Which african civilization was in southern africa

In other areas Europeans were encouraged to settle, creating settler states in which a European minority came to dominate society. Settlers only came to a few colonies in sufficient numbers to have a strong impact. France planned to settle Algeria and eventually incorporate it into the French state as an equal to the European provinces. Its proximity across the Mediterranean allowed plans of this scale.

In most areas colonial administrations did not have the manpower or resources to fully administer the territory and had to rely on local power structures to help them. Various factions and groups within the societies exploited this European requirement for their own purposes, attempting to gain a position of power within their own communities by cooperating with Europeans.

One aspect of this struggle included what Terence Ranger has termed the "invention of tradition. As a result many societies were thrown into disarray by the new order. During this era a sense of local patriotism or nationalism took deeper root among African intellectuals and politicians. Some of the inspiration for this movement came from the First World War in which European countries had relied on colonial troops for their own defense. Many in Africa realized their own strength with regard to the colonizer for the first time.

At the same time, some of the mystique of the "invincible" European was shattered by the barbarities of the war. However, in most areas European control remained relatively strong during this period. Italy , under the government of Benito Mussolini , invaded Ethiopia , the last independent African nation, in and occupied the country until The decolonization of Africa started with Libya in Many countries followed in the 50s and 60s, with a peak in with independence of a large part of French West Africa.

Most of the remaining countries gained independence throughout the s, although some colonizers Portugal in particular were reluctant to relinquish sovereignty, resulting in bitter wars of independence which lasted for a decade or more. Eritrea later split off from Ethiopia in The Mau Mau Rebellion took place in Kenya from until , but was put down by British and local forces. A State of Emergency remained in place until Kenya became independent in , and Jomo Kenyatta served as its first president.

The early s also signaled the start of major clashes between the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi. In this culminated in the Rwandan Genocide , a conflict in which over people were murdered. In Gamal Abdel Nasser deposed the monarchy on Egypt and came to power. Muammar al-Gaddafi led a coup in Libya in and has remained in power.

Egypt was involved in several wars against Israel , and was allied with other Arab countries. The first was right after the Israel was founded, in Egypt went to war again in and lost the Sinai Peninsula to Israel.

They went to war yet again in The accords are still in effect today. In Sadat was assassinated by an Islamist for signing the accords. In the apartheid laws were started in South Africa by the dominant party, the National Party. These were largely a continuation of existing policies, e. The difference was the policy of "separate development;" Where previous policies had only been disparate efforts to economically exploit the African Majority, Apartheid represented an entire philosophy of separate racial goals, leading to both the divisive laws of 'petty apartheid,' and the grander scheme of African Homelands.

In the South African government abolished Apartheid. South Africans elected Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress in the country's first multiracial presidential election.

In , Ghana became the first sub-Saharan colony to achieve its independence, followed the next year by France's colonies; by , West Africa's nations were entirely autonomous. Many states have failed to develop their economies despite enviable natural resources, and political instability is often accompanied by undemocratic government.

Contents [ show ]. See also: History of West Africa. Main article: Bantu expansion. Main article: History of North Africa. Main article: European exploration of Africa. Main article: African slave trade. Main article: Colonization of Africa. Main article: Scramble for Africa. Main article: Berlin Conference. Main articles: Decolonization and Decolonization of Africa. Main article: East Africa. Main article: North Africa. Main article: Southern Africa. Main article: History of West Africa.

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Related African Websites. History of Africa. Under Keita and his successors, the empire tightened its grip over a large portion of West Africa and grew rich on trade. The Mali Empire eventually disintegrated in the 16th century, but at its peak it was one of the jewels of the African continent and was known the world over for its wealth and luxury.

According to contemporary sources, Musa dished out so much gold during the visit that he caused its value to plummet in Egyptian markets for several years. Credit: Luis Dafos. For sheer size, few states in African history can compare to the Songhai Empire. Formed in the 15th century from some of the former regions of the Mali Empire, this West African kingdom was larger than Western Europe and comprised parts of a dozen modern day nations.

The empire enjoyed a period of prosperity thanks to vigorous trade policies and a sophisticated bureaucratic system that separated its vast holdings into different provinces, each ruled by its own governor. While the Songhai Empire was once among the most powerful states in the world, it later crumbled in the late s after a period of civil war and internal strife left it open to an invasion by the Sultan of Morocco.

The great enclosure courtyard, Great Zimbabwe. One of the most impressive monuments in sub-Saharan Africa is the Great Zimbabwe, an imposing collection of stacked boulders, stone towers and defensive walls assembled from cut granite blocks. It outlines the limitations to their commercial activities and influence over neighbouring regions. The treaty is the earliest record indicating that Sardinia and Sicily were under Carthaginian control.

Alexander the Great conquers Egypt. He occupies Egypt and his general, Ptolemy, becomes king and finds a dynasty. During this dynasty, Greek culture was spread throughout Egypt. The Meroitic alphabet replaces Egyptian script in the influential region of Meroe. Made up of 23 characters, the alphabetic script was originally derived from the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Djenne-Djenno, a town in current day Mali, is established. The town is one of the oldest urbanised centres known. It is associated with thriving markets and agriculture, most notably the domestication of African rice.

The town is also known as being one of the earliest sites of iron production in sub-Saharan Africa. Its territory is renamed the Roman Province of Africa. Hannibal led his army from Iberia to Italy via the Alps. By the end of the three wars, Carthage was destroyed and the remaining citizens were sold to slavery, as was the customs of the time. This was the beginning of the Roman hegemony in northern Africa. Christianity begins to take influence in Roman North Africa.

The arrival of Christianity demanded the worship of Christ in a church rather than the use of state resources to commemorate kings by their stelae. Swahili culture begins to take shape because of the interaction between the local Bantu speaking people and the Persian and Arab merchants. The culture eventually began spreading to Tanzania and Kenya and thereafter to Mozambique. Conical tower by Marius Loots Image Source. King Ezana of Aksum is converted to Christianity by two Christian traders.

This begins the establishment of Ethiopian Christianity. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church provided the institutional support for the monarchy. The area of Great Zimbabwe is settled. The Ziwa and Gokomere communities survived by farming and mining the land.

The area marks the earliest Iron Age settlements known of in the region. Great Zimbabwe would later become the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe and serve as the first city in Southern Africa. Ghana, the oldest Sudanic empire, is founded. The empire prospered because of the tax revenues from the trans-Saharan trade, linking Sijilmase and Tiaret to Aoudaghost.

The empire controlled access to goldfields, even though it was not involved in production. The empire also controlled access to all the salt and gold that went through its territory. The state of Aksum in Eritrea and Ethiopia begins minting its own silver and gold coins as their own Aksumite currency. The region was deeply involved in the trade network between India and the Mediterranean. The region exported ivory, gold and agricultural products. The amaXhosa, the southernmost group of the Bantu speakers, took certain linguistic traits from the Khoisan.

Vandals invade North Africa, relieving Rome of her territories in the region. Aksum also slipped into a decline because of environmental degradation and changes in the global climate. Settlers from southeast Asia and later, from the east African mainland, settle in Madagascar. Banana and rice cultivation are introduced by the Asian settlers, while cattle and farming techniques are introduced by the Bantu speaking east Africans.

Spanish Jews flee persecution under the Visigoths to North Africa, where they made their homes in the Byzantine dominated cities along the Mediterranean coast. Arab Muslims conquer Byzantine Egypt. Under the rule of the Fatimid Caliphate the country increased their cotton production and thrived economically.

Minted gold coins called the Fatimid dinar were used for international trade. Tax collection from farms proved lucrative for the Berber overlords — soldiers who had served in the Fatimid conquest — and to the caliphs of the time. During this time slave infantry was used in the military, made up of people from Sudan and Turkey.

Arab Muslims have by this time conquered the entire North African region and Islam becomes the dominant religion in the region by the 10th century. Kanem is founded. Kanuri-speaking nomads founded the Sudanic Empire of Kanem, which achieved power through trans-Saharan trade. The Kingdom of Nri rises under the leadership of the Eze Nri.

Sotho - Tswana states are formed on the Highveld, south of the Limpopo River. Large towns of thousands of people made up early Tswana states north-west of the Vaal River, with settlers leaving to start their own states over time. Indian and Arab trade settlement begins in northern Madagascar to take advantage of the Indian Ocean trade.

Islam was introduced by the traders. Approximately Arab Egyptian nomads settle in Maghreb, spreading the Arab languages and contributing to the decline of the Berber language. Berber soldiers revolt after tax revenue from farms is diminished. Their violent resistance destabilised the power of the Fatimid caliphs and slowed trade in the region. Early ironworks are used in what is currently known as Kwa-Zulu Natal. The first state in Southern Africa, the Kingdom of Mapungubwe , arises. The Kingdom attained its wealth from ivory, copper and gold trade with Swahili merchants.

Though Mapungubwe was abandoned by the middle of the following century, it formed part of a development that would eventually lead to the creation of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe in the 13th century. This kingdom, along with a few others, was predecessors to the powerful Empire of Ashanti which rose in the 18th century. This Islamic dynasty ran for years eventually losing the throne in Abd al-Mu'min forms the Almohad Empire after declaring jihad on the Almoravids and uniting the northern Berbers against them.

Maghreb sees the establishment of mathematics and literacy, as well as the development of algebra. European crusaders threaten Fatimid in Egypt, leading to the rise of a Kurdish general, who became well-known for the impressive defence he and his army provided for Muslims.

Saladin becomes ruler of Egypt and the Ayyubid Dynasty begins. The Songhai Empire rose out of the decline of the Mali Empire and was responsible for expanding and controlling several important trans-Saharan trade routes at the time. The city was home to around 18, people at its peak and spanned across an area of 7km 2.

This civilization had a monopoly on the trade of gold and ivory from the southeastern coast of the continent to the interior and were famed miners specializing in minerals such as copper, iron, and gold. Its territory was so large that if it were around today, it would stretch across parts of six Southern African nations. Legend has it, a warrior prince from the Kingdom of Zimbabwe established the Kingdom of Mutapa. Within a generation, Mutapa eclipsed the glory that was Great Zimbabwe and its surrounds.

Spread across parts of what is now Eritrea and Ethiopia. Stretching from the Middle Ages all the way to the Cold War, the Ethiopian Empire or Abyssinia, as it was also known is the longest lasting of the African kingdoms on this list. It survived some of the most tumultuous events in modern-day history.

It resisted various enemies attempting to encroach on its territory, from the Ottoman and Italian armies to the Egyptians, and some of its rulers are said to have been descended from King Solomon. During the Scramble for Africa which saw European powers asserting colonial authority across African territories, Ethiopia successfully fought off and defeated Italy in the First Italo-Ethiopian War.

Before European powers divided the African continent during the Scramble for Africa, the modern-day countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo both formed part of the Kingdom of Kongo. Kongolese society was a quasi-feudal one and its economy was fueled by trade routes following rivers in the region and dealing in textiles, pottery, copper, and ivory.

Found in modern-day Nigeria, the Benin Empire was considered one of the oldest and most developed states in West Africa until its annexation by the British Empire. Famous artisans crafted masterpieces from ivory, bronze and iron. The Benin Empire had a strong trading relationship with the Portuguese, exchanging palm oil, pepper, and ivory for Manilla a form of currency used in West Africa and firearms.

The relationship even saw an ambassador visit Lisbon in the 16th century. Dutch, British and Portuguese explorers brought numerous tales back to Europe of the beauty, wealth and sophistication of Benin. What other famous African kingdoms and empires do you think should be added to our list? Let us know in the comments section below! Jozi-born, Knysna local, and recovering yachtie, Melanie decided that she missed being land-based after 18 months sailing the seas. Now that she lives in the most beautiful city in Africa she is adamant about this fact , you will find her trying out new things around Cape Town, dreaming about her next holiday, and using Wikipedia to enhance her skills as an encyclopaedia of useless information.

Wir fragten, wo sind die Monumente der Einheimischen. Sie waren sprachlos. So much is not known of this big continent and its human heritage. Thank you for this wonderful introduction to african history and the possible beginning to understanding the interaction between tribes and countries.

The past is garant for actual being of humans; we know so few about it.. Hi Alain. We could not agree with you more. Thank-you so much for the kind words. Maravi was a kingdom which straddled the current borders of Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, in the 16th century. Very interesting and I learned a lot about Ancient African civilization..

In some ancient African maps I saw a kingdom called Yudah in West Africa but there is little research done on it. Maybe with your little help some light can be shade on this kingdom.