Africa & Middle East Review

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from lecture notes on African and Middle Eastern history.

Savanna

Grasslands with scattered trees, supports farming/herding.

Sahel

Semi-arid area south of Sahara, vulnerable to desertification.

Ezana

King who converted Aksum to Christianity.

Ge’ez

Ancient Ethiopian script and language.

Swahili

Bantu-Arabic language from coastal trade.

Mansa Musa

Devout Muslim king of Mali, expanded empire, spread Islam and learning.

Animism

Belief that spirits inhabit nature.

Griots

Storytellers preserving oral history.

Bantu

Group of people/languages that migrated across Africa.

Commerce

Trade

Sundiata

Founder of Mali Empire.

Triangular Trade

Trade route involving Europe, Africa, and the Americas for goods, slaves, and raw materials.

Middle Passage

Crowded, deadly ship route for slaves across the Atlantic.

Scramble for Africa

European rush to colonize Africa (1880s–1914).

Berlin Conference

1884 conference where European powers divided Africa without African input.

Cecil Rhodes

British imperialist in southern Africa.

Social Darwinism

Justified imperialism using “survival of the fittest”.

King Leopold II

Belgian king who controlled the Congo Free State and exploited it for rubber.

Apartheid

Racial segregation in South Africa (1948–1994).

Nelson Mandela

Leader against apartheid, jailed, became president of South Africa.

ANC

African National Congress

Genocide

Intentional destruction of a group.

Fertile Crescent

Rich soil between Tigris & Euphrates rivers.

Cuneiform

Wedge-shaped writing.

Monotheism

Belief in one God.

MAIN Causes

Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism.

Sykes-Picot Agreement

Britain/France divide Middle East after WWI.

Balfour Declaration

Support for a Jewish homeland.

UN Partition Plan

Divides Palestine in 1947.

Holocaust

Nazi genocide of Jews.

Confucianism

Respect, family, order.

Daoism

Harmony with nature, balance (yin-yang).

Mao Zedong

Communist leader of China.