Period 1: Sub-Saharan Africa West and East Africa

West african trade based states

Prior contact limited

Caravans and Caravanserai are safety against raids
Because traveling across the desert is hard
Journeys took 70-90 days to cross the sahara desert
- Wouldn't be possible without the caravanserai
Camels were brought into the region through Arabia and trans saharan trade grows
- Diffusion of Islam
War saddles were invented in the south ??/ asia and it was really helpful to balance the weight of the Camel
Up to 500 camels were in one caravan
- Huge investment but you can carry so much so this helps

Ghana

Original ruled by the king
- Controls military
- Absolute ruler kind of
- Intermediary with the Gods
- Creates and judges laws
Tribal chiefs
- Help enforce and collect taxes, the king can't be everywhere at once
In africa- if you controlled the gold trade you also controlled salt
Was really poor at first but jumped up through gold
Huge salt mines
Pantheism- one creator god and many lesser gods for all aspects of nature
- Magic and talismans
- More in rural areas
- Shamans - kind of priest and is also intermediary with the gods
Women run businesses and get divorce and are even warriors
- South east they were merchants, here they are warriors
- Men are miners with the slaves
- Not like the slaves like we know, slaves are more like an economic, if you are of a defeated tribe you are a slave.
Economy
- Early trade was limited because of the sahara
- Connected through camels and thing sad the gold
- Regional state of west africa settled agriculture people wanting from aids
- People in the north hand salt and luxury goods and wehn over to the west and attacked because they had gold, ivory and slave
- Integration into the trans saharan trade network
- Saleh, Timbuktu
- Some communities and houses are made of salt because they have so much of it and some are still standing today- made them really wealthy
- Muslim merchants want the gold and things that was prominent in this area to satisfy
- Umayyads were in the north already conquering and knew about the space there, but couldn't until the caravanserai developed
- Just like south east asia, elite convert to Islam- increases to trade and legitimacy and army to protect them
- Muslims were now willing to protect them and things
- The muslims did not respect their religion and took a long time to convert the kings to Islam
- Lead to a waterfall action, all the people at the bottom converted as well
Taoudeni Basin- salt mine settlement
14th century Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta- say all be all of Islam, a Muslim convert who went all over and wrote diaries about how different people practiced the religion
- How we know so much about the religion in different regions
Houses of salt are roofed with camel trees
Salt mine is very physically demanding and this shows that it is done by slaves
Timbuktu
- Manuscripts were destroyed by Al qaeda
- Destroyed a lot of monuments and a lot of sinful things were destroyed
- A lot of manuscripts were destroyed but some were smuggled to safety
- People work to read each one and digitalize each one
- The city needs to have heavy security and you can only traveled there with the united nations
- City in modern day Mali
- Place full of not only trade, but also culture
- Massive library and secret storage of a lot of books and things
Syncretic forms of Islam develops
- Monotheistic, but still believed in spirits, magic, ancestor veneration
- The creator Gods now has a name, Allah
- Women retain their freedoms
- Not veiled, still warriors
Ibn Battuta
- Is judging this area practicing Islam

Mali

Takes over after Ghana
Twice as large as Ghana
Mansa Musa- king that originally converted purely for the economic aspect and became insanely rich
- Would put jeff bezos to share with his wealth- through gold and salt
- Passed out gold and money like it was nothing
- Lead to inflation and got rid of some his wealth but
- Converting a lot people
- Once he took the Hajj he became a new man and was much more devout Muslim and was a Muslim because of the religion
- Came home after Hajj a lot more serious
- He built a lot of mosques and went to places where
  - No domes and no tall things like original mosques
  - Still standing today

East African trade basd states

Axum and Ethiopia

Became Christian during roman empire from Egyptian merchants in a place surrounded by Islam and animism
- Still christian today
- Able to resist Islam because they are people of the book and were worthy of being traded with
- Growth of Islam religion cuts them off from the rest of the Christian world so they are different
Agriculture and cattle herding
Iron metal work
Government small areas instead of huge kingdoms

Trade goods

Middlemen in trade between North and sub Saharan Africa through the nile river
Middlemen in trade between interior and Indian Ocean Muslim merchants
- Got Ivory, slaves, gold
- Slaves went to southwest asia
The middle of the east is very forest and you can't really get through if you don't know what your doing, most people kept to the outside of the forest
Crop exported to Muslim coffee- changes Islamic culture and they will grow a lot of coffee crops
Bananas also became popular

Swahili city states

Growth Classical trade
Stone walls/ forts proved their wealth over time
- Merchants along east coast embrace Islam to increase trade
- Swahili developed coasters, mix of two languages, bantu and Arabic
- Becomes a lingua franca because very popular in the region and still is today
- Control trade between indian ocean and interior gold slaves ivory and turtle shells

Zimbabwe trade city

Traded with the interior
A place with huge walls and the only things that happened was trade
Were middlemen through contacts
Declined through gold mines running out and large droughts wipes out the agriculture
- Bananas can't be the only thing they eat
- Didn't have as much gold as the Noth