History of Africa until 1500

The history of sub-Saharan Africa until the arrival of European explorers.

No comments | 10000BC - 1200BC

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Kristo (Histrodamus editor)

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africa
bantu
caravan trade
ethiopia
gold
- islam
- mali
- mansa musa
- swahili
- timbuktu
- zimbabwe

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Created:
2013-01-21 15:35:57 by Kristo (Histrodamus editor)

Last modified 2013-03-02 16:59:28

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myHistro ekspordi arendamist toetavad EAS ja Euroopa Regionaalarengu Fond. Projekti kestvus 01.09.11 - 31.08.12.

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History of Africa until 1500

10000BC

African geography and place in early world history

Africa is a continent of great size, almost 12 million square miles or about three times the size of the United States. Thus it is quite difficult to describe all of its long history and differing regions in one framework, but not giving any attention...

10000BC

9000BC

Desertification of the Sahara

One of the crucial aspects of early African history is the climatic change that altered the appearance of the continent and seems to have set a whole series of historical processes in motion. That change centers on the area of the Sahara, which from...

9000BC

3000BC

Adoption of agriculture

Agriculture may have developed independently in Africa, but many scholars believe that the spread of agriculture and iron throughout Africa linked that continent to the major centers of civilization in the Near East and Mediterranean world...

3000BC

1200BC

Kingdom of Kush

The kingdom of Kush sprang up along the upper (southern) reaches of the Nile. Kush was the first African state other than Egypt of which there is record. This was a state on the frontiers of Egyptian activity, where Egyptian garrisons had been...

1200BC

1100BC

Early Bantu people

The diffusion of agriculture and later of iron was accompanied by a great movement of people who may have carried these innovations. Originating in west central Africa (eastern Nigeria), between the savanna and the forests, the Bantu began migrating...

1100BC

1000BC

Bantu migrations

The Bantu migrations were closely related to agriculture and iron-working in a continuous reciprocal process. Developing agriculture expanded Bantu populations; iron tools and weapons provided the means to acquire new lands; and the resulting...

1000BC

700BC

Adoption of iron

Iron also came from West Asia, although its routes of diffusion were somewhat different than those of agriculture. Most of Africa presents a curious case in which societies moved directly from a technology of stone to iron without passing through the...

700BC

100BC

Bantu societies

Although Bantu-speaking societies were remarkably diverse, their institutions, values, and aesthetic styles reflected a common pattern. Usually, authority was strongest in the village, where it was exercised by elders of extended families (lineages),...

100BC

50BC

Bantu religion and culture

The most abiding part of the sub-Saharan African heritage was its value system, rather than its social or political institutions. Supporting such institutions were customary beliefs which shaped all aspects of life...

50BC

200

Early contacts with non-African civilizations

As noted earlier, outside influences reached sub-Sahara Africa from ancient times, despite its relative isolation. Egypt expanded southward into the eastern Sudan before 2000 BC; Phoenicians, in their day, probably circumnavigated the continent,...

200

400

Kingdom of Ethiopia

Among the later sub-Saharan states, Ethiopia was the oldest. Historians usually record its beginnings with Axum's conquest of Kush, but Ethiopian monarchs traced their lineage back to the Hebrew King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, or Sabea, an ancient...

400

500

Ethiopian society, economy and culture

Like the Middle Eastern states, to which it was closely related in history and culture, Ethiopia developed a male-centered society. According to Ethiopian legend, the first king, a son of the Queen of Sheba, swore at his coronation that Ethiopia would...

500

700

Swahili cities in East Africa

From ancient times the East African coast was involved in long-range maritime trade. Phoenician, Greek, Roman, and Arab traders regularly operated as far south as Zanzibar before Bantu migrants arrived in early Christian times and absorbed the local...

700

750

Emergence of long distance trade and states in West Africa

More than the Swahili cities and Ethiopia, the great states of the western Sudan were based upon native African traditions. The old Bantu ways remained very strong, particularly among women, who outwardly accepted the imported Muslim religion but...

750

1000

Kingdom of Ghana

The earliest of the kingdoms of the western Sudan was Ghana (not to be confused with the modern state of the same name). It arose on the upper Niger during the 4th century as a loose federation of village states, inhabited by Soninke farmers...

1000

1300

Kingdom of Mali

After defeating and killing the tyrant who had subjugated his kinsmen and murdered his brothers, Sundiata took over Ghana and gained control of the desert gold trade. Thus began a new ruling dynasty in the western Sudan...

1300

1310

Other Sudanese states

Songhai reached its zenith during the reigns of Sonni Ali (1464-1492) and Askia Muhammed (1493-1528). Sonni Ali captured Timbuktu in 1468, while conquering most of Mali, When he died, after thirty years of ruthless military dictatorship, Askia Muhammed...

1310

1350

Great Zimbabwe and the kingdom of Mutapa

Upon arriving in East Africa at the opening of the 16th century, the Portuguese found the Kingdom of Mutapa controlling 700 miles of the upper Zambezi. They learned from Mutapan oral tradition about two recent kings who had conquered an empire between...

1350

1400

Kingdom of Kongo

Another notable kingdom was Kongo, located near the mouth of the Congo River. It was formed in the 14th century when a petty northern prince named Wene led a migration into the south, married into the local ruling family, and began acquiring vassals...

1400

1450

Benin and other kingdoms in the Niger region

North of Kongo, on the forested coast of southern Nigeria, was Benin, a prosperous and powerful kingdom two centuries before the Portuguese arrived. Unlike Kongo, it had grown wealthy from its merchants' overland trade with the Sudan, although it did...

1450

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