Africa 1450-1750 Vocabulary

Factories

trading stations with resident merchants established by the Portuguese and other Europeans

El Mina

 important Portuguese factory on the coast of modern Ghana

Nzinga Mvemba

ruler of the Kongo kingdom (1507–1543); converted to Christianity; his efforts to integrate Portuguese and African ways foundered because of the slave trade

Royal African Company

chartered in Britain in the 1660s to establish a monopoly over the African trade; supplied slaves to British New World colonies

Indies piece

a unit in the complex exchange system of the West African trade; based on the value of an adult male slave

Triangular trade

complex commercial pattern linking Africa, the Americas, and Europe; slaves from Africa went to the New World; American agricultural products went to Europe; European goods went to Africa

Asante

Akan state among the Akan people of Ghana and centered at Kumasi

Benin

 African kingdom in the Bight of Benin; at the height of its power when Europeans arrived; famous for its bronze casting techniques

Dahomey

African state among the Fon peoples; developed in the 17th century centered at Abomey; became a major slave trading state through utilization of Western firearms

Great Trek

movement inland during the 1830s of Dutch-ancestry settlers in South Africa seeking to escape their British colonial government

Shaka

ruler among the Nguni peoples of southeast Africa during the early 19th century; developed military tactics that created the Zulu state

Mfecane

 wars among Africans in southern Africa during the early 19th century; caused migrations and alterations in African political organization

Swazi and Lesotho

African states formed by people reacting to the stresses of the Mfecane

Middle Passage

slave voyage from Africa to the Americas; a deadly and traumatic experience

Saltwater slaves

name given to slaves born in Africa; distinguished from American-born descendants, the creoles

Obeah

African religious practices in the British American islands

Candomble

African religious practices in Brazil among the Yoruba

Vodun

African religious practices among descendants in Haiti