Northrop Reading: Africa's Connection to Europe and the Atlantic Slave Trade (Vocabulary Flashcards)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, terms, and events from the lecture on Africa’s contact with Europe and the beginnings of the Atlantic slave trade.

Sahara Desert

The desert south of North Africa; not an impenetrable barrier, home to permanent Berber communities, and a corridor for long-standing Trans-Saharan trade linking Mediterranean Africa with Sub-Saharan Africa.

Trans-Saharan trade routes

Ancient and enduring networks across the Sahara that connected North Africa with Sub-Saharan Africa, facilitating exchange of goods for thousands of years.

Berber

Indigenous peoples of the Sahara who maintained permanent communities and played a key role in Saharan trade and cultures.

Sahel

An Arab term meaning 'shore'; the belt of land between the Sahara and tropical Africa, marking the desert’s southern edge and the transition to sub-Saharan Africa.

West Africa

The western part of Africa along the Atlantic coast, the initial focus of the course’s West African geography and trade topics.

Nubia

Ancient region south of Egypt in the Nile valley, historically known as Nubia, part of Africa’s geography discussed in antiquity contexts.

Ethiopia

A Christian kingdom in the Horn of Africa that maintained long-standing Christian ties with Europe and featured in diplomatic and religious exchanges.

Horn of Africa

Northeast African region that includes Ethiopia; important for Christian-African and Islamic-African interactions in the medieval and early modern periods.

Swahili Coast

East African coastal states from Somalia to Mozambique; centers of Indian Ocean trade and Swahili culture.

Garamantes

Ancient Berber-speaking people of the Eastern Sahara described by Romans; a federation-type Saharan polity illustrating early Saharan state-building and trade.

Prester John

Legend of a powerful Christian king in Africa (often associated with Ethiopia) sought by European Christians as an ally against Muslims; influenced Crusade-era thinking and exploration.

Fall of Constantinople

The Constantinople fall to Ottoman Turks; seen in the lecture as a catalyst that worsened Christian-Muslim divisions and spurred European search for new sea routes (and thus Atlantic exploration).

Reconquista

Long Spanish-Portuguese Christian campaign to reclaim Iberian lands from Muslim rule; helped forge new maritime states and spurred overseas expansion.

Christianity in Africa

Spread of Christianity across Africa through the Middle East and Africa, leading to cross-continental religious exchange and notable African Christian thinkers.

Islam in Africa

Spread of Islam from North Africa into Sub-Saharan Africa; a major religious force that shaped interregional relations and European perceptions.

Elmina Castle (El Mina)

First European trading post/fort established on the West African coast (1482, Gold Coast, present-day Ghana); initially a gold trade post, later a major slave-trading fort.

Canary Islands

Atlantic archipelago off NW Africa; inhabited by the Guanche before European contact; early stopovers for Portuguese voyages and later sites of colonization.

Cape Bojador

A Cape along the West African coast; crossing it (first successful attempts by the Portuguese in the 1430s–1440s) marked a navigational milestone enabling further Atlantic exploration.

Cape Verde Islands

Deserted when first reached by Europeans; used as stopovers and later sites of sugar cultivation and settlement by Portugal.

Sugar plantations

Sugar cane farming estates that became highly labor-intensive; their growth in the Atlantic world linked to the transfer of plantation technology and enslaved labor from Africa to the Americas.

1444 enslaved Africans in Europe

First documented instance of Africans captured by Portuguese and brought to Europe; a beginning point for European involvement in slavery, predating the Atlantic slave trade to the Americas.

African diaspora

The dispersal of Africans and their descendants across Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas as a result of the Atlantic slave trade; central to understanding racialized histories.

White man’s grave

European term describing West Africa’s deadly disease environment (e.g., malaria, yellow fever) that caused high European mortality and shaped early coastal settlement patterns.

Moors

European term for Muslim Africans; used in European discourse to define a racial/religious Other and influence perceptions during medieval and early modern periods.

Atlantic slave trade beginnings

Early phase of the slave trade from West Africa to Europe and Atlantic islands (began in the 1440s with coastal raids and shipments; expanded to the Americas notably after 1520).