AFRICA

• Different ways of organizing communities that Africans used in the period 1200-1450

  • Lineage-based systems
  • Sodalities, brotherhoods and sisterhoods
  • Chieftaincy
  • Kingdoms with highly established bureaucracies
  • City-states focused on trade
  • Confederations, meaning alliances of several or many states
• Lineage-based systems

  • Largely governed by groups of elders who were all related to each other by ancestry or, sometimes, by adoption
• Sodalities, brotherhoods and sisterhoods

  • Played an important role in decision making, usually of people of similar ages
• Chieftaincy

  • An individual had quite a bit of power to make decisions over a community
• Kingdoms with highly established bureaucracies

  • Often including Islamic or Christian scribes and other elites, the ruler was selected from among members of the royal family or families, rather than just being chosen—as was often the case in most European monarchies—just because he or she was the ruler's first born
• City-states

  • Focused on trade, often with merchants as their rulers
• Confederations

  • Alliances of several or many states, often arose in regions where collective security was important
• What group of people were particularly influential in the governing of Swahili city-states?

  • Arab and India merchants who brought goods from Asia
• 1. What kinds of factors helped individuals to elevate themselves to be chiefs and then kings in the southern African region that included Great Zimbabwe?

  • controlling cattle
  • cattle meant more wealth so more cattle = higher wealth = higher status
  • used this to gain lots of followers
  • building wealth by marrying wealthy women from royal families
  • wives played an important role bc they would be representing their own families in the courts of their husbands
• What kinds of factors helped individuals to elevate themselves to be chiefs and then kings in the Congo River region?

  • population growth 
  • made it necessary for societies to develop new ways to solve problems and maintain peacd
  • however, some disputes did occur
  • trade in cloth and metal was increasing significantly 
• Tyo was a Confederation. Kongo was an empire. What was the difference? What were the similarities?

  • Difference: Tyo was a confederation, meaning it was a loose union of independent states or territories, while Kongo was an empire, indicating a centralized political authority with control over diverse territories
  • Similarities: Both entities encompassed multiple territories or states and were characterized by complex political structures and interactions
• Explain how and why states in Africa developed and changed over time.

  • States in Africa developed and changed over time due to factors such as:
  • Shifts in economic systems, including trade and agriculture
  • Military conquest and expansion
  • Cultural diffusion and interaction with neighboring societies
  • Environmental changes and resource availability
  • Evolution of political institutions and leadership structures
• Factors that stand out as particularly distinct and important in the way communities were organized in Africa in this period

  • Kinship ties and clan structures
  • Religious and spiritual beliefs influencing social hierarchy
  • Role of elders and councils in decision-making
• How these factors seem similar or different to other parts of the world you have studied for this period

  a similarity is hierarchial social structures and reliance on communal systems, yet distinct in their cultural and religious influences compared to other regions like Europe or Asia
• • much of african sociey was bound to eurasia societies by trades, conflicts, and shared values and beliefs
• ethopia was a christian state while other african states were muslim or held onto their indigenous belief system
• a similarity between ethopia and other african states were their heirarchial power structures