World History / Unit 5: Empires of Africa, Asia and the Americas
5.1 African Kingdoms and Trade
Notes
Powerful African states grew rich by controlling trade across the Sahara, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
- Aksum (in modern Ethiopia and Eritrea) traded through the Red Sea. King Ezana adopted Christianity in the 300s CE.
- Trans-Saharan trade: camel caravans carried gold from West Africa north and salt from the Sahara south. Islam spread along these routes.
- Ghana (at its peak from about 800 to 1050) grew rich by taxing the gold-salt trade.
- Mali was founded by Sundiata Keita (about 1235). Mansa Musa, a Muslim ruler, made a famous hajj to Mecca in 1324, giving away so much gold that its value fell in Cairo. Timbuktu became a center of Islamic learning.
- Songhai replaced Mali under Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad; it fell to a Moroccan army with guns in 1591.
- Great Zimbabwe (about 1100 to 1450) in southern Africa built huge stone walls without mortar and traded gold to the coast.
- Swahili city-states such as Kilwa and Mombasa on the East African coast traded with Arabia, Persia, India and China. Swahili culture and language blend Bantu and Arabic influences.
Practice
What two goods were most important in the trans-Saharan trade?
West African gold was traded for Saharan salt.
Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 showed that Mali:
His generous gifts of gold made Mali famous across Africa, Asia and Europe.
The Swahili language and culture developed from contact between:
Indian Ocean trade blended African and Arab cultures on the coast.
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