkeys were also independently domesticated somewhere in the region of Ethiopia and Somalia, but most domesticated animals spread there from the
SahelThe Sahel or Sahel Belt is a semi-arid tropical savanna and steppe ecoregion in Africa, which forms the transition between the Sahara to the north and the slightly less arid savanna belt to the south, known as the Sudan .-Geography:The Sahel runs 2,400...
and
NileThe Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world....
regions. Agricultural crops were also adopted from other regions around this time as
pearl milletPearl millet is the most widely grown type of millet. Grown in Africa and the Indian subcontinent since prehistoric times, it is generally accepted that pearl millet originated in Africa and was subsequently introduced into India. The earliest archaeological records in India date to 2000 BC, so...
,
cowpeaThe Cowpea is one of several species of the widely cultivated genus Vigna. Four cultivated subspecies are recognised:*Vigna unguiculata subsp. cylindrica Catjang*Vigna unguiculata subsp. dekindtiana...
,
groundnutThe peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume family native to South America, Mexico and Central America. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing 30 to 50 cm tall...
,
cottonCotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft,...
,
watermelonWatermelon refers to both fruit and plant of a vine-like herb originally from southern Africa and one of the most common types of melon...
and bottle gourds began to be grown agriculturally in both West Africa and the Sahel Region while finger millet,
peasP.E.A.S. is an acronym in artificial intelligence that stands for Performance, Environment, Actuators, Sensors.-Environment:The environment in which the agent operates. They are the described with the following main properties:...
,
lentilThe lentil or daal or dal , considered a type of pulse, is a bushy annual plant of the legume family, grown for its lens-shaped seeds...
and
flaxFlax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent. This is called as Agasi/Akshi in Kannada, Jawas/Javas or Alashi in Marathi...
took hold in Ethiopia.
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
preserved a unique language, culture and crop system. The crop system is adapted to the northern highlands and does not partake of any other area's crops. The most famous member of this crop system is
coffeeCoffee is a brewed beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of "coffee cherries" that grow on trees in over 70 countries. It has been said that green coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world behind crude oil. Due to its...
, but one of the more useful plants is
sorghumSorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, some of which are raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
, a dry-land grain;
teffTeff or taf , Amharic ጤፍ ṭēff, Tigrinya ጣፍ ṭaff) is an annual grass, a species of lovegrass native to the northern Ethiopian Highlands of northeastern Africa. It has an attractive nutrition profile, being high in dietary fiber and iron and providing protein and calcium. It has a sour taste...
is also endemic to the region.
Metallurgy
The first metal to be smelted in Africa was probably lead, with the oldest artifacts dating from Egypt of the fourth millennium BCE. Copper was already being used in Egypt during the predynastic period, and bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) came into use not long after 3000 BCE at the latest and in
NubiaNubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt...
around 1750 BCE. The use of gold and silver in Egypt also dates back to the predynastic period By the 1st millennium BCE, iron-working had been introduced in Northern Africa and quickly began spreading across the Sahara into regions further south.
MetalworkingMetalworking is the process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or large scale structures. The term covers a wide range of work from large ships and bridges to precise engine parts and delicate jewellery. It therefore includes a correspondingly wide range of skills,...
in Western Africa has been dated to earlier than the 2500 BCE and Iron working by the 16th Century BCE. Iron-working was fully established by roughly 500 BCE in areas of East and West Africa, though other regions did not begin iron-working until the early centuries CE. Some copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia and Ethiopia have been excavated in West Africa dating from around 500 BCE time period, suggesting that trade networks had been established by this time.
Central Africa
Around 1000 BC, Bantu migrants had reached the Great Lakes of East Africa. Halfway through that millennium, the Bantu had also settled as far south as the countries of what are now Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. One of the major events that occurred in Central Africa during this period was the establishment of the
Kanem EmpireThe Kanem Empire was located in the present countries of Chad and Libya. At its height it encompassed an area covering not only much of Chad, but also parts of southern Libya and eastern Niger...
in what is now
ChadChad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
. The Kanem Empire would flourish in the coming centuries setting the stage for future great states in the Sahel region of Africa.
Southern Africa
Settlements of
BantuThe Bantu languages constitute a grouping belonging to the Niger-Congo family. This grouping is deep down in the genealogical tree of the Bantoid grouping, which in turn is deep down in the Niger-Congo tree. By one estimate, there are 513 languages in the Bantu grouping, 681 languages in Bantoid,...
-speaking peoples, who were
ironIron is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 element and is therefore classified as a transition metal. Iron and iron alloys are by far the most common metals and the most common ferromagnetic materials in everyday use...
-using agriculturists and herdsmen, were already present south of the
Limpopo RiverThe Limpopo River rises in central southern Africa, and flows generally eastwards to the Indian Ocean. It is around long, with a drainage basin in size. Its mean annual discharge is 174.288 m³/s at its mouth...
by the 4th or 5th century (see
Bantu expansionThe Bantu expansion was a millennia-long series of migrations of speakers of the original proto-Bantu language group. This group is hypothesized to have originated from modern day Cameroon. A diffusion of language and knowledge spread among neighbouring populations, and a creation of new societal...
) displacing and absorbing the original Khoi-San speakers. They slowly moved south and the earliest ironworks in modern-day
KwaZulu-Natal ProvinceKwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994 the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and all pieces of territory that made up the homeland of KwaZulu....
are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the
XhosaThe Xhosa ) people are speakers of Bantu languages living in south-east South Africa, and in the last two centuries throughout the southern and central-southern parts of the country....
people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoi-San people, reaching the
Fish RiverThe Great Fish River is a river running through the South African province of the Eastern Cape. The river is long and flows into the Indian Ocean...
, in today's
Eastern Cape ProvinceThe Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho. It was formed in 1994 out of the "independent" homelands of Transkei and Ciskei, as well as the eastern portion of the Cape Province. Landing place and home of the 1820 settlers...
.
North Africa
Africa's earliest evidence of written history was in
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
, and the
Egyptian calendarThe ancient civil Egyptian calendar had a year that was 365 days long and was divided into 12 months of 30 days each, plus 5 extra days at the end of the year. The months were divided into 3 "weeks" of ten days each, an arrangement remarkably similar to the French Republican Calendar invented...
is still used as the standard for dating
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
and
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
cultures throughout the region.
In about 3100 B.C.
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
was united under the first known Narmer, who inaugurated the first of the 30 dynasties into which Egypt's ancient history is divided: the
OldThe Old Kingdom is the name commonly given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley .The...
,
Middle KingdomThe Middle Kingdom is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Fourteenth Dynasty, between 2080 BC and 1640 BC....
s and the New Kingdom. The pyramids at
GizaGiza is most famous as the location of the Giza Plateau: the site of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world, including a complex of ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, including the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a number of other large pyramids...
(near
CairoCairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
), which were built in the
Fourth dynastyThe Fourth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, also written as Dynasty 4 and Dynasty IV, is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom. The fourth dynasty lasted from from ca. 2575 to 2467 BCE...
, testify to the power of the pharaonic religion and state. The Great Pyramid, the tomb of
PharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
KhufuKhufu was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom. He reigned from around 2589 to 2566 B.C.E Khufu was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He is generally accepted as being the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World...
(also known as Cheops), is the only surviving monument of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient WorldThe Seven Wonders of the World is a well known list of seven remarkable constructions of classical antiquity. It was based on guidebooks popular among the ancient Hellenic tourists...
. Ancient Egypt reached the peak of its power, wealth, and territorial extent in the period called the New Empire (1567–1085 B.C.).
The importance of
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
to the development of the rest of Africa has been debated. The earlier generation of Western academia generally saw Egypt as a Mediterranean civilization with little impact on the rest of Africa. Recent scholarship however, has begun to discredit this notion. Some have argued that various early Egyptians like the Badarians probably migrated northward from Nubia, while others see a wide-ranging movement of peoples across the breadth of the Sahara before the onset of
desiccationDesiccation is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying. A desiccant is a hygroscopic substance that induces or sustains such a state in its local vicinity in a moderately-well sealed container.-Science:-Desiccator:...
. Whatever may be the origins of any particular people or civilization, however, it seems reasonably certain that the Predynastic communities of the Nile valley were essentially indigenous in culture, drawing little inspiration from sources outside the continent during the several centuries directly preceding the onset of historical times... (
Robert July, Pre-Colonial Africa, 1975, p. 60-61)
Just prior to
SaharaThe Sahara , , "The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean...
n
desertA desert is a landscape or region that receives almost no precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system,...
ification, the communities that developed south of Egypt, in what is now modern day
SudanSudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and in the Arab World, and tenth largest in the world by area...
, were full participants in the
Neolithic revolutionHowever, the Neolithic Revolution involved far more than the adoption of a limited set of food-producing techniques. During the next millennia it would transform the small, mobile and fairly egalitarian groups of hunter-gatherers that had hitherto dominated human history, into sedentary societies...
and lived a settled to semi-nomadic lifestyle with domesticated plants and animals. Megaliths found at
Nabta PlayaNabta Playa was once a large basin in the Nubian Desert, located approximately 800 kilometers south of modern day Cairo or about 100 kilometers west of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, 22° 32' north, 30° 42' east...
are examples of probably the world's first known
archaeoastronomyArchaeoastronomy is the study of how past people "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used phenomena in the sky and what role the sky played in their cultures." Clive Ruggles argues it specifically is not the study of ancient astronomy, as astronomy is a culturally specific concept...
devices, out dating Stonehenge by some 1000 years.
http://www.planetquest.org/learn/nabta.html This complexity, as observed at Nabta Playa, and expressed by different levels of authority within the society there, likely formed the basis for the structure of both the Neolithic society at Nabta and the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The early A-group peoples, whom inhabited today's northern Sudan and were contemporary with pre-dynastic Naquadan Upper Egypt, were responsible for what may have been one of the oldest known kingdoms in the Nile valley, which the Egyptians called "Ta-seti" (Land of the Bow). Their demise with the onset of Dynastic Egypt, later gave rise to such Kingdoms as
KushThe Kingdom of Kush or Cush was an ancient African state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what is now the Republic of Sudan. It was one of the earliest civilizations to develop in the Nile River Valley...
,
KermaThe Kingdom of Kerma was a state in Nubia from around 2500 BC to about 1520 BC. It was based in the city of Kerma in Upper Nubia and emerged as a major centre during the Middle Kingdom period of Egypt...
and
MeroeMeroë is the name of an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum. Near the site are a group of villages called Bagrawiyah. This city was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush for several...
whom collectively comprised what is sometimes referred to as
NubiaNubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt...
. The last of the kingdoms would see their final devastating blow by a leader of a rising Kingdom in Ethiopia,
Ezana of AxumEzana of Axum , was ruler of the Axumite Kingdom located in present-day Tigray, northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen, he himself employed the style "king of Saba and Salhen, Himyar and Dhu-Raydan."...
, effectively bringing to an end the classical Nubian civilizations.
Separated by the 'sea of sand', the Sahara,
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
and
Sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa is a geographical term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara, or those African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
have been linked by fluctuating
trans-Saharan tradeTrans-Saharan trade is trade across the Sahara between Mediterranean countries and sub-Saharan Africa. While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of such trade extended from the eighth century until the late sixteenth century....
routes largely between northwest and northeastern Africans and the
Berber peopleBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the...
s, Bedouins and
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
s. Phoenician, Greek and Roman history of North Africa can be followed in entries for the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
and for its individual provinces in the
MaghrebThe Maghreb , also rendered Maghrib , meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is a region in North Africa. The term is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the...
, such as
MauretaniaIn Antiquity, Mauretania was originally an independent Berber kingdom on the Mediterranean coast of north Africa , corresponding to western Algeria, northern Morocco and Spanish Plazas de soberanía. The Mauri people were indicated with the Greek word mauros, black...
, Africa,
TripolitaniaTripolitania or Tripolitana is a historic region and former province of Libya, situated alongside Cyrenaica and Fezzan...
,
CyrenaicaCyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya and also an ex-province or state of the country in the pre-1963 administrative system. What used to be Cyrenaica in the old system is now divided up into several "shabiyat"...
, Aegyptus etc.
Countries bordering the
MediterraneanThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
were colonised and settled by the
PhoeniciaPhoenicia what is now modern day Lebanon, was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and Palestine...
ns before 1000 BC.
CarthageCarthage refers both to an ancient city in present-day Tunisia, and a modern-day suburb of Tunis. The civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic or Carthaginian...
, founded about 814 BC, speedily grew into a city without rival in the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians subdued the
BerberBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the...
tribes who, then as now, formed the bulk of the population, and became masters of all the habitable region of North Africa west of the Great Syrtis, and found in commerce a source of immense prosperity.
Greeks founded the city of
CyreneCyrene was an ancient Greek colony in present-day Shahhat; Libya, the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region. It gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times.Cyrene lies in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar uplands...
in
Ancient LibyaAncient Libya was the region west of the Nile Valley generally corresponding to modern Northwest Africa. Climate changes affected the locations of the settlements....
around 631 BC.
CyrenaicaCyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya and also an ex-province or state of the country in the pre-1963 administrative system. What used to be Cyrenaica in the old system is now divided up into several "shabiyat"...
became a flourishing colony, though being hemmed in on all sides by absolute desert it had little or no influence on inner Africa. The Greeks, however, exerted a powerful influence in Egypt. To
Alexander the GreatAlexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great , was an Ancient Greek king of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history...
the city of
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
owes its foundation (
332 BC-Persian Empire:* The Persian King Darius III twice sends Alexander letters of friendship. The second time he offers a large ransom for his family, the ceding of all of the Persian Empire west of the Euphrates River, and the hand of his daughter in return for an alliance...
), and under the Hellenistic dynasty of the
PtolemiesThe Ptolemaic dynasty was a Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period...
attempts were made to penetrate southward, and in this way was obtained some knowledge of Ethiopia.
From around 500 B.C. to around 500 A.D., the civilization of the
GaramantesThe Garamantes were a Saharan Berber people who used an elaborate underground irrigation system, and founded a prosperous kingdom in the Fezzan area of modern-day Libya, in present-day Sahara desert...
(probably the ancestors of the
TuaregThe Tuareg are a Berber nomadic pastoralist people. They are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa...
) existed in what is now the Libyan desert.
The three powers of Cyrenaica, Egypt and Carthage were eventually supplanted by the Romans. After centuries of rivalry with Rome, Carthage finally fell in
146 BC-Rome:*With Carthage and Greece conquered, Rome becomes the sole superpower in the Mediterranean world, a distinction it will continue to hold for approximately the next 700 years.-Africa:...
. Within little more than a century Egypt and Cyrene had become incorporated in the Roman empire. Under Rome the settled portions of the country were very prosperous, and a Latin strain was introduced into the land. Though
FezzanFezzan is a south-western region of modern Libya. It is largely desert but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys in the north, where oases enable ancient towns and villages to survive deep in the otherwise inhospitable Sahara.- Administrative division :Fezzan was formerly a province...
was occupied by them, the Romans elsewhere found the Sahara an impassable barrier.
NubiaNubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt...
and Ethiopia were reached, but an expedition sent by the emperor
NeroNero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great uncle Claudius to become heir to the throne...
to discover the source of the Nile ended in failure. The utmost extent of Mediterranean geographical knowledge of the continent is shown in the writings of
PtolemyClaudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Greek ancestry. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer and a poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under the Roman Empire, and is believed to have been born in the town of...
(2nd century), who knew of or guessed the existence of the great lake reservoirs of the Nile, of trading posts along the shores of the
Indian OceanThe Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by South Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean...
as far south as
RhaptaRhapta was a marketplace on the coast of eastern Africa, which first rose to prominence in the first century CE. Its location has not yet been firmly identified, although there are a number of plausible candidate sites....
in modern
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
, and had heard of the river
NigerNiger , officially the Republic of Niger is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
.
Interaction between Asia, Europe and North Africa during this period was significant, major effects include the spread of classical culture around the shores of the Mediterranean; the continual struggle between Rome and the Berber tribes; the introduction of Christianity throughout the region, and the cultural effects of the churches in Tunisia, Egypt and Ethiopia. The classical era drew to a close with the invasion and conquest of Rome's African provinces by the Vandals in the 5th century. Power passed back in the following century to the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
.
Horn of Africa
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
had centralized rule for many millennia and the Aksumite Kingdom, which developed there, had created a powerful regional merchant empire with trade routes going as far as
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
.
According to the
Periplus of the Erythraean SeaThe Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a Greek periplus, describing navigation and trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports like Berenice along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along Northeast Africa and India...
, merchant communities in northern
SomaliaSomalia , officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa...
that had already been present by the 1st century were also trading
frankincenseFrankincense, also called olibanum , is an aromatic resin obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia, particularly Boswellia sacra , Boswellia frereana, Boswellia bhaw-dajiana...
and other items with the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula as well as with then
RomanThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
-controlled
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
through such ports as
ZeilaZeila is a port city on the Gulf of Aden coast and is located in the Awdal region of Somalia near the Djibouti border.It is located at , surrounded on three sides by the sea; landward the country is unbroken desert for some fifty miles...
and
BerberaBerbera is a city in northwestern Somalia. It was for centuries the capital of the Somaliland region and also the colonial capital of British Somaliland from 1870 to 1941 when it was moved to Hargeisa...
.
East Africa
Historically, the Swahili could be found as far north as northern Kenya, and as far south as Rovuma River in Mozambique. Although once believed to be the descendants of Persian colonists, the ancient Swahili are now recognized by most historians, historical linguists, and archaeologists as a Bantu people who had sustained and important interactions with Muslim merchants beginning in the late 7th and early 8th century AD.
Middle Age
Swahili Kingdoms-History:Thousands of years ago, the eastern coast of Africa was seen as highly valuable commercial land. Therefore, many Muslims and Bantu-speaking people migrated and settled along the African coast. Due to this combination of peoples, a unique language and culture arose on the eastern coast...
are known to have had trade port islands and trade routes with the Islamic world and Asia and were described by Greek historians are "metropolises". Famous African trade ports such as
MombasaMombasa is the second largest city in Kenya, lying on the Indian Ocean. It has a major port and an international airport. The city is the centre of the coastal tourism industry. The original Arabic name is Manbasa; in Swahili it is called Kisiwa Cha Mvita , which means "Island of War", due to the...
,
ZanzibarZanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of the United Republic of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
, and
KilwaKilwa Kisiwani is a community on an island off the coast of East Africa, in present day Tanzania.- History :In the 4th century it was sold to a trader Ali bin Al-Hasan, and over the following centuries it grew to be a major city and trading centre along that coast, and inland as far as Zimbabwe...
were known to Chinese sailors such as
Zheng HeZheng He , was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat and fleet admiral, who made the voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Africa, collectively referred to as the travels of "Eunuch Sanbao to the Western Ocean" or "Zheng He to the Western Ocean", from 1405 to 1433.-Life:Zheng He...
and medieval Islamic historians such as the Berber Islamic voyager
Abu Abdullah ibn BattuaIbn Battuta was a Moroccan berber scholar and traveller who is known for the account of his travels and excursions called the Rihla...
.
7th to 16th century
From the 7th century onward
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
ic religious and cultural influence replaced that of
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
across much of northern Africa. Only in Egypt under Arab rule, and where independence was maintained in
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
, did Christianity survive in any strength. In this period Islamic influence spread slowly south toward sub-saharan kingdoms like the
Songhai EmpireThe Songhai Empire, also known as the Songhay Empire, was an African state of west Africa. From the early 15th to the late 16th century, Songhai was one of the largest African empires in history. This empire bore the same name as its leading ethnic group, the Songhai. Its capital was the city of...
, and along the Indian Ocean coast, although it never penetrated the
Benin EmpireThe Benin Empire or Edo Empire was a pre-colonial African state of modern Nigeria. It is not to be confused with the modern-day country called Benin .-Origin:...
or the other civilisations of the forest-belt south of the savannah.
Muslim Arabs conquered northern Africa from the Red Sea to the
AtlanticThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
and continued into
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
beginning with the invasion of Egypt in the 7th century. Throughout North Africa Christianity nearly disappeared, except in Egypt where the
Coptic Churchstyle="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float:...
remained strong partly because of the influence of
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
. Some argue that when the Arabs had converted Egypt they attempted to wipe out the Copts,
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
, who also practiced Coptic Christianity, warned the Muslims that if they attempted to wipe out the Copts, Ethiopia would decrease the flow of water from Lake Tana into the Blue Nile which flows into the greater Nile. This is speculated to be one of the reasons that the Coptic minorities still exist today.
North and east Africa
The first Arab immigrants had recognized the authority of the
caliphsThe term caliphate refers to the first form of government inspired by Islam. It was initially led by Muhammad's disciples as a continuation of the political authority the prophet established, known as the 'rashidun caliphates'. It represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah, and was the...
of
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
, and the Aghlabite dynasty—founded by Aghlab, one of Haroun al-Raschid's generals, at the close of the 8th century—ruled as vassals of the caliphate. However, early in the 10th century the
FatimidThe Fatimid Caliphate or al-Fātimiyyūn was an Arab Shi'a dynasty that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Egypt, Sicily, Malta and the Levant from 5 January 909 to 1171. The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the Egyptian city of Cairo as their capital. The term Fatimite is...
dynasty established itself in Egypt, where
CairoCairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
had been founded AD 968, and from there ruled as far west as the Atlantic. Later still arose other dynasties such as the Almoravides and Almohades. Eventually the
TurksTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
, who had conquered
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
in 1453, and had seized Egypt in 1517, established the regencies of
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
, Tunisia and
TripoliTripolitania or Tripolitana is a historic region and former province of Libya, situated alongside Cyrenaica and Fezzan...
(between 1519 and 1551),
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
remaining an independent Arabized Berber state under the Sharifan dynasty, which had its beginnings at the end of the 13th century.
In the 11th century there was a sizable Arab immigration to North Africa, resulting in a large absorption of Berber culture. Even before this the Berbers had generally adopted the speech and religion of their conquerors. Arab influence and the Islamic religion thus became indelibly stamped on northern Africa. Together they spread southward across the Sahara. They also became firmly established along the eastern seaboard, where Arabs,
PersiaIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
ns and
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
ns planted flourishing colonies, such as Mombasa, Malindi and Sofala. In this they played a maritime and commercial role analogous to that filled in earlier centuries by the Carthaginians on the northern seaboard. Until the 14th century, Europe and the Arabs of North Africa were both ignorant of these eastern cities and states.
Under the early Arab dynasties,
MoorishThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
culture had attained a high degree of sophistication, while the spirit of adventure and the proselytizing zeal of the followers of Islam led to a considerable extension of their knowledge of the continent. The
camelCamels are even-toed ungulates within the genus Camelus. The dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the Bactrian camel has two humps. They are native to the dry desert areas of western Asia, and central and east Asia, respectively...
, first introduced into Africa by the Persian conquerors of Egypt in 500 BC, enabled the Arabs to traverse the desert more easily. In this way Senegambia and the middle Niger regions were drawn into the Islamic sphere of influence, becoming key centres of the trans-Saharan trade and for the exchange of ideas.
For a time the African Muslim conquests in southern Europe had virtually made of the Mediterranean a
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
lake, but the expulsion in the 11th century of the Saracens from
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
and southern
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
by the
NormansThe Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. They descended from Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
was followed by European attacks on Tunisia and Tripoli. Somewhat later a busy trade with the African coastlands, and especially with Egypt, was developed by Venice,
PisaPisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
,
GenoaGenoa is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. The city has a population of about 610,000 and the urban area has a population of about 900,000...
and other cities of North Italy. By the end of the 15th century Spain had expelled its Muslim rulers, but even while the Moors remained in
GranadaGranada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain.- Overview :The city of Granada is placed at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, Beiro, Darro and Genil, at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
was strong enough to carry the war into Africa. In 1415 a Portuguese force captured the citadel of
CeutaCeuta is an autonomous city of Spain located on the North African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, on the Mediterranean, which separates it from the Spanish mainland. The area of Ceuta is approximately ....
on the Moorish coast. From that time onward Portugal repeatedly interfered in the affairs of Morocco, while Spain acquired ports in Algeria and Tunisia.
Portugal, however, suffered a crushing defeat in 1578 at al Kasr al Kebir. The Moors were led by
Abd el Malek IAbu Marwan Abd al-Malik I was the Sultan of the Saadi Dynasty from 1576 until his death at the Battle of Alcazarquivir against Portugal in 1578.-Reign:...
of the then recently established
Saadi DynastyThe Saadi Dynasty , began with the reign of Sultan Mohammed ash-Sheikh in 1554. From 1509 to 1554 they had ruled only in the south of Morocco. The Saadian rule ended in 1659 with the end of the reign of Sultan Ahmad el Abbas...
. The Barbary states, under the influence of Moors expelled from Spain, degenerated into communities of pirates, and under Turkish influence civilization and commerce declined. The story of these states from the beginning of the 16th century to the third decade of the 19th century, is largely made up of piratical exploits on the one hand and of ineffectual reprisals on the other.
West Africa
By the 9th century AD a string of dynastic states, including the earliest
Hausa states, stretched across the sub-saharan savannah from the western coast to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were
GhanaThe Ghana Empire or Wagadou Empire was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania, and Western Mali.This is believed to be the first of many empires that would rise in that part of Africa. It first began in the eighth century, when a dramatic shift in the economy of the Sahel area south of the...
,
Gao||-||-||}Gao is a city in Mali and capital of the Gao Region on the River Niger, with a population of 57,978 in 2005. It is also the capital of the surrounding cercle of Gao.- History :...
, and the
Kanem-Bornu EmpireKanem-Bornu Empire might refer to:* Kanem Empire, the Ancient African state founded in the 8th century in what is modern day Chad* Bornu Empire, the Medieval African state which continued the dynasty of the Kanem state from what is modern day Nigeria and Niger....
. Ghana declined in the 11th century but was succeeded by the
Mali Empire|native_name = Manden Kurufa|conventional_long_name = Mali Empire|common_name = Mali Empire|continent = Africa|region = North-West Africa|country = [Mali]|status = Empire|government_type g = Constitutional monarchy||year_start = 1230s...
which consolidated much of western Sudan in the 13th century. Kanem accepted Islam in the 11th century. Islam then spread through the interior of
West AfricaWest Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries distributed over an area of approximately 5 million square km:*Benin...
, as the religion of the
mansaMansa is a Mandinka word meaning "king of kings". It is particularly associated with the Keita Dynasty of the Mali Empire, which dominated West Africa from the thirteenth to the fifthteenth century...
s of the
Mali Empire|native_name = Manden Kurufa|conventional_long_name = Mali Empire|common_name = Mali Empire|continent = Africa|region = North-West Africa|country = [Mali]|status = Empire|government_type g = Constitutional monarchy||year_start = 1230s...
(c. 1235–1400). Following the fabled 1324
hajjThe Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca . It is currently the largest annual pilgrimage in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
of
Kankan Musa IMansa Kankou Musa was the tenth mansa or emperor of the Mali Empire during its height. He ruled as mansa from 1312 to 1337. Musa is most noted for his 1324 hajj to Mecca and his role as a benefactor of Islamic scholarship.-Birth:...
,
TimbuktuTimbuktu is a city in Tombouctou Region, in the West African nation of Mali. It was made prosperous by Mansa Musa, tenth mansa of the Mali Empire...
became renowned as a centre of Islamic scholarship and as the location of sub-Saharan Africa's first university. That city had been reached in 1352 by the great Arab traveler
Ibn BattutaIbn Battuta was a Moroccan berber scholar and traveller who is known for the account of his travels and excursions called the Rihla...
, whose journey to Mombasa and Quiloa (Kilwa) provided the first accurate knowledge of those flourishing Muslim cities of the
SwahiliThe Swahili are a people and culture found on the coast of East Africa, mainly the coastal regions and the islands of Kenya and Tanzania, and north Mozambique. According to JoshuaProject, the Swahili number is at around 1,328,000. The number of Swahili speakers, on the other hand, numbers at around...
on the east African seaboards.
Following the breakup of Mali a local leader named
Sonni AliSonni Ali, also known as Sunni Ali Ber or "Sunni Ali", was born Ali Kolon. He reigned from about 1464 to 1492. Sunni Ali was the first great king of the Songhai Empire, located in west Africa and the 15th ruler of the Sonni dynasty...
(1464 -1492) founded the
Songhai EmpireThe Songhai Empire, also known as the Songhay Empire, was an African state of west Africa. From the early 15th to the late 16th century, Songhai was one of the largest African empires in history. This empire bore the same name as its leading ethnic group, the Songhai. Its capital was the city of...
in the region of middle Niger and the western Sudan and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized
TimbuktuTimbuktu is a city in Tombouctou Region, in the West African nation of Mali. It was made prosperous by Mansa Musa, tenth mansa of the Mali Empire...
in 1468 and
JenneJenne can refer to:*Djenné, a city of Mali*Jenne, a city and comune in the province of Rome...
in 1473, building his regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. His successor Askiya Mohammad Ture (1493 - 1528) made Islam the official religion, built mosques, and brought Muslim scholars, including al-Maghili (d.1504), the founder of an important tradition of Sudanic African Muslim scholarship, to Gao. By the 11th century some
Hausa states - such as
KanoKano is the state capital of Kano State in northern Nigeria. Kano is the largest city in Nigeria - with an estimated population in 2007 of 9,848,885. The principal inhabitants of the city are the Hausa people...
, jigawa,
KatsinaKatsina is a city, formerly a city-state, in northern Nigeria, and is the capital of Katsina State. Katsina is located some 160 miles East of the city of Sokoto, and 84 miles Northwest of Kano, close to the border with Niger at approximately .As of 2007, Katsina's estimated population was 459,022...
, and
GobirGobir was a city-state in what is now Nigeria. Founded by the Hausa in the eleventh century, Gobir was one of the seven original kingdoms of Hausaland, and continued under Hausa rule for nearly seven hundred years. Its capitol was the city of Alkalawa...
- had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing
caravansA camel train is a series of camels carrying goods or passengers in a group as part of a regular or semi-regular service between two points.-North Africa, Asia and the Middle East:...
, and the manufacture of goods. Until the 15th century these small states were on the periphery of the major Sudanic empires of the era, paying tribute to Songhai to the west and Kanem-Borno to the east.
Arab progress southward was stopped by the broad belt of dense forest, stretching almost across the continent somewhat south of 10° North latitude, which barred their advance much as the Sahara had proved an obstacle to their predecessors. The rain forest cut them off from knowledge of the Guinea coast and of all Africa beyond. One of the regions which was the last to come under Arab rule was that of Nubia, which had been controlled by Christians up to the 14th century.
In the forested regions of the West African coast, independent kingdoms grew up with little influence from the Muslim north.
IfeIfe is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria. Evidence of urbanization at the site has been discovered to date back to roughly 500 AD. It is located in present day Osun State, with a population of 501,952.-About:...
, historically the first of these
YorubaYoruba may refer to:* Yoruba name, name of a Yoruba person* Yoruba Culture, culture of the Yoruba tribe* Yoruba people, a West African ethnic group* Yoruba language, the language spoken by the Yoruba people...
city-states, established government under a priestly king, or
Oni. Ife was noted as the religious and cultural centre of the region, and for its unique naturalistic tradition of bronze sculpture. The Ife model of government was adapted at
OyoThe Oyo Empire was a West African empire of what is today southwestern Nigeria. The empire was established by the Yoruba in the 15th century and grew to become one of the largest West African states encountered by colonial explorers. It rose to preeminence through wealth gained from trade and its...
, where a member of its ruling dynasty controlled several smaller city-states. By the 15th century the Oyo Empire had cut off the mother city from the savanna. Yorubaland established a community in the Edo-speaking area east of Ife at the beginning of the 14th century. This developed into the
Benin EmpireThe Benin Empire or Edo Empire was a pre-colonial African state of modern Nigeria. It is not to be confused with the modern-day country called Benin .-Origin:...
. By the 15th century Benin had become an independent trading power, blocking Ife's access to the coastal ports. Benin, which may have housed 100,000 inhabitants at its height, spread over twenty-five square kilometres, and was enclosed by three concentric rings of earthworks. By the late 15th century Benin was in contact with
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
. At its apogee in the 16th and 17th centuries, Benin encompassed parts of southeastern Yorubaland and the western Igbo.
Monomotapa was a medieval kingdom (c. 1250-1629) which used to stretch between the
ZambeziThe Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is 1,390,000 km² , slightly less than half that of the Nile...
and
LimpopoThe Limpopo River rises in central southern Africa, and flows generally eastwards to the Indian Ocean. It is around long, with a drainage basin in size. Its mean annual discharge is 174.288 m³/s at its mouth...
rivers of
Southern AfricaSouthern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
in the modern states of
ZimbabweZimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers...
and
MozambiqueMozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest. It was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498...
. It enjoys great fame for the ruins at its old capital of
Great ZimbabweThe Great Zimbabwe, or "stone buildings", is the name given to the stone ruins spread out over a 722 hectare area within the modern-day country of Zimbabwe, which itself is named after the ruins. It is near the town of Masvingo, which before majority rule was called Fort Victoria...
.
In 1487,
Bartolomeu DiasBartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so, although some historians credit Herodotus's account of a Phoenician expedition that achieved the feat under...
became the first European to reach the southernmost tip of Africa.
European exploration
During the fifteenth century Prince
Henry "the Navigator,"Henry the Navigator was an infante of the Kingdom of Portugal and an important figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire, being responsible for the beginning of the European worldwide explorations.Henry the Navigator was the third child of King John I of Portugal, the founder of the Aviz...
son of King
John IJohn I , called the Good or of Happy Memory, was the tenth King of Portugal and the Algarve and the first to use the title Lord of Ceuta...
, planned to acquire African territory for Portugal. Under his inspiration and direction Portuguese navigators began a series of voyages of exploration which resulted in the circumnavigation of Africa and the establishment of Portuguese sovereignty over large areas of the coastlands.
Portuguese ships rounded
Cape BojadorCape Bojador or Cape Boujdour is a headland on the northern coast of Western Sahara, at 26° 07' 37"N, 14° 29' 57"W...
in 1434,
Cape VerdeCap-Vert is a peninsula in Senegal, and the westernmost part of the continent of Africa. Originally called Cabo Verde or "Cape Green" by Portuguese explorers, it is not to be confused with the Cape Verde islands, which are some further west...
in 1445, and by 1480 the whole
GuineaGuinea, officially Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa formerly known as French Guinea . The country's current population is estimated at 10,211,437 ....
coast was known to the Portuguese. In 1482
Diogo CãoDiogo Cão was a Portuguese explorer and one of the most remarkable navigators of the golden age of the discoveries, who made two voyages sailing along the west coast of Africa in the 1480s.He is well known in Angola, because of him the country was a Portuguese colony & has close ties with Portugal...
reached the mouth of the
CongoThe Congo River is the largest river in Western Central Africa. Its overall length of 4,700 km makes it the second longest in Africa .-Background:...
, the
Cape of Good HopeThe Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of South Africa. There is a very common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa and the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, but in fact the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about...
was rounded by
Bartolomeu DiasBartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so, although some historians credit Herodotus's account of a Phoenician expedition that achieved the feat under...
in 1488, and in 1498
Vasco da GamaDom Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the European Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
, after having rounded the Cape, sailed up the east coast, touched at
SofalaSofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in ean]] nearby. Vasco da Gama's companion Tomé Lopes left a narrative which identifies Sofala with the Biblical Ophir and its ancient...
and
MalindiMalindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Galana River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi is 117,735 . It is the capital of the Malindi District.Tourism is the major industry in Malindi. The city is...
, and went from there to
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. Portugal claimed sovereign rights wherever its navigators landed, but these were not exercised in the extreme south of the continent.
The Guinea coast, as the nearest to Europe, was first exploited. Numerous European forts and trading stations were established, the earliest being São Jorge da Mina (
ElminaElmina, is a town in the Central Region, situated on a south-facing bay on the Atlantic Ocean coast of Ghana, about 12 km west of Cape Coast. The first European settlement in West Africa, it now has a population of around 20,000 people....
), begun in 1482. The chief commodities dealt in were
slavesSlavery is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation...
,
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
,
ivoryIvory is formed from dentine and constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth and narwhal....
and
spiceA spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, leaf, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavour, colour, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth....
s. The European discovery of America (1492) was followed by a great development of the
slave tradeThe slave trade in Africa existed for thousands of years. The first main route passed through the Sahara, tying in to the Arab slave trade. After the European Age of Exploration, African slaves became part of the Atlantic slave trade, from which comes the modern, Western conception of slavery as...
, which, before the Portuguese era, had been an overland trade almost exclusively confined to Muslim Africa. The lucrative nature of this trade and the large quantities of alluvial gold obtained by the Portuguese drew other nations to the Guinea coast.
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
mariners went there as early as 1553, and they were followed by Spaniards,
DutchThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
,
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
,
DanishDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
and other adventurers. Colonial supremacy along the coast passed in the 17th century from Portugal to the Netherlands and from the Dutch in the 18th and 19th centuries to France and Britain. The whole coast from
SenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sénégal River in western Africa. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south, and it also encircles The Gambia on its three sides,...
to
Lagos Lagos is the most populous conurbation in Nigeria with 7,937,932 inhabitants at the 2006 census...
was dotted with forts and "factories" of rival European powers, and this international patchwork persisted into the 20th century although all the West African hinterland had become either French or British territory.
Southward from the mouth of the
CongoThe Congo River is the largest river in Western Central Africa. Its overall length of 4,700 km makes it the second longest in Africa .-Background:...
to the region of
DamaralandDamaraland was a name given to the north-central part of what later became Namibia, inhabited by Herero-speaking people, who in the 19th century were often referred to by outsiders as "Damaras"...
(in what is present-day
NamibiaNamibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in Southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana and Zimbabwe to the east, and South Africa to the south and east...
), the Portuguese, from 1491 onward, acquired influence over the inhabitants, and in the early part of the 16th century through their efforts Christianity was largely adopted in the Kongo Empire. An incursion of tribes from the interior later in the same century broke the power of this semi-Christian state, and Portuguese activity was transferred to a great extent farther south, São Paulo de Loanda (present-day
LuandaLuanda is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and administrative center and has a population of at least 5 million . It is also the capital city of Luanda Province. Luanda is located at...
) being founded in 1576. Before
Angolan independenceThe Alvor Agreement, signed on January 15, 1975, granted Angola independence from Portugal on November 11, ending the war for independence while marking the transition to civil war...
in 1975, the sovereignty of Portugal over this coastal region, except for the mouth of the Congo, had been only once challenged by a European power, the Dutch, from 1640 to 1648 in which Portugal lost control of the seaports.
The slave trade
The earliest external African slave trade was trans-Saharan. Although there had long been some trading along the Nile River and very limited trading across the western desert, the transportation of large numbers of slaves did not become viable until camels were introduced from Arabia in the 10th century. At this point, a trans-Saharan trading network came into being to transport slaves north. Unlike the Americas, slaves in North Africa were mainly servants rather than labourers, and an equal or greater number of females than males were taken, who were often employed as chambermaids to the women of northern harems. It was also not uncommon to turn male slaves into eunuchs.
The Atlantic slave trade was a later development, but would eventually become far greater and have a much bigger impact. Increasing penetration of the Americas by the Portuguese, Spaniards, English, French, Dutch (among others) created a huge demand for labor in Brazil, Guianas, Caribbean and North America. Workers were needed for agriculture, mining and other tasks. To meet this new demand, a trans-Atlantic slave trade developed. Slaves purchased in those West African regions known to Europeans as the Slave Coast, Gold Coast, and Côte d'Ivoire were often the unfortunate by-product of fighting between rival African states. Powerful African kings on the Bight of Biafra might sell their captives internally or exchange them with European slave traders for trade goods such as firearms, rum, fabrics and seed grain. It should be noted that European traders also conducted their own, quite independent, slave raids.
European conquest
In 1652, a victualling station was established at the
Cape of Good HopeThe Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of South Africa. There is a very common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa and the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, but in fact the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about...
by
Jan van RiebeeckJohan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck was a Dutch colonial administrator and founder of Cape Town.-Biography:...
on behalf of the
Dutch East India CompanyThe Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock...
. For most of the 17th and 18th centuries, the slowly-expanding settlement was a
DutchThe Dutch Empire consisted of the overseas territories controlled by the Netherlands from the 17th to the 20th century. The Dutch followed Portugal and Spain in establishing an overseas colonial empire, aided by their skills in shipping and trade and the surge of nationalism accompanying the...
possession.
Great BritainThe Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801...
seized the
Cape of Good HopeThe Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of South Africa. There is a very common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa and the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, but in fact the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about...
area in 1795 ostensibly to stop it falling into the hands of the French, but also seeking to use
Cape TownCape Town is the second most populous city in South Africa, and the largest in land area, forming part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. It is the provincial capital of the Western Cape, as well as the legislative capital of South Africa, where the National Parliament and many...
in particular as a stop on the route to Australia and India. It was later returned to the Dutch in 1803, but soon afterwards the
Dutch East India CompanyThe Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock...
declared bankruptcy, and the British annexed the Cape Colony in 1806.
Although the
Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
distracted the attention of Europe from the exploration of Africa, there were nevertheless significant developments. The invasion of Egypt (1798–1801) first by France and then by Great Britain resulted in an effort by Turkey to regain direct control over that country, followed in 1811 by the establishment under Mehemet Ali of an almost independent state, and the extension of Egyptian rule over the eastern
SudanSudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and in the Arab World, and tenth largest in the world by area...
(from 1820 onward). In South Africa the struggle with
NapoleonNapoleon Bonaparte later known as Napoleon I, and previously Napoleone di Buonaparte, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.Born in Corsica and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose to prominence...
led the United Kingdom to seize Dutch settlements at the Cape, and in 1814
Cape ColonyThe Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
, which had been continuously occupied by British troops since 1806, was formally ceded to the British crown. It has been documented that leader of a small African tribe, first heard of in 1821 and called the Snivs, Richard Bilcliffe (of Ugandan/South African descent) was key in the sparking of revolutionary behavior in order to free the suppressed African slaves.
The
Zulu KingdomThe Zulu Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or, rather imprecisely, Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to Pongola River in the north....
(1817-1879) was a southern African state in what is now
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
. The small kingdom gained world fame during and after the
Anglo-Zulu WarThe Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Empire. From complex beginnings, the war is notable for several particularly bloody battles, as well as for being a landmark in the timeline of colonialism in the region...
, part of the South African Wars (1879-1915).
Considerable changes had meanwhile been made in other parts of the continent, the most notable being the invasion of Algiers by France in 1830. This action put an end to the independent Barbary states, a major obstacle to France's Mediterranean strategy. Egyptian authority continued its southward expansion with consequent additions to European knowledge of the Nile. The city of Zanzibar, on the island of that name rapidly attained importance. Accounts of a vast inland sea, and the "discovery" in 1840–1848, by the missionaries
Johann Ludwig KrapfJohann Ludwig Krapf was a German missionary in East Africa, as well as an explorer, linguist, and traveler. Krapf played an important role in exploring East Africa with Johannes Rebmann. They were the first Europeans to see Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro...
and Johann Rebmann, of the snow-clad mountains of Kilimanjaro and Kenya, stimulated in Europe the desire for further knowledge.
19th-century European explorers
By the middle of the 19th century,
ProtestantProtestantism is a branch within Christianity, containing many denominations with some differing practices and doctrines, that principally originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. It is considered to be one of the major divisions within Christianity, together with the Roman...
missions were carrying on active missionary work on the Guinea coast, in South Africa and in the Zanzibar dominions. It was being conducted among people of whom Europeans knew little. In many instances missionaries turned explorer or became agents of trade and colonialism. One of the first to attempt to fill up the remaining blank spaces in the European map was
David LivingstoneDavid Livingstone was a Scottish Baptist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and explorer in Africa. He was the first European to see the Victoria Falls, to which he gave the English name in honour of his monarch, Queen Victoria. His meeting with H. M...
, who had been engaged since 1840 in missionary work north of the
OrangeThe Orange River , Gariep River, Groote River or Senqu River is the longest river in South Africa. It rises in the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho, flowing westwards through South Africa to the Atlantic Ocean...
. In 1849 Livingstone crossed the Kalahari Desert from south to north and reached
Lake NgamiLake Ngami is an endorheic lake in Botswana north of the Kalahari Desert. It is seasonally filled by the Okavango River, via the Okavango Delta, as well as the Taughe. It is one of the fragmented remnants of the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi...
, and between 1851 and 1856 he traversed the continent from west to east, making known the great waterways of the upper Zambezi. During these journeyings Livingstone "discovered", November 1855, the famous
Victoria FallsThe Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya is a waterfall located in southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The falls are some of the largest in the world.-Introduction:...
, so named after the
Queen of the United KingdomVictoria was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death...
. These falls are called Mosi-oa-Tunya by Africans. In 1858–1864 the lower Zambezi, the
ShireThe Shire is a river in Malawi and Mozambique. It is the outlet of Lake Malawi and flows into the Zambezi. Its length is 402 km; including Lake Malawi and the Ruhuhu, its headstream, it has a length of about 1200 km. The upper Shire River connects Lake Malawi with Lake Malombe.The river's valley is...
and Lake Nyasa were explored by Livingstone, Nyasa having been first reached by the confidential slave of
Antonio da Silva PortoAntónio Francisco Ferreira da Silva Porto was a Portuguese trader and explorer in Angola, at the time a Portuguese territory known as Portuguese West Africa.-Early years:...
, a Portuguese trader established at Bihe in Angola, who crossed Africa during 1853–1856 from Benguella to the mouth of the Rovuma. A prime goal for explorers was to locate the source of the River Nile. Expeditions by
BurtonCaptain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS was an English explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia and Africa as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and...
and
SpekeJohn Hanning Speke was an officer in the British Indian army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa and who is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile.-Life:...
(1857–1858) and Speke and
GrantJames Augustus Grant was a Scottish explorer of eastern equatorial Africa.Grant was born at Nairn in the Scottish Highlands, where his father was the parish minister, and educated at the grammar school and Marischal College, Aberdeen. In 1846 he joined the Indian army...
(1863) located
Lake TanganyikaLake Tanganyika is an African Great Lake . It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, after Lake Baikal in Siberia...
and
Lake VictoriaLake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named after the United Kingdom's Queen Victoria, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to see the lake....
. It was eventually proved to be the latter from which the Nile flowed.
Henry Morton StanleySir Henry Morton Stanley, GCB, born John Rowlands , was a Welsh journalist and explorer famous for his exploration of Africa and his search for David Livingstone. Stanley is often remembered for the words uttered to Livingstone upon finding him: "Dr...
, who had in 1871 succeeded in finding and succoring Livingstone, started again for Zanzibar in 1874, and in one of the most memorable of all exploring expeditions in Africa circumnavigated
Victoria NyanzaLake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named after the United Kingdom's Queen Victoria, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to see the lake....
and
TanganyikaLake Tanganyika is an African Great Lake . It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, after Lake Baikal in Siberia...
, and, striking farther inland to the
LualabaThe Lualaba River is the greatest headstream of the Congo River by volume of water. However, by length the Chambeshi River is the furthest headstream. The Lualaba is 1800km long, running from near Musofi in the vicinity of Lubumbashi in Katanga Province. The whole of its length lies within the...
, followed that river down to the Atlantic Ocean—reached in August 1877—and proved it to be the Congo.
Explorers were also active in other parts of the continent. Southern Morocco, the Sahara and the Sudan were traversed in many directions between 1860 and 1875 by
Gerhard RohlfsGerhard Rohlfs was a German linguist. He taught Romance languages and literature at the universities of Tübingen and Munich in Germany. He was described as an "archeologist of words"....
, Georg Schweinfurth and
Gustav NachtigalGustav Nachtigal was a German explorer in Central Africa. Nachtigal is mainly known for being the consul-general for the German Empire in Tunisia, and for being the Commissioner of West Africa. He succeeded in his mission as commissioner, and as a result of this Togoland and Kamerun were added to...
. These travellers not only added considerably to geographical knowledge, but obtained invaluable information concerning the people, languages and natural history of the countries in which they sojourned. Among the discoveries of Schweinfurth was one that confirmed the Greek legends of the existence beyond Egypt of a "
pygmyPygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually low; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult males grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed pygmoid. The best known pygmies are the Aka,...
race". But the first western discoverer of the pygmies of Central Africa was
Paul du ChailluPaul Belloni du Chaillu was a French-American traveler and anthropologist. He became famous in the 1860s as the first modern outsider to confirm the existence of gorillas and the Pygmy people of central Africa. He later researched the prehistory of Scandinavia.-Early life:His date and place of...
, who found them in the Ogowe district of the west coast in 1865, five years before Schweinfurth's first meeting with them; du Chaillu having previously, as the result of journeys in the
GabonGabon is a country in west central Africa sharing borders with the Gulf of Guinea to the west, Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, and Cameroon to the north, with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. Its size is almost 270,000 km² with an estimated population...
region between 1855 and 1859, made popular in Europe the knowledge of the existence of the
gorillaGorillas are the largest of the living primates. They are ground-dwelling and predominantly herbivorous. They inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
, perhaps the gigantic ape seen by
Hanno the CarthaginianHanno the Navigator was a Carthaginian explorer c. 500 BC, best known for his naval exploration of the African coast.- Etymology :...
, and whose existence, up to the middle of the 19th century, was thought to be as legendary as that of the Pygmies of
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
.
Partition among European powers
In the last quarter of the 19th century the map of Africa was transformed. Lines of partition, drawn often through trackless African countryside, marked out the "possessions" of
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, France, Britain and the other Great Powers. Railways penetrated the interior, vast areas were "opened up" to European conquest.
The causes which led to the partition of Africa can be found in the economic and political state of western Europe at the time. Germany, recently united under Prussian rule as the result of the
Franco-Prussian WarThe Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between France and Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria...
of 1870, was seeking new outlets for her energies, new markets for her growing industries, and with the markets,
coloniesIn politics and in history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their...
.
Germany was the last country to enter into the race to acquire colonies, and when
BismarckOtto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was a Prussian German statesman and aristocrat of the 19th century. As Ministerpräsident of Prussia from 1862–1890, he oversaw the unification of Germany. In 1867 he became Chancellor of the North German Confederation...
—the German Chancellor —acted, Africa was the only field left to exploit.
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
was widely considered the fiefdom of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
based on the
Monroe DoctrineThe Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy that was introduced on December 2, 1823, which said that further efforts by European governments to colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas would be viewed by the United States of America as acts of aggression requiring US intervention...
, while Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain had already divided much of Asia and the rest of the world between themselves.
Part of the reason Germany began to expand into the colonial sphere at this time, despite Bismarck's lack of enthusiasm for the idea, was a shift in the world view of the Prussian governing elite. Indeed, European elites as a whole began to view the world as a finite place, one in which only the strong would predominate. The influence of
social DarwinismSocial Darwinism refers to various ideologies based on a concept that competition among all individuals, groups, nations, or ideas drives social evolution in human societies....
was deep, encouraging a view of the world as essentially characterized by
zero-sumIn game theory and economic theory, zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant's gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant. If the total gains of the participants are added up, and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero...
relationships.
For different reasons the war of 1870 was also the starting-point for France in the building up of a new colonial empire. In her endeavour to regain the position lost in that war France had to look beyond Europe. To the two causes mentioned must be added others. Britain and Portugal, when they found their interests threatened, bestirred themselves, while Italy also conceived it necessary to become an African power.
It was not, however, the action of any of the great powers of Europe which precipitated the struggle. This was brought about by the projects of
Léopold IILeopold II was King of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne in 1865 and remained king until his death. He was the brother of Empress Carlota of Mexico and first cousin to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom...
, king of the
BelgiansThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
. Discoveries of Livingstone, Stanley and others had aroused especial interest among two classes of men in western Europe, one the manufacturing and trading class, which saw in Central Africa possibilities of commercial exploitation, the other the philanthropic and missionary class, which beheld in the newly discovered lands millions of "savages" to Christianize and "civilize". The possibility of utilizing both these classes in the creation of a vast private estate, of which he should be the head, formed itself in the mind of Léopold II even before Stanley had navigated the Congo. The king's action proved successful; but no sooner was the nature of his project understood in Europe than it provoked the rivalry of France and Germany, and thus the international struggle was begun.
Berlin Conference
From 1885 the scramble among the powers went on with renewed vigour, and in the fifteen years that remained of the century the work of partition, so far as international agreements were concerned, was practically completed.
Soldiers of King Menelik II fended off the
ItaliansItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, keeping
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
independent from European colonization.
No African countries were consulted during the partitioning of Africa. An "International treaty" was signed that disregarded the ethnic, social and economic composition of the people that lived in that area. This was to resurface years later, as ethnic or "tribal" conflict after the African countries gained their independence.
The early 20th century
All of the continent was claimed by European powers, except for
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
("Abyssinia") and
LiberiaLiberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2008 Census, the nation is home to 3,476,608 people and covers ....
.
The European powers set up a variety of different administrations in Africa at this time, with different ambitions and degrees of power. In some areas, parts of British West Africa for example, colonial control was tenuous and intended for simple economic extraction, strategic power, or as part of a long term development plan.
In other areas Europeans were encouraged to settle, creating settler states in which a European minority came to dominate society. Settlers only came to a few colonies in sufficient numbers to have a strong impact. British settler colonies included
British East AfricaBritish East Africa was an area of East Africa controlled by Britain in the late 19th century, which became a protectorate covering roughly the area of present-day Kenya...
, now Kenya,
NorthernNorthern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia. Although it had features of a charter colony the territory's treaties and...
and
Southern RhodesiaSouthern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa, and known today as Zimbabwe.-Origin as 'Rhodesia':...
, later
ZambiaThe Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is...
and
ZimbabweZimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers...
, and
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
, which already had a significant population of European settlers, the
BoerBoer is the Dutch word for farmer which came to denote the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking pastoralists of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
s.
In the
Second Boer WarThe Second Boer War , commonly referred to as The Boer War and also known as the South African War , the Anglo-Boer War and in Afrikaans as the Anglo-Boereoorlog or Tweede Vryheidsoorlog , or the Engelse oorlog was fought...
, between the British Empire and the two Boer republics of the
Orange Free StateThe Republic of the Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa. It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province...
and the
South African Republic (Transvaal Republic), the Boers unsuccessfully resisted absorption in to the British Empire.
France planned to settle Algeria and eventually incorporate it into the French state as an equal to the European provinces. Its proximity across the Mediterranean allowed plans of this scale.
In most areas colonial administrations did not have the manpower or resources to fully administer the territory and had to rely on local power structures to help them. Various factions and groups within the societies exploited this European requirement for their own purposes, attempting to gain a position of power within their own communities by cooperating with Europeans. One aspect of this struggle included what
Terence RangerTerence Osborn Ranger is a prominent African historian, focusing on the history of Zimbabwe. Part of the post-colonial generation of historians, his work spans the pre- and post-Independence period in Zimbabwe, from the 1960s to the present....
has termed the "invention of
traditionThe word tradition comes from the Latin traditionem, acc. of traditio which means "handing over, passing on", and is used in a number of ways in the English language:...
." In order to legitimize their own claims to power in the eyes of both the colonial administrators, and their own people, people would essentially manufacture "traditional" claims to power, or ceremonies. As a result many societies were thrown into disarray by the new order.
During
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
the
BritishThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
and
German EmpireThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
s battled on several occasions, the most notable being the
Battle of TangaThe Battle of Tanga, sometimes also known as the Battle of the Bees, was the unsuccessful attack by the British Indian Expeditionary Force “B” under Major General A.E. Aitken to capture German East Africa during World War I in concert with the invasion Force “C” near Longido on the slopes of...
, and a sustained
guerrillaGuerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
campaign by the German General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.
Interbellum
After World War I the formerly German colonies in Africa were taken over by France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.
During this era a sense of local patriotism or
nationalismNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
took deeper root among African intellectuals and politicians. Some of the inspiration for this movement came from the First World War in which European countries had relied on colonial troops for their own defense. Many in Africa realized their own strength with regard to the colonizer for the first time. At the same time, some of the mystique of the "invincible" European was shattered by the barbarities of the war. However, in most areas European control remained relatively strong during this period.
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, under the government of
Benito MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini,
KSMOM GCTE was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism. He became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by...
, invaded
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
, the last independent African nation, in 1935 and occupied the country until 1941.
Decolonization
The
decolonization of AfricaThe decolonization of Africa followed World War II as colonized peoples agitated for independence and colonial powers withdrew their administrators from Africa.-Background:...
started with
LibyaLibya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa...
in 1951. (Although Liberia, South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia were already independent.) Many countries followed in the 50s and 60s, with a peak in 1960 with independence of a large part of
French West AfricaFrench West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan , French Guinea , Côte d'Ivoire , Upper Volta , Dahomey and Niger. It was formed from individual coastal colonies which the French had first seized as trading posts in the 17th...
. Most of the remaining countries gained independence throughout the 1960s, although some colonizers (
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
in particular) were reluctant to relinquish sovereignty, resulting in bitter wars of independence which lasted for a decade or more. The last African countries to gain formal independence were
Guinea-BissauThe Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in western Africa, and one of the smallest states in continental Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....
(1974),
MozambiqueMozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest. It was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498...
(1975) and
AngolaAngola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean. The exclave province of Cabinda has a border with the Republic of the...
(1975) from Portugal,
DjiboutiDjibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. On the other side of the Red Sea, on...
from
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
in 1977,
ZimbabweZimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers...
from
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
in 1980, and
NamibiaNamibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in Southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana and Zimbabwe to the east, and South Africa to the south and east...
from
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
in 1990.
EritreaEritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The east and northeast of the country have an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen...
later split off from
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
in 1993.
Because many cities were founded, enlarged and renamed by the Europeans, after
independenceIndependence is the self-government of a nation, country, or state by its residents and population, or some portion thereof, generally exercising sovereignty....
many place names (for example Stanleyville, Léopoldville,
RhodesiaWhen the former colony of Northern Rhodesia changed its name to Zambia on independence in 1964, the colony of Southern Rhodesia changed its name to just plain 'Rhodesia'. The change had not yet been officialy ratified when Rhodesia declared itself independent on 11 November 1965...
) were renamed: see
historical African place namesThis is a list of historical African place names. The names on the left are linked to the corresponding subregion from History of Africa.* Abyssinia - Ethiopia* Africa - Tunisia* Barbary Coast - Algeria* Bechuanaland - Botswana...
for these.
East Africa
The Mau Mau Rebellion took place in
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
from 1952 until 1956, but was put down by British and local forces. A State of Emergency remained in place until 1960. Kenya became independent in 1963, and
Jomo KenyattaJomo Kenyatta[pron.] served as the first Prime Minister and President of Kenya.He was succeeded by Daniel arap Moi after his death in August 1978....
served as its first president.
The early 1990s also signaled the start of major clashes between the
HutuThe Hutu are a Central African ethnic group, living mainly in Rwanda and Burundi.-Population statistics:Despite the 1972 Burundi Genocide where an estimated 100,000...
s and the
TutsiTutsi are one of three native peoples of the nations of Rwanda and Burundi in central Africa, the other two being the Twa and the Hutu.-Origins:...
s in
RwandaThe Republic of Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Home to approaching 10 million people, Rwanda supports the densest population in continental Africa, most of whom...
and
BurundiBurundi , officially the Republic of Burundi, is a country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its size is just under 28,000 km² with an estimated population of...
. In 1994 this culminated in the
Rwandan GenocideThe Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's Tutsis and Hutu political moderates by Hutus under the Hutu Power ideology. Over the course of approximately 100 days, from the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana on 6 April through mid-July, at least 500,000...
, a conflict in which over 800 000 people were murdered.
North Africa
In 1954
Gamal Abdel NasserGamal Abdel Nasser was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970. He led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which removed King Farouk I and heralded a new period of industrialization in Egypt, together with a profound advancement of Arab nationalism, including a short-lived...
deposed the monarchy on Egypt and came to power.
Muammar al-GaddafiMuammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi
1 has been the de facto leader of Libya since a coup in 1969....
led a coup in Libya in 1969 and has remained in power.
Egypt was involved in several wars against
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, and was allied with other
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
countries. The first was right after the Israel was founded, in 1947. Egypt went to war again in 1967 and lost the
Sinai PeninsulaThe Sinai Peninsula or Sinai The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai (sina; Egyptian Arabic: سينا sina; sina'a; is a triangular peninsula in Egypt. It lies between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, forming a land bridge between Africa and Southwest...
to Israel. They went to war yet again in 1973. In 1979
Anwar SadatMuhammad Anwar Al Sadat, or Anwar El Sadat , was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination on 6 October 1981...
and
Menachem Begin' was an Israel politician and the sixth prime minister of the State of Israel. Before the independence, he was the leader of the Irgun, a revisionist breakaway from the larger mainstream Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah...
signed the
Camp David AccordsThe Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on September 17, 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David. The two agreements were signed at the White House, and were witnessed by United States President Jimmy...
, which gave back the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in exchange for the recognition of Israel. The accords are still in effect today. In 1981 Sadat was assassinated by an Islamist for signing the accords.
Southern Africa
In 1948 the
apartheidApartheid—meaning separateness in Afrikaans —was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and early 1994....
laws were started in
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
by the dominant party, the National Party. These were largely a continuation of existing policies, e.g. the Land Act of 1913. The difference was the policy of "separate development;" Where previous policies had only been disparate efforts to economically exploit the African Majority, Apartheid represented an entire philosophy of separate racial goals, leading to both the divisive laws of 'petty apartheid,' and the grander scheme of African Homelands.
In 1994 the South African government abolished Apartheid. South Africans elected
Nelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in a fully representative democratic election, who held office from 1994–99. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of the African National Congress's armed wing Umkhonto...
of the
African National CongressThe African National Congress has been South Africa's governing party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a "disciplined...
in the country's first multiracial presidential election.
West Africa
(History of West Africa)
Following
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, nationalist movements arose across West Africa, most notably in Ghana under
Kwame NkrumahKwame Nkrumah , was an influential 20th century advocate of Pan-Africanism, and the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966.-Early life and education:...
. In 1957, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan colony to achieve its independence, followed the next year by France's colonies; by 1974, West Africa's nations were entirely autonomous. Since independence, many West African nations have been plagued by
corruptionPolitical corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
and instability, with notable civil wars in
NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
,
Sierra LeoneSierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea in the north, Liberia in the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has a population estimated at 6.4 million...
,
LiberiaLiberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2008 Census, the nation is home to 3,476,608 people and covers ....
, and
Côte d'Ivoire' , formerly named, and often referred to as the Ivory Coast, officially the ', is a country in West Africa. The government officially discourages the use of the name Ivory Coast in English, preferring the French name to be used in all languages.With an area of 322,462 km
2 Côte...
, and a succession of military coups in
GhanaThe Republic of Ghana is a country in West Africa which borders Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and
Burkina FasoBurkina Faso , also known by its short-form name Burkina, is a landlocked nation in West Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the south east, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the south west.Its size is 274,000 km² with an...
. Many states have failed to develop their economies despite enviable natural resources, and political instability is often accompanied by undemocratic government.
West Africa
(History of West Africa)
Following
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, nationalist movements arose across West Africa, most notably in Ghana under
Kwame NkrumahKwame Nkrumah , was an influential 20th century advocate of Pan-Africanism, and the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966.-Early life and education:...
. In 1957, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan colony to achieve its independence, followed the next year by France's colonies; by 1974, West Africa's nations were entirely autonomous. Since independence, many West African nations have been plagued by
corruptionPolitical corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
and instability, with notable civil wars in
NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
,
Sierra LeoneSierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea in the north, Liberia in the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has a population estimated at 6.4 million...
,
LiberiaLiberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2008 Census, the nation is home to 3,476,608 people and covers ....
, and
Côte d'Ivoire' , formerly named, and often referred to as the Ivory Coast, officially the ', is a country in West Africa. The government officially discourages the use of the name Ivory Coast in English, preferring the French name to be used in all languages.With an area of 322,462 km
2 Côte...
, and a succession of military coups in
GhanaThe Republic of Ghana is a country in West Africa which borders Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and
Burkina FasoBurkina Faso , also known by its short-form name Burkina, is a landlocked nation in West Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the south east, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the south west.Its size is 274,000 km² with an...
. Many states have failed to develop their economies despite enviable natural resources, and political instability is often accompanied by undemocratic government.
Further reading
- Cheikh Anta Diop
Cheikh Anta Diop was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture. He has been considered one of the greatest African historians of the 20th century.-Early life and career:Cheikh Anta Diop was born in...
(1987) Precolonial Black Africa Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
- Clark, J. Desmond (1970) The Prehistory of Africa Thames and Hudson
- Davidson, Basil
Basil Davidson is an acclaimed British historian, writer and Africanist, particularly knowledgeable on the subject of Portuguese Africa prior to the 1974 Carnation Revolution ....
(1964) The African Past, Penguin, Harmondsworth
- Freund, Bill (1998) The Making of Contemporary Africa, Lynne Rienner, Boulder, 1998 (including a substantial "Annotated Bibliography" pp. 269–316)
- Reader, John 1997 Africa: A Biography of the Continent, Hamish Hamilton ISBN 0241130476
- Shillington, Kevin (1989) History of Africa, St. Martin's, New York
- UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
(1980-1994) General History of Africa 8 volumes
- Théophile Obenga
Théophile Obenga is a polyvalent scholar and professor born in the African nation of The Republic of the Congo in the capital, Brazzaville. He is trained as a philosopher, historian and linguist, utilizing Greek, Latin, French, English, Italian and practicing Arabic, Syriac and medu netjer in his...
(1980) Pour une Nouvelle Histoire Présence AfricainePrésence africaine is a panafrican quarterly cultural, political, and literary revue, published in Paris and founded by Alioune Diop in 1947. In 1949, Présence africaine expanded to include a publishing house and a bookstore on the rue des Écoles in the Latin Quarter of Paris...
, Paris