Africa

1
Africa From Riches to Rags
2
Africa Ancient Egyptians

• The first civilization to develop in Africa was
  the ancient Egyptians (ca. 3100 BC). They
• developed advanced math
• studied astronomy, and
• built the Pyramids

3
Africa Environmental Influence

• It was difficult for cultures to develop
  technology in other parts of Africa due to
  environmental issues
• Rainforest was too dense to keep domesticated
  animals,
• and mosquitoes carried diseases
• like Malaria and Sleeping sickness
• Savanna and Steppe was difficult
• to farm due to unpredictable and
• inadequate rainfall
• Deserts prevented early trade
• due to vast size and lack of water
• Therefore, cultures remained
• isolated and developed slowly

4
Africa Spread of Islam

• From the late 600s to the 1500s, Islam spread
  across North Africa, then south with desert
  traders and along Africas east coast with Arab
  ocean-going traders.
• Isolated cultures did not trade and were not
  converted.

5
Africa Desert Trade Routes

• West African cultures developed wealth by using
  camels to carry gold, salt, cotton, and copper on
  desert trade routes connected between oases.
  Trade centered on city of Timbuktu (Mali)

6
Africa Trade with India and China

• Between 700 and 1500, African Bantu people mixed
  with Arab traders to become the Swahili people of
  East Africa.
• Seasonal monsoon
  winds on the Indian Ocean
  enabled the
• Swahili to trade ivory
• and gold for Chinese
• porcelain and silk, as
• well as cotton and
• jewels from India.

7
Africa European Explorers

• Starting in 1441, Portuguese explorers, headed
  toward Asia and met African tribes along coastal
  stops going around Africa.
• Because of advanced
  technology (guns), Europeans defeated
  coastal African cities.
• Muslim Arabs refused
• to trade with Christian
• Europeans, so trade
• wealth diminished in
• Africa.

8
Africa Origins of the Slave Trade

• For centuries, conflicting African tribes had
  captured enemy soldiers in battle and used them
  as paid workers or indentured servants.
• African rulers saw the European slave trade as a
  chance to get rid of tribal enemies.
• Europeans needed
• strong field hands
• for farming work
• in their colonies
• (N. and S. Amer.)

9
Africa Triangular Trade

• As demand for slaves increased, African
• tribes turned on each other just to capture
• more slaves to trade with Europeans.
• Africans received guns, alcohol, and money
• in exchange for more
• captured enemies.
• Eventually, approx.
• 37 million Africans
• were sold within and
• outside of Africa.

10
Africa Results of the Slave Trade

• In Africa
• Loss of strongest males left many groups even
  weaker
• Less females decreased populations
• In Latin America
• Slaves blended with European masters,
  resulting in the mulatto culture in Cuba, Dom.
  Repub., Venezuela, Brazil
• African animistic beliefs blended with
  Catholicism to become voodoo
• In North America
• Slave tribal music and U.S. brass band styles
  later blended into Jazz music

11
Africa European Colonization

• The Industrial Age in Europe created many
  advanced countries looking to dominate world
  trade and power.
• Intense Euro. nationalism during the late
  1800s pushed many countries to
  expand economic control in Africa. (Rhodes
  Cairo to Cape Town)
• Europeans felt that expansion
  was economically necessary
  and religiously justified.

12
Africa Berlin Conference

• To avoid military conflict as countries claimed
  territory, European representatives met at the
  Berlin
  Conference
  in 1884-85
  to divide
  Africa into
  colonies.
• No Africans
  were invited.

13
Africa Conference of Berlin

• European lines ignored most tribal and physical
  boundaries

14
Africa Great Wealthor NOT.

• Europeans were not able to cash in on their
  colonies as expected because
• Much of the land couldnt
  support European crops
  due to environmental
  issues. (remember?!)
• Many resources were
  too isolated to transport.
• Africas narrow coast and steep
  escarpment leading to a wide plateau
  makes inland river trade difficult.

15
Africa Independence Movement

• After World War II, colonies began declaring
  independence from European masters who were too
  weak or uninterested to hold them.
• Many colonial masters
  simply left their former colonies,
  without helping them transition to
  freedom.
• This led to unstable
  economic and
  political systems,
  and civil conflicts.

16
Africa Apartheid in South Africa

• After South Africa achieved independence from
  England (1934) government power was divided
  between whites and Africans.
• By the late 1940s, white majority govt.
  established policy of apartheid,
  separating whites from blacks and coloreds
  (mixed race people)
• Blacks and coloreds were placed on
  homelands or settlements and were not
  allowed to enter whites only areas such
  as major cities, white-owned farmland,
  and major resource areas)

17
Africa Apartheid in South Africa, II

• 20 white population owned 80 of S. Af. land
• Nelson Mandela led the militant opposition group
  African National Congress, spent 27 yrs. in
  prison, and became the icon of the
  anti-apartheid movement
• Many nations opposed apartheid and tried
  to change S. Africas policy by
  restricting trade with them (sanctions)
• Mandela was released in 1990, and worked with
  South African President F.W. deKlerk to
  establish a govt. that balanced white-black
  interests
• Apartheid ended in 1994, Mandela elected 1st
  black President of S. Af.

18
Africa Modern Issues, Economic

• Africa has 15 landlocked countries, more than any
  other continent.
• This limits their access
  to trade ports and global customers.
• Also, many countries
  economies rely on only
  one commodity for trade, making them
  very dependant on other countries for
  their remaining needs.

19
Africa Brain Drain spirals poverty

• Low literacy rates and lack of widespread
  infrastructure leads to lack of education-based
  jobs
• Educated Africans that get a degree or special
  job training cant find good paying jobs in
  Africa, so they leave the continent
• This brain drain results in less educated
  people in the region, which leads to further lack
  of educational opportunities
• Most Africans live on less than 2 per day

20
Africa Modern Issues, Political

• European drawn boundaries divided many tribes
  between multiple countries.
• This has led to conflicts over who would control
  the government
• Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda
• Also led to attempted genocide
• Rwanda (1994)
• Darfur (Sudan)(2003-2009)
• Refugees (20 million) create a burden
  for neighboring countries

21
Africa Modern Issues, Social

• Africa has 11 of the worlds population, but
• Over 2/3 of the worlds AIDS cases (23 million )
• Over 5,500,000 AIDS orphans
• 90 of world malaria
• This greatly reduces Africas work force
  and strains medical facilities
• Womens rights are nearly non-existent
• Abuses are wide spread and usually
  arent punished

22
Africa Modern Issues, Natural Habitat

• Over 2/3 of the population in sub-Saharan Africa
  live as subsistence farmers.
• Africas climates and lack of irrigation
  tech. makes crops vulnerable to drought,
  leading to a growing Sahara and continued
  famine
• Over 38 million people
  live in drought areas.