Topic Center Overview
What is the order of the major African empires?
Mali, Songhai Empire, Asante Empire
Why did Africa switch from conquest and commerce?
Africa set up trade routes linking north, central and western Africa
What was one of the most renown major cultural centers at the time (Mali empire)?
Timbuktu
What was the Middle Passage?
Why did everybody want to conquer Gao?
Because it was a major trade center
Who was the greatest ruler of Mali and when did (s)he rule? What did (s)he do?
Mansa Musa in the 14th century. He built a lot of the Islamic patronages in Timbuktu. He is also famous for his pilgrimage to Mecca
How did the Portuguese benefit from African commerce?
They would trade for gold and eventually for slaves. They would get the slaves from Africa and sell them to the Europeans or the Islamic.
Where was the slave coast?
From the Volta River west to the Niger River
Who was Ahmad Baba?
He was African intellectual, jurist, cleric, and writer during the late 16th and early 17th centuries
What is one of the things the leader of Songhai did in the 15th century?
Expand the empire by taking over cities that the Mali had control of; they took over Timbuktu and Djenne.
Who navigated the initial exploration to Africa (Portuguese)
Henry the Navigator
What does asiento mean?
Beginning in the 16th century, the asiento was a contract issued by the Spanish Crown and granted to companies from all over Europe that brought enslaved Africans to the colonies of Spanish America
African slave owners in Africa often allowed their slaves to...
Marry, own property and request a new owner if they felt they were severely mistreated
Why was Timbuktu is important?
Timbuktu was an important center of commerce and islamic studies, scholars and architecture.
Name 2 civilizations that depended on trade
Medieval Ghana, Mali, Songhai
In the beginning, what were the African slaves forced to do?
Plantation-style agriculture
What was the relationship between the Asante and the Europeans?
Trade (mainly gold, guns, ivory and slaves) and the Asante were later conquered by the British in 1874 and turned into a colony in 1901
What role did the Sahara play in Africa?
(Hint: USE SOME COMMON SENSE AS WELL AS WHAT WE LEARNED)
The Sahara served as a natural defense. It also was a trade route that was used to trade salt, gold and slaves.
What were the major trade items in Africa? List whether they went north or south.
Salt, copper, horses and cloth moved south. Gold, ivory and various luxury goods, rhinoceros horns, and slaves moved north.
Name why the trip across the middle passage was dangerous for the slaves
Long journey in small area, living in your own feces, diseases, poor food and water