Compare and contrast the processes that led to the emergence of empires in East and West Africa

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A. Emergence of empires in East Africa: expansion of trade
1. Ethiopia
a. Ethiopian rulers again began to reach beyond its mountains to
dominate surrounding regions in 14th century
b. controlled trade along the Great Rift valley
c. wealth funded defense and fueled aggression
d. Ethiopia's Massaweh road became a standard route to the IndianOcean
e. internal expansion
1. conversion of wasteland to farmland
2. Zambezi valley
a. also looked toward the Indian Ocean for long-range trade with
maritime Asia
1. more difficult because routes were beyond the reach of
the normal routes of trade
2. merchants risked the voyage to bring manufactured
goods from Asia in trade for gold and ivory
3. Mwene Mutapa
a. pattern of trade routes altered
1. native merchants, who traded at inland fairs, had no
interest in a direct outlet to the sea
B. Emergence of empires in West Africa: decline of old regional power
1. decline of Mali and rise of the Songhay
a. absence of a strong African state undermined Europeans'
esteem for black Africans
b. expected to find a rich empire but found a ramshackle wreck,
and wondered if black Africans had any capacity for political greatness
2. Songhay gradually succeeded Mali as the most powerful state in the region
a. never controlled as much of the Saharan trade
b. stimulated trade by imposing peace and so increasing Saharan
merchants' sense of security
c. also had internal expansion
1. promoted a modest sort of capitalism by concentrating
resources in the hands of religious foundations
2. new canals, wells, dikes, and reservoirs scored the land
3. cultivated terrain was extended
d. grew with trade
1. benefited from the trade routes of the Sahara
3. Kingdom of Kongo
a. opportunities for states to reach out by sea were limited
b. adopted the religion and technology of Portuguese explorers
1. host to Portuguese missionaries, craftsmen, and mercenaries
2. connection made Kongo best-documented kingdom in
West Africa in the sixteenth century
C. Similarities of development
1. expanded commercially and territorially, little of this activity was on an
unprecedented scale
a. empires grew at impressive rates and to impressive extents
because they were in touch with other commercially and
politically expanding cultures
1. Songhay across the Sahara
2. Ethiopia and Mwene Mutapa across the Indian Ocean
3. the coastal trading cities and Kongo with the Portuguese