africa

Africa 

Period 1

Continent

West Africa - gold coast, Atlantic Ocean, the European side

East Africa - Swahili coast, Indian Ocean trading

North Africa - Mediterranean Sea, Islam/Muslim, Transsaharan trading network, arab spring

Sahara Desert - reason diffusion doesn't go north and south, where sub-Saharan Africa is

Indian Ocean trading network

African products are, gold, ivory, slaves

In East Africa, Muslim traders buy slaves

Transsharan trade - middle east to north africa how Muslims diffuse African products gold, slate, ivory, slaves

Camels are a mode of transportation  

Period 2

Age of exploration

Europeans venture into Africa during the mid-15th century to go around Africa to reach India

Portugal comes first then Spain

Sets up forts along the coast

Europeans eventually become much more involved when they look to trade and buy Africans for slavery in the new world after the failure of the encomienda system

Atlantic ocean trading network

European sold African kings weapons, manufactured goods, and alcohol for gold and slaves

Slaves are then transported on ships on the Atlantic Ocean (middle passage)
Slaves will work hard labor jobs such as mining for gold and silver and plantation work

The slave trade in Africa will last until the early 1800s

Results in Africa

Slavery leads to the population and loss of workers which leads to an overall economic decline

Will increase violence and wars against African rulers who are using wars for slavery

Period 3

Imperialism

Europeans ventured into Africa intending to increase power wealth gain new resources and sell their goods to new areas and get cheap labor

Will be able to control Africa due to new techs such as railroads and telegraphs

Will use justifications such as white man's burden and social Darwinism to excuse which is deemed to be negative during the Enlightenment era

Berlin conference - European powers dividing up the entire continent of Africa

no African representatives and forcing various ethnic and religious groups to come together from countries 

Leopold II, King of Belgium at the Berlin conference personally takes possession of the Congo region in Africa

Maks aton of money by getting rubber from the region but at the cost of millions of African lives due to harsh and brutal treatment

Battle of Adowa 1896 battle between Italy and Ethiopia in which Ethiopia wins and remained independent until the 1930s 

Period 4

World War I in Africa - Europeans utilize African soldiers in their armies during WWI (and WWII) 

World War II - North Africa did see fighting

Cold War - Most African nations are going through decolonization which leads them to be non aligned

Decolonization

  • Due to Europeans being weakened by the world wars (loss of population, infrastructure wrecked economic decline)

  • Many African nations from the 1950s to the 1970s go through independent movements 

  • Many struggles ensure because of European imperialism such as the loss of economic resources (fossil fuels) 

  • The economic conflict that leads to civil wars and genocide

  • Some African decolonization leaders

  • Kwame kaymak

  • Jama Kenyatta

  • Nelson Mandela

  • Believe in pan-African unity

  • African nations working together to make themselves stronger politically and economically  

  • Also, believe in creating an African Union (AU) eventually created in 2002

  • Apartheid 

  • South African legal segregation laws were meant to keep the white minority in political power and to have all the economic wealth while keeping the black majority uneducated poor and out of politics (no right to vote)

  • Lead by the African national congress (ANC) and Nelson Mandela

  • Eventually imprisoned and leads South Africans against the apartheid by utilizing the methods of Gandhi (civil disobedience, passive resistance, non-violent)

  • Apartheid is done by 1989 and in 1994 nelson mandela is voted president in the first completely free election

Globalization

  • Africa has many issues due to imperialism such as civil war economic decline and overall social political and economic instability

  • Since 2010 north African economy on the rise by implementing capitalism and allowing Western companies to build factories and let North African cheap labor build their goods

  • Central/sub saharan africa is in constant decline due to medical issues (no longevity of life, aids, disease, etc)

  • No education and plenty of political instability 

Arab Spring 2011

pro-democratic revolts that started in Tunisia and spread throughout the entire Arab world including the African countries of Libya and Egypt 

Overthrowing of African dictators in which the internet and Facebook play a large role