Title: Africa and the Atlantic World
1Africa and the Atlantic World
2African Politics and Society in Early Modern Times
3The States of West Africa and East Africa
- The Songhay Empire Songhay Administration
- Songhay rulers built a flourishing city-state
- By the 15th century, Songhay emerged as the
dominant power of the western grasslands. - Sunni Ali built an elaborate administrative and
military apparatus to oversee affairs in his
realm - Appointed governors to oversee provinces
- Instituted a hierarchy of command that turned his
army into an effective military force - Created imperial navy to patrol the Niger River,
which was an extremely important commercial
highway in the Songhay empire
- Fail of Songhay
- In 1591 a musket-bearing Moroccan army opened
fire on the previously invincible Songhay
military. - Songhay forces withered under the attack, and
subject peoples took the opportunity to revolt
against Songhay domination - Resulted in series of small, regional kingdoms
and city-states emerged in west Africa.
- Swahili Decline
- In 1505 Portuguese naval expedition subdued all
the Swahili cities from Sofala to Mombasa - Portuguese forces disrupted trade patterns
- Swahili cities into a decline from which they
never fully recovered
4The Kingdoms of Central Africa and South Africa
- The Kingdom of Kongo
- Built a centralized state with officials
overseeing military, judicial, and financial
affairs - Kongo embraced much of the modern-day Republic of
Congo and Angola. - Portuguese merchants had established a close
political and diplomatic relationship with the
kings of Kongo - Supplied the kings with advisors
- Provided a military garrison to support the kings
and protect Portuguese interests - Brought tailors, shoemakers, masons, miners, and
priests to Kongo - Kings of Kongo converted to Christianity to
establish closer commercial relations with
Portuguese merchants monarchy
- Slave Raiding in Kongo
- Portugal brought wealth and foreign recognition
to Kongo - Led to the destruction of the kingdom and the
establishment of a Portuguese colony in Angola - Portuguese merchants sought high-value
merchandise such as copper, ivory, and, most of
all slaves - Exchanged salves for textiles, weapons, advisors,
and artisans - Portuguese merchants made alliances with local
authorities, and provided them with weapons - Relations between Kongo and Portugal
deteriorated, particularly after Portuguese
agents began to pursue opportunities south of
Kongo
- The Kingdom of Ndongo
- Was a powerful regional kingdom, largely on the
basis of the wealth it was able to attract from
trade - Portuguese forces campaigned in Ndongo in an
effort to establish a colony that would support
large-scale slave trading
5The Kingdoms of Central Africa and South Africa
(cont.)
- Queen Nzinga The Portuguese colony of Angola
- Led 40 year resistance against Portuguese forces
- Mobilized central African peoples against her
Portuguese adversaries - Her aim was to drive the Portuguese from her
land, expel the Dutch, and create a vast Central
African Empire - Angola was the first European colony in
sub-Saharan Africa - When Nzinga died, Portuguese forces faced less
resistance - Resulted in extended and tightened control over
Angola
- Regional Kingdoms in South Africa
- Kingdoms had begun to emerge as early as the
eleventh century, largely under the influence of
trade - In south Africa, regional kingdoms dominated
political affairs - By 1300, rulers of one kingdom had built a
massive, stone-fortified city known as Great
Zimbabwe
- European Arrival in South Africa
- Europeans struck alliances with local peoples of
South Africa in search of commercial
opportunities - Intervened in disputes with the aim of supporting
their allies and advancing their own interests - Their conquests laid foundation for series of
Dutch and British colonies - Became the most prosperous European possessions
in Sub Saharan Africa
6Islam and Christianity in Early Modern Africa
- The Fulani and Islam
- Were Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa which had
concerns about the purity of Islam - Many Fulani had settled in cities where they
observed a strict form of Islam - Their Campaigns strengthened Islam in sub-Saharan
Africa - Laid a foundation for new rounds of Islamic state
building and conversion efforts
- Christianity and Sub Saharan Africa The
Antonian Movement - Portuguese community in Kongo and Angola
supported priests and missionaries who introduced
Roman Catholic Christianity to central Africa - Christian teachings blended with African
traditions formed syncretic cults - An influential syncretic cult was the Antonian
movement in Kongo - Flourished when the Kongolese monarchy faced
challenges throughout the realm - Antonian movement began when Dona Beatriz
proclaimed that St. Anthony of Padua had
possessed her and chose her to communicate his
messages - Beatriz taught that Jesus Christ had been a black
African man, that Kongo was the true holy land of
Christianity, and that heaven was for Africans.
- Islam in Sub Saharan Africa
- Was most popular in the commercial centers of
west Africa and the Swahili city-states of east
Africa - Most African Muslims blended Islam with
indigenous beliefs and customs - This syncretic Islam struck many devout Muslims
as impure and offensive
7Social Change in Early Modern Africa
- American Food Crops in Sub Saharan Africa
- Trade brought new food crops to sub-Saharan
Africa - American crops such as manioc, maize, and peanuts
arrived in Africa aboard Portuguese ships
- Population Growth
- Bread made from manioc flour had become a staple
food in much of west Africa and central Africa - It helped to underwrite steady population growth
- 34 million (1500) to 44 million (1600) to 52
million (1700) to 60 million (1800) - American food crops supported expanding
populations in all regions if Sub Saharan Africa
during early modern times
8The Atlantic Slave Trade
9Foundation of the Slave Trade
- Slavery in Africa
- Slaves in Africa came from the ranks of war
captives - Criminals and individuals expelled from their
clans frequently fell into slavery - Once enslaved individuals had no personal or
civil rights - Agricultural plantations in the Songhay empire
often had hundreds of slave laborers, - Africans routinely purchased slaves to enlarge
their families and enhance their power - They assimilated slaves into their kinship
groups, so that within a generation a slave might
obtain both freedom and an honorable position in
a new family or clan
- The Islamic Slave Trade
- Muslim merchants from north Africa, Arabia, and
Persia sought African slaves for sale and
distribution to - Destinations were to the Mediterranean basin,
southwest Asia, India, southeast Asia and China - By the time Europeans ventured to sub-Saharan
Africa, traffic in slaves was a well-established
feature of African society - A system for capturing, selling, and distributing
slaves had functioned effectively for more than
five hundred years - Atlantic slave trade brought an enormous
involuntary migration that influenced the
development of societies throughout the Atlantic
Ocean basin.
10Human Cargoes
- The Early Slave Trade
- Traders delivered their human cargoes to
Portuguese island colonies in the Atlantic - Sugar planters called for slaves in increasing
quantities - Portuguese entrepreneurs extended slave labor to
South America. - In 1518 the first shipment of slaves went
directly from West Africa to the Caribbean, where
they worked on recently established sugar
plantations - Spanish authorities introduced slaves to Mexico
- English colonists introduced slaves to the North
American mainland
- Triangular Trade
- 1st leg they carried horses and European
manufactured goods (mostly cloth and metal wares,
especially firearms) that they exchanged in
sub-Saharan Africa for slaves - 2nd leg took enslaved Africans to Caribbean and
American destinations. - 3rd leg, they filled their vessels' hulls with
American products and embarked on their voyage
back to Europe - At every stage of the process, slave trade was an
inhumane and brutal business.
- The Middle Passage
- After being captured, enslaved individuals were
forced to march to the coast, where they lived in
holding pens until a ship arrived to transport
them to the western hemisphere - The dreadful middle passage refers to the
trans-Atlantic journey, aboard filthy, crowded
slave ships - Conditions were so bad, slaves attempted to
starve themselves to death or mounted revolts - Ship crews attempted to preserve the lives of
slaves, intending to sell them for a profit at
the end of the voyage - Treated the unwilling passengers with cruelty and
contempt - Approximately 25 percent of individuals enslaved
in Africa did not survive the middle passage
11The Impact of the Slave Trade in Africa
- Social Effects of the Slave Trade Gender and
Slavery - The Atlantic slave trade deprived African
societies of about sixteen million individuals - in addition, several million others were consumed
by the continuing Islamic slave trade during the
early modern era.
- Political Effects of the Slavery Trade
- Approximately two-thirds of all slaves were young
men between fourteen and thirty-five years of age - Resulted in a gender imbalance
- Militated against slaves reproducing in most
places of colonial America - Resulted in women making up more than two-thirds
of the adult population of Angola, - This encouraged Angolans to embrace polygyny (the
practice of having more than one wife at a time).
- Volume of the Slave Trade in Africa
- The Atlantic slave trade brought about the
involuntary migration of about twelve million
Africans to the western hemisphere. - Kingdoms like Rwanda and Bugunda escaped the
slave trade, partly because of resistance, and
because their lands were distant from major slave
ports on west African coast. - Other societies flourished and benefited
economically from the slave trade
12The African Diaspora
The dispersal of African peoples and their
descendants
13Plantation Societies
- Cash Crops
- Sugar was one of the most lucrative cash crops of
early modern times - Soon tobacco rivaled sugar as a profitable
product - Rice became a major plantation product, as did
indigo - By the eighteenth century, cotton and coffee had
begun to emerge as a plantation specialty - Caribbean American plantations specialized in
the production of some agricultural crop in
demand, where African or African American slaves
performed most of the labor
- Regional Differences
- In Caribbean and South America, many slaves fell
victim to tropical diseases such as malaria and
yellow fever - Of all the slaves delivered from Africa to the
western hemisphere, about half went to the
Caribbean, and about one-third went to Brazil - About 5 percent of enslaved Africans went to
North America where diseases were less threatening
- Resistance to Slavery
- Some forms of resistance were mild but costly to
slave owners - Slaves often worked slowly for their masters but
diligently in their own gardens - Slaves occasionally sabotaged plantation
equipment or work routines. - A more serious form of resistance involved
running away from the plantation community - Maroon (runaway) communities flourished through
out slave holding regions of the western
hemisphere
14Plantation Societies (cont.)
- Slave Revolts
- Most dramatic form of resistance was the slave
revolt - Slaves far outnumbered others in most plantation
societies - They had the potential to organize and overwhelm
their masters - Only in the French sugar colony of Saint-Domingue
did a slave revolt abolish slavery as an
institution - This revolt declared independence from France and
renamed the land Haiti, and established a self
governing republic
- Slavery and Economic Development
- The physical labor of African and African
American slaves made crucial contributions to the
building of new societies in the Americas - Slave labor cultivated many of the crops and
extracted many of the minerals that made their
way around the world in the global trade networks
of the early modern era
15The Making of African American Cultural Traditions
- African and Creole Languages African American
Religions - European languages were the dominant tongues in
the slave societies of the western hemisphere - African languages also influenced communication
- Slaves spoke a creole tongue that drew on several
African and European languages - Some slaves shipped out of Africa were Christians
- Others converted to Christianity after their
arrival in the western hemisphere - All the syncretic, African-American religions
drew inspiration from Christianity
- African American Music
- For many of these involuntary laborers, the
playing of African music brought a sense of home
and community to mind - Slaves in the Americas adapted African musical
traditions - This included their rhythmic and oratorical
elements, to their new environments - This was a means of buffering the shock of
transition - Was also a way to survive and to resist the
horrid conditions of their new lives
- African American Cultural Traditions
- Slaves introduced African foods to Caribbean and
American societies - Helped give rise to distinctive hybrid cuisines
- Slaves introduced rice cultivation to tropical
and subtropical regions, including South
Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana - Added variety to American diets
- The African diaspora influenced the ways all
peoples lived in plantation societies
16The End of the Slave Trade and the Abolition of
Slavery
- The Economic Costs of Slavery
- Plantations, slavery, and the slave trade
continued to flourish as long as they were
profitable - Slave labor did not come cheap.
- As the profitability of slavery declined,
Europeans began to shift their investments from
sugarcane and slaves to newly emerging
manufacturing industries
- End of Slave Trade The Abolition of Slavery
- The end of the legal commerce in slaves did not
abolish the institution of slavery itself - As long as plantation slavery continued, a
clandestine (secretive) trade shipped slaves
across the Atlantic - The last documented ship that carried slaves
across the Atlantic arrived in Cuba in 1867 - Officially, slavery no longer exists, but
millions of people live in various forms of
servitude even today.
- Olaudah Equiano
- Some freed slaves contributed to the abolitionist
cause - Write books that exposed the brutality of
institutional slavery - Most notable of them was the west African Olaudah
Equiano - Published an autobiography detailing his
experiences as a slave and a free man