Transcript Non Egyptian Ancient African Civilizations

Non Egyptian Ancient
African Civilizations
World History
Libertyville High School
Nubia / Kush
• Area between Second
through Fifth cataracts of
Nile
– Area between 2nd and 3rd
cataracts = Nubia
– Area between 3rd and 5th
cataracts = Kush
• Conquered by Egypt around
2000 BC
– Ruled by Egypt as client
state
– Served as major trading
center between Egypt,
African societies
Nubia / Kush
• After failure of New Kingdom
ca. 1000 BC, Kush re-emerged
– Conquered Nubia
– Considered selves as proper heirs
to Egyptian state, pharaoh title
– Adopted Egyptian titles, society,
architecture
• Kushites / Nubians then
invaded Egypt, as liberators
– After short time, Assyrians
pushed Nubians out of Egypt
– Cut Nubians from Med., Middle
East, Europe
Western Africa and the Sahara
• Evidence of human
settlers in W Africa from
12000 BC
• Ca. 5000 BC, herders, dry
farming communities
• Ca 3000 BC, Sahara
savannah began turning
into a desert
– Farmers, herders, migrated
towards coasts
– Desertification isolated W
Africa coastal peoples
Western Africa and the Sahara
• Around 400 BC, contact
made with Carthage and
trade commenced
– Traded gold from SW for
salt, iron goods, advanced
mfgr’ed goods
– Diffusion of iron production
gave W Africans big
advantage over neighbors
• ability to expand farming
• Made better weapons
– Formed city-states and
empires in the AD period
West African Societies
• Urban Development
– Earliest stone walled
towns developed in
Mauritania, around
2000 BC
– Towns emerged ca.
600-200 BC in Sahel
(S of Sahara)
– All towns grew up
around oases, rivers
West African Societies
• Major technological
development: Iron smelting
by 1400 BC
• Bantu Migrations, 1000 BC
– 1000 AD
– Bantu = N-Central African
language group
– Migrated into rain forests of
Congo, E into African
Highlands
– Imposed language, spread
iron smelting & high yield
agriculture
– Founded Great Zimbabwe
Kingdom around 800 AD
Sub-Saharan (Central and
Southern) Africa to 600 BC
• Political organization:
none (family groups)
• Hunter-gatherers
• Technological
development = stone,
bone tech
• Religion
– Animism: spirits of natural
world, animals, geographic
locations
Why Didn’t Complex Society
Develop in Sub Saharan Africa?
• Persistence of hunter-gatherer
bands
– Abundance of game
– Lack of external human threats to
lifestyle
• Persistence of subsistence
farming
– Lack of high yield crops
– Lack of domesticable animals
– Lack of irrigable waterways
• Geographic considerations
– Lack of natural harbors
– Geographic barriers (Sahara)
assured isolation