African Kingdoms and Global Connections (c. 15th-17th Centuries)
Major World Regions: Africa (East and West) in the Afro-Eurasian World
This unit focuses on understanding the major regions of the world, identifying key global connections, and recognizing how these regions begin to affect one another. We will revisit these areas, examining various countries, kingdoms, and states within each. Today's focus is on the major relevant kingdoms of Africa, encompassing both West Africa and East Africa, to understand their historical significance and global relevance, especially from the th century onwards.
Africa: A Continent of Diversity
Continent, not a homogeneous entity: Africa is a massive continent, making terms like "Africans" a misnomer. There is immense diversity among its peoples.
Regional and genetic differences: Different regions possess distinct histories and identities. For instance, the peoples of West Africa have a closer genetic profile to those of Europe and the Middle East than to the peoples of East Africa.
Geographic divisions:
North Africa: Distinct from Sub-Saharan Africa (regions below the Sahara Desert), including places like Egypt and Tunisia. North Africans, historically composed of Berber and later Arabic peoples, typically have lighter skin tones. They referred to peoples below the Sahara as "Sudanic peoples," meaning "the land of the Blacks," particularly during the th and th centuries.
Sub-Saharan Africa: The continent below the Sahara Desert. Much of this vast expanse is arid and dry, except for specific fertile areas (e.g., coastlines, river valleys like the Nile in Egypt) that became centers of civilization and trade due to resource access.
Key African Kingdoms and Regions to Explore
Today, we will examine:
West Africa: This region will become historically paramount, especially from the s onwards, due to its significant role in the story of the modern world.
The Songhai Empire (most important for this period).
The peoples of Senegambia.
The Kingdom of Benin.
East Africa: Relevant globally for older trade connections.
The Kingdom of Ethiopia.
The Swahili City-States.
East Africa: Swahili City-States
Location and Significance: Situated on the fertile coastlines of the Indian Ocean, including major cities like Mogadishu (modern-day Somalia), Mombasa (modern-day Kenya), and Kilwa (modern-day Tanzania). Their location made them critical hubs for global commerce, central to the Indian Ocean trade network.
Reasons for Settlement: Societies established themselves along these fertile coastlines due to the availability of resources for cultivation and the strategic position for trade. These areas were cultivated over thousands of years.
Role as Middlemen: The Swahili city-states served as vital middlemen in trade between North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, India, and China. This intermediary role afforded them significant wealth and importance, as they charged taxes and fees, much like those along the Silk Road.
Islamic Influence and Syncretism:
Expansion of Islam: By the th century onwards, Islamic empires and power bases expanded into North and then Sub-Saharan Africa, including the East African coast.
Cultural Hybridity: While many converted to Islam, the adoption was often syncretic. People integrated monotheistic Islam with their existing pantheons of gods or traditional religious practices.
Linguistic Groups: Historically, the peoples of the Swahili states were largely Bantu speakers. The influx of Arabic societies led to a hybrid linguistic environment where Arabic also became prominent.
Governance: Major cities like Mogadishu, Mombasa, and Kilwa were under Islamic governance, mirroring structures seen in other Islamic power bases. However, in rural areas, traditional religions and life ways persisted more strongly.
Portuguese Arrival and Impact (c. s):
First European Traders: The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish trade presence in West, South, and then East Africa before reaching India, China, and Japan.
Commercial Trade and Trading Post Empire: Their primary goal was to establish commercial trade alliances, setting up trading posts with permission from local leaders to trade goods and gain introductions to Indian and Chinese markets.
Missionary Influx: Portuguese Catholic missionaries also arrived, leading to cultural clashes.
Military Alliances: The Portuguese offered strategic military assistance. Lacking the manpower and resources to conquer powerful African kingdoms directly, they specialized in playing rival African groups against each other. By aligning with one side (e.g., Mombasa against Kilwa) and tipping the scales, they gained favorable positions and influence (e.g., with the peoples of Malindi and Mombasa).
East Africa: Kingdom of Ethiopia
Ancient Christian Kingdom: Ethiopia has been a Christian kingdom since roughly the th century CE (s), making it one of the earliest Christian places globally, outside of Palestine. This predates Catholicism and is contemporary with the earliest forms of Christianity.
Coptic Christianity: The Christianity practiced in Ethiopia is Coptic Christianity, an ancient form originating from the Egyptian tradition, distinct from both Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christianity.
"Island" in a Sea of Islam: Ethiopia, a wealthy kingdom with abundant gold, treasure, and resources, was surrounded by Islamic states. This religious divide and its wealth made it a target for conquest.
Adel Sultanate Invasion (1529): The Adal Sultanate invaded and conquered Ethiopia, motivated by religious pretext and desire for wealth. Ethiopia became a prefect of the Adal empire for about years. Monasteries were targeted, destroying Christian iconography and seizing their accumulated wealth, which served as banks.
Portuguese Alliance and Re-establishment (1540s): The Portuguese, already having trade alliances, provided significant military support to the Ethiopians, helping them expel the Adal invaders and re-establish Ethiopia as an independent Christian kingdom.
Portuguese Motivations and Internal Conflicts:
Legend of Prester John: The Portuguese (especially Henry the Navigator) were obsessed with finding the legendary Christian kingdom of Prester John in Africa, believing it to be Ethiopia, hoping for vast treasures like El Dorado.
"Fellow Christians": They viewed Ethiopians as fellow Christians, but this did not prevent Catholic missionaries from attempting to convert Coptic Christians, whom they considered heretics. This caused internal antagonism and rifts, as Catholics believed Coptics (and Protestants, Orthodox) also needed conversion, mirroring the intolerance seen in other European religious expansions.
Relevance to European history: This dynamic highlights a broader European pattern where different Christian sects (Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Coptic) often viewed each other with hostility, leading to conflict instead of unity, even when facing a common external power.
West Africa: A Hub for the Atlantic Slave Trade
Future Global Relevance: West Africa's role is crucial for understanding the modern world from the s to the present, primarily due to its central position in the Atlantic slave trade.
Foundation of European Wealth: The vast majority of enslaved peoples from Africa (between and ) came from West Africa. This trade was instrumental in transforming the fortunes of Europeans in the New World, becoming a primary source of European wealth.
Trans-Saharan Slave Trade (Pre-existing): Europe was tapping into an already existing, approximately -year-old slave trade network. This Trans-Saharan trade transported an estimated people from Sub-Saharan Africa across the Sahara Desert to North Africa and the Middle East between roughly the th and the th centuries.
Nature of Trans-Saharan Slavery: This was a different type of slavery than the chattel slavery of the New World. Enslaved people were often captives of war, absorbed into societies, or sold to Islamic merchants. They were typically not owned as property for life, their children were not born enslaved, and there was potential for upward mobility or eventual freedom (terms of service often expired).
West Africa: The Songhai Empire
Successor Empire: The Songhai Empire (peaking in the s and s, declining by the late s) was a massive and expansive successor to the older Mali Empire (established in the th century, around the time of Genghis Khan).
Geographic Extent: Covering approximately miles east to west, it generally encompassed modern-day Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and parts of surrounding countries.
Hybrid Governance: Similar to other empires of the era, it was a hybrid. Islamic conquerors established a power base, but ruled over a vast majority of traditionally African, pre-Islamic peoples. Governance practices increasingly mimicked the efficient administration of the Ottoman Empire.
Major Cities (Centers of Trade and Learning):
Gao, Jenne, Timbuktu: These were among the wealthiest and most important cities in the Afro-Eurasian world, even before the Songhai Empire, having been part of the Mali Empire as well. They were located in a resource-rich and strategically valuable region.
Timbuktu: The greatest Islamic city in Sub-Saharan Africa, known for its high urbanization and cosmopolitan culture. The term "cosmopolitan" here means a "city of the world" (from Greek kosmo = world, polis = city), a destination attracting people from all over for trade and culture. It was sophisticated due to its diverse population and institutions.
University of Sankore: Established in the th century, making it older than many European universities (e.g., Bologna est. , Oxford est. , Cambridge est. ). It was a world-renowned center of Islamic learning, attracting scholars globally.
Libraries: Timbuktu housed one of the world's greatest libraries, holding vast repositories of knowledge (scrolls, early books). In an pre-internet era, control over information was a significant source of power.
Economy: A major hub for trade in spices, silks, porcelain, silver, gold, but most significantly, it was a central hub for the Trans-Saharan human trafficking trade, making it incredibly rich and powerful. Leo Africanus, an Islamic scholar from the s, documented the immense wealth and human trafficking in Timbuktu.
Rural vs. Urban: While cities were prominent, most of the empire remained dispersed, rural, and agrarian, with scattered settlements, villages, and communities living according to ancestral ways. Islam's influence was less pervasive in these areas, with people combining Islamic practices with traditional religions.
West Africa: Kingdom of Benin
Location: Located on the Bight of Benin (modern-day Nigeria), a later hotspot for the Atlantic slave trade.
Characteristics: A vast, centralized kingdom (though smaller than Songhai), powerful, sophisticated, and cosmopolitan. Its capital was Benin City.
Benin City:
Fortification: Well-fortified with walls, indicating its wealth and strategic importance. Walls signify that the contents within are worth protecting, and the layout often put the less expendable (peasants) closer to the walls.
Monumental Architecture: Featured impressive architecture designed to awe visitors.
Urban Planning: Showcased advanced city planning with grid plans for streets and boulevards, a level of sophistication largely unseen in Europe at the time (e.g., contrasting planned Philadelphia/Manhattan with organically grown Boston).
Infrastructure: Sophisticated series of canals for water management, demonstrating significant ingenuity, wealth, and manpower to build and protect vital resources.
Economic Hub: Like Timbuktu, it was a critical contact point and hotspot for the lucrative Trans-Saharan slave trade, contributing significantly to its wealth and power.
West Africa: The Peoples of Senegambia
Decentralized Organization: Unlike the centralized empires of Songhai or Benin, Senegambia comprised smaller, autonomous agricultural communities, villages, and kinship groups. There were no single capitals, fortified cities, or overarching centralized governments.
Internal Structure: Each pocket had its own hierarchy (elders, chieftains, councils) but cooperated. They shared variations of the same language (similar to Romance languages in Europe) and many cultural customs and historical traditions, exhibiting a strong sense of homogeneity.
European Trade Contact: Despite its decentralized nature, Senegambia was immensely popular with European traders. It served as a significant contact point for the existing Trans-Saharan trade, as documented by Leo Africanus, who noted differences in their way of life compared to Timbuktu but similarities in lucrative human trafficking.
The Preexisting African Slave Trade and European Interaction
Portuguese Foothold (1440s): The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish trading outposts in West Africa. These "trading castles" or "factories" were typically wooden structures, seasonal residences for European traders, built with permission from African rulers.
Scale of the Trans-Saharan Trade: Between the th and th centuries, approximately people were trafficked from Sub-Saharan Africa via trans-Saharan routes into North Africa and the Middle East. This massive human trafficking contributed to the wealth of cities like Timbuktu, Benin City, and trading points in Senegambia.
Atlantic Slave Trade Comparison: The Atlantic slave trade, primarily from West Africa, would later dwarf this, with approximately people stolen from Africa and trafficked across the Atlantic in about years (primarily th-th centuries).
African Agency and Control:
Not Passive Participants: African peoples were not passive victims in the initial stages of European interaction. The power dynamic would take centuries to shift.
Trade on African Terms: Trade, including the slave trade, was conducted on African terms. African rulers granted permission for trading posts, dictated prices, and controlled the flow of goods. Europeans were allowed to trade because it was seen as an opportunity for Africans to gain wealth as well.
European Goods as Luxury Items: Europeans did not bring superior technology or essential goods that transformed African societies. Instead, what African elites predominantly bought were luxury items (e.g., European fashion, hats, tobacco), which served as status symbols to display wealth and power within their own societies, rather than fulfilling an economic necessity.
Shift in Power: The Atlantic slave trade, which exploded in the s, would gradually shift this power dynamic, making this region a centralized hub for a different, more brutal form of human exploitation, heavily influencing European colonial ventures, such as the initial English colony of Virginia in .