Section 2: The Kingdoms of Kush and Aksum

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Section 2 The Kingdoms of Kush and Aksum

• The Story Continues Some Sub-Saharan African
  peoples continued to live in small, independent
  villages. Others, however, established small
  city-states, kingdoms, and even empires. One of
  these was the kingdom of Kush. Kush arose along
  the upper Nile River in an Egyptian area known as
  Nubia. Because of its close connection with
  Egypt, Kushs culture resembled that of the
  Egyptians in many ways.

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I. Kush Arises

• The African kingdom of Kush arose along the
• upper Nile River in an area called Nubia

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I. Kush Arises

• Kush controlled an important trade corridor
• between the Red Sea and the Nile

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I. Kush Arises

• In the 1500s B.C. Egypt conquered Kush and
• about 710 B.C., Kush conquered Upper
• Egypt

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I. Kush Arises

• The Assyrians invaded Kush and later the
• capital city Napata was captured by Egypt

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I. Kush Arises

• Kush reorganized with a new capital city,
• Meroë, and a period of cultural achievement
• began

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I. Kush Arises

• Kushs civilization reached its height between
• about 250 B.C. and A.D. 150

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II. Aksum

• Aksum lay in the Ethiopian Highlands south of
• Kush and straddled important trade routes

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II. Aksum

• Around A.D. 350, King Ezana of Aksum
• conquered Kush and established a kingdom

King Ezanas stele, Aksum
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II. Aksum

• Ezana converted to Christianity and made it
• the official religion of Aksum

Ethiopian priest (12th century
carving)
Ethiopian Cross
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II. Aksum

• Aksum became a major center of long -
• distance trade throughout coastal East Africa

Africa Trade
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II. Aksum

• The kingdom began to decline and in the A.D.
• 700s, the Islamic Arabs gained control of trade

Aksum's ruins
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Section 3 Trading States of Africa

• The Story Continues Trade kept Africa well
  connected to the rest of the world. Ancient Greek
  traders were familiar with parts of East Africa,
  which they called Azania. One sailors handbook
  written by an Egyptian-Greek merchant described
  several trading villages along the Azanian
  coast. Traders there would swap African items
  such as ivory, rhinoceros horns, coconut oil, and
  tortoise shells for iron tools, weapons, and
  cotton cloth.

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I. East Africa and the Great Zimbabwe

• City-states controlled trade on the East African
  coast and trade routes linked ports on the Indian
  Ocean

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I. East Africa and the Great Zimbabwe

• The spread of Islam to Africa spurred trade,
  drawing settlers from Arabia, Persia, and
  Indonesia

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I. East Africa and the Great Zimbabwe

• The Swahili culture developed in East Africa,
  combining elements of African, Asian, and Islamic
  cultures

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I. East Africa and the Great Zimbabwe

• The Shona people migrated onto the plateau of
  Zimbabwe and became wealthy and powerful from
  trading gold

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I. East Africa and the Great Zimbabwe

• Great Zimbabwe was the center of the Shona state,
  which declined in the AD 1400s

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II. West Africa

• West African cities grew into major commercial
  centers based on the trade of salt and gold

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II. West Africa

• The earliest West African kingdom was Ghana,
  established by the Soninke people after AD 300

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II. West Africa

• Invasions and loss of the salt trade weakened
  Ghana and it was replaced by the kingdom of Mali
  around A.D. 1235

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II. West Africa

• Mali reached its peak in the A.D. 1300s under the
  ruler Mansa Musa

Mansa Musa was the ruler of the vast Mandingo
kingdom of Mali. From the mines of West Africa he
amassed legendary amounts of gold, which his
subjects traded for salt, weight for weight.
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II. West Africa

• The city of Timbuktu became a center of learning
  and its university drew scholars from Egypt and
  Arabia

A cultured center of learning and trade for a
thousand years, Timbuktu crowns the bend of the
Niger river in Mali. Its soaring towers, adobe
architecture and plaster reliefs belong to a
cultural style seen from Senegal to Nubia. Legend
says that a woman named Buktu founded the city,
and so it is named "Place of Buktu."
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II. West Africa

• The rebel leader Sonni Ali captured Timbuktu and
  established the kingdom of Songhai in A.D. 1468

The shaded portion indicates the greatest extent
of the Songhai empire, ca. sixteenth century
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II. West Africa

• Songhai was centered at the trading city of Gao
  on the Niger River

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II. West Africa

• The Songhai empire declined due to internal
  fighting and was defeated by Morocco in 1591