How Did Ancient Africa Dbq

Trade was an important achievement to Africa, especially Aksum. Aksum, one of Africa’s major trading cities, is a justification for Africa’s achievements. Its site is near important trade routes such as the Red Sea, the Nile River, and the Gulf of Aden made it a key international trading center (Doc 1). Another important city of trade was Kilwa. Kilwa controlled the trade overseas between Africa because of location near the coast. (Doc 8)

The Kingdom Ghana in western Africa flourished. Ghana gained control of the salt-and-gold trade (Doc. 2). This was important because Gold was used as a currency,

In the empire Ghana, they worked with iron, and traded it for gold and salt. Because of trading iron for salt and gold, the empire prospered. The empire of Mali prospered from trade and that was one of their key accomplishments. In Songhai, a key accomplishment was that it was the largest empire of West Africa. You can infer that because Songhai was the largest empire, trade was very important to Songhai.

West Africa was more wealthy than anyone today some say, they devoted themselves to religion, had a great economy, and were exceedingly educated. During the 15th and 16th centuries in West Africa it was prosperous and hopeful. People were extremely faithful and loyal towards their religion, and trade was making people tremendously wealthy, people like Mansa Musa, the king of Ghana. He is considered the wealthiest man to ever step foot on earth. Ghana was also super educated and valued education. They loved books and would pay a hefty amount for them, in the end they would become doctors, priests, and other jobs that you have to be highly educated to do. Education, economy, and religion contributed most to the prosperity and greatness of West

The History of Africa is very interesting. They had many trade routes and many resources such as salt and gold, their most popular resource was gold. Mansa Musa was their leader and had gone on the Haji as a duty and made their empire known throughout other countries. After that journey the empire had expanded even more that from the start of when their empire first rose up. As you could tell Mansa Musa was a good leader because of the choices he had made to create africa today. In Medieval Africa, Mansa Musa had an Economic impact on Africa because of the duty of islam and the value of gold.

The development and growth of civilizations in African history were contradicted by several American and European historians in the sixteenth and early twentieth centuries. The reason for this lack of understanding is because the focus was mainly on Europe’s chaotic society at the time. In addition, Africa didn’t have physically written documents to present their actual history. Instead, it was orally passed down. This is why historians have falsely concluded that Africa was an uncivilized “Dark Continent.” But what does it mean to be civilized? A group of people is characterized as civilized when they are organized as a society, and able to advance it. Since West and East Africa were able to develop advanced forms of economy, education, and government, they are characterized as civilized

The achievements of the African kingdoms and cities were better before the arrival of the Europeans. The Niger River created a place where all the kingdoms could trade, since the kingdoms were all around it and made a way to transport goods. The salt and gold trade was a way so one place that had to much gold and had very little of salt would get the salt they need and the opposite for the other city-state. Mansa Musa was so generous that he made the gold worth go down by giving out so much gold. The western African kingdoms had achievements like the salt and gold trade, the Niger River to help them trade along with, and Mansa Musa that gave out gold and helped Mali become twice the size it was.

Even before Europeans came to Africa, the kingdoms in Africa were quite wealthy. As previously mentioned, Ghana was a very strong kingdom in which its people were also incredibly wealthy. Their government appeared to be wealthy as well, which assisted Ghana in being able to control the gold and salt trade. An Arab scholar, Al-Bakri, wrote about the king’s court and how basically everything that the court had was gold (Document 2). The point of view of this document was also positive, and that is because scholars are usually upper class, just like the king’s court. Al-Bakri thought very highly of the court, and explains in detail how every person has some gold on them and how their surroundings also possessed gold. Ghana had a strong army and an intelligent political counsel, which made other countries fear them. Nations around Ghana did not want to start problems and usually just maintained peace with Ghana (Document 3). Ghana was not the only successful kingdom, one of the leaders of Mali, Mansa Musa,

The land was full of riches like salt and gold, and they were so wealthy they gave their animals gold and silk. Ghana, like Egypt had a large river to provide water for fields, animals, and people. Ghana was also at the center of trans Saharan trade, which brought people from all over either passing through or to do business. Most of the people were farmers so food was not a problem. Ghana had a great system that allowed them to bring their problems to their king, the Ghana where all disputed were settled peacefully. Travelers could journey from place to place without fear of being robbed. Ghana was a land that provided everything needed for life, and even provided some of the pleasures of life like

One achievement made by western african empires in economics were their trading. This allowed people from other tribes to trade with them so that they could make money or gain resources. One political achievement that these empires had was that all of these civilizations had remarkable rulers. Mali had Mansa Musa, Ghana had Kaya Maghan, and Songhai had Sunni Ali. Also, people never tried to rebel against these rulers. One cultural achievement these empires had is that they were able to convert to Islam. Mali, songhai, and Ghana were able to convert their religion to Islam without any major disputes between the people.

The empire was rich in gold and became a leading force in the trans-Saharan trade. The economy of Ancient Ghana received their wealth and power from the mines, the use of iron weapons, decimating neighboring villages, and farming along the river( ). The prosperity of the empire is mainly due to the role they played in the trans-Saharan trade, the empire traded with Muslim countries of the Middles east ( ). Gold and salt were the central bases of revenue, gold being extremely important to Ghana causing the empire to develop quickly. The trading activities that constituted the backbone of Ghana’s economy were the sale of gold, kola nuts, and ivory to cities along the Mediterranean, in exchange for salt ( ).

African civilizations prior to initial contact with Europeans in the mid-15th century were scientifically, politically, and economically advanced. Although many scholars claim that Africa was ahistoric until Europeans “saved” them, both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Ghana empires show that Africans had created sophisticated civilizations without European influence.

One reason that the geography helped the development of the kingdom of Ghana was because of trade. According to Document A, there were gold and salt mines surrounding Taghaza and Timbuktu. This shows that those cities were very likely to be involved in trade and that it would have been an effective trade, as one city wanted salt and the other city wanted gold. According to Document B, “The Arab traders of this region wanted gold as much as the Wangara wanted salt…” This shows that trade

Also in West Africa, gold mined south of the Sahel was traded, pound for pound, for salt mined in the desert. The salt from the desert was needed by the people of Sahel to flavor and preserve their food and the gold had obvious value, especially in trading with the European people. Due to this trade, cities grew and flourished and parts of West Africa became commercial centers. Silent trade might be used

In the year 1235 C.E a new empire arose in Africa just after the fall of the strong Ghana years before this empire, Mali was one of the strongest and wealthiest empires in Africa. Mali was one of the three strongest and wealthiest empires,it is located in west Africa and above the Niger river. Mali became a site of cultural exchange because when the people of the north seen their wealth they went to trade,exchange ideas and share religion.