Global History

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  Rome collapse
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  Great Schism
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  Mongols rule
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  Unified Mongol Empire end
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  Crusades
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  Black death first appear in Asia
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  Black plague sweep through Europe
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  Magna Carta signed
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  Byzantine Empire fall to the Ottoman Turks
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  Dar al Islam
• Geography and Early History of Africa
• Climate zones in Africa


  • Five climate zones have had an impact on its development
  • Extreme north and south is the Mediterranean zone
  • Savanna is Africa’s largest and most populated zone
  • Savanna has good soil and fairly regular rainfall, drought has hit in some areas
  • Savanna farming and herding are common
  • Savanna trails off into the Sahel or dry steppe zone
  • Sahel is transitional land leading to the deserts, generally supports animal herding, overgrazing has led to desertification
  • Center is the rainforest (the Congo), poorly suited for farming above the subsistence level, hostile environment due to animals and disease, hunter-gatherer economy was most common, slash and burn agriculture cleared some farmland for use
  • Desert zone includes the Kalahari in the north and the Namib and Sahara in the south, trade routes developed but deserts severely limited movement, people relied on trade and hunter/gathering for their needs
• Barriers to movement in Africa

  • Deserts and rain forests
  • Smooth coastline means lack of natural harbors
  • Most of the interior is high plateau, un-navigable rivers contain many rapids (cataracts) and waterfalls
• Resources in Africa


  • Gold
  • Iron
  • Salt
  • Diamonds
  • Oil
• Africa’s wealth of resources is not evenly distributed throughout the continent
• The Nile Kingdom of Nubia - 2000BC - 350AD
• Nile Kingdom of Nubia

  • Located in North eastern Africa
  • Through conquest and trade, they adopted Egyptian ways, conquered Egypt, ruled for 100 years
  • Meroe was their capital, huge furnaces produced iron to be used for tools and weapons
  • Traded gold, ivory, animal skins, slaves with the Mediterranean world
  • Conquered by Axum in 350AD
• Carthage - 800-146BC
• Carthage


  • Located along the Mediterranean Sea, founded by the ancient Phoenicians
  • Became a great and powerful center of Mediterranean trade
  • Eventually defeated by Rome during the Punic Wars
• A Revolution in Trade
• Kingdom of Ghana


  • Located between the Niger and Senegal rivers
  • Kings ruled and controlled the gold-salt trade
  • Muslim traders settled throughout the kingdom
  • The king employed them in government positions
  • They absorbed Muslim ideas and technology
  • Slowly, Islam spread but most people followed their own traditions
  • By the 1100s the kingdom was absorbed by a more powerful kingdom
• Who was al-Bakri?
• Al-Bakri was the son of a Muslim governor in southwest Spain, spent most of his life in Cordoba, Spain, becoming an accomplished scholar, geographer, and diplomat
• Although he never visited West Africa, he wrote accurate descriptions of its land and peoples
• Al-Bakri's descriptions of the ancient state of Ghana came from research in earlier written sources, including contemporary travel accounts of ship captains and navigators, and interviewing merchants who had visited the Western Sudan
• Al-Bakri is known for his meticulous and thorough methodology
• Al-Bakri's best-known work is Kitab al-masalik wa-’l-mamalik (Book of Routes and Realms, 1068), which includes descriptions of the Empire of Ghana and the trans-Saharan trade routes that linked it to the Arab world
• Abu Ubayd al-Aziz al-Bakri (1010-circa 1075)
• Kingdom of Mali


  • Mali kings expanded the kingdom of Ghana and gained greater control over the Trans-Saharan gold salt trade routes
  • Mali’s greatest emperor was Mansa Musa
  • He expanded Mali westward to the Atlantic
  • He converted to Islam and based his system of laws and justice on the Quran
  • He brought a period of peace and prosperity during his 25-year reign
  • To fulfill the 5 pillars he made the Hajj to Mecca
  • The primary source of revenue for Mali was taxing trade
  • The city of Timbuktu developed as an important trading outpost and would eventually become an important Islamic center of learning
  • Society in Mali was unique in that it was matrilineal, which means that descent is determined by the mother, not the father
  • By the 1400’s the Mali city of Timbuktu became a center for learning
  • Muslim scholars came from all parts to go there
• By the 1400’s the Mali city of Timbuktu became a center for learning
• Muslim scholars came from all parts to go there
• A mamluk was originally a non-Muslim slave that Islamic states used as
• Places where mamluks were used to bolster up fighting forces

  • Afghanistan
  • Spain
  • North Africa
  • Egypt
• They were bought when they were children and were raised to become warriors
• Once a soldier converted to Islam, he was a free man
• Mamluks often rose through the ranks to become top military commanders
• The children of mamluks were born as free Muslims, but they were not allowed to serve in the military. Why do you think this was so?
• In 1250, Mamluks staged a coup and overthrew the Ayyubid Dynasty in Egypt
• In 1260, 12,000 Mamluk troops defeated 10,000 Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut, North of Jerusalem, on the Levant
• Great Cities of the Mamluks

  • Cairo
  • Damascus