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46 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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When did hominids first develop in East Africa?
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4 million years ago
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Why was Africa an ideal place for hominids to evolve?
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Because it was stable for millions of years on Pangea and it was warm next tot he equator.
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What is a savanah? What did it provide for the people who lived there?
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A high grassy plain with a mild climate. It provided abundant wildlife and plant food.
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When did the savanah start to dry out and what is that process called that formed the Sahara desert?
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5-6000 years ago. The process is desertification.
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Where did the people who had lived on the Savanah migrate to once the desert began to form.
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the Nile Valley, North Africa, and West Africa.
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Name the two Kingdoms of the Nile.
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Nubia and Ancient Egypt
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What was the name of the Nubians' strongest and longest kingdom?
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the Kush kingdom
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What were the two capital cities of Kush?
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Meroe and Napata
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What texts pre-date Egyptian texts?
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Merotic texts
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Who ruled Kush in the 600's BCE?
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Senkamenisken
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Why were the Nubians able to become so powerful?
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They were good at trade and they had ironworking skills.
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Who did the Nubians trade with outside of Africa?
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Arabia, India and China
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What rival Nubian empire destroyed Kush? When?
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Aksum destroyed Kush in 350 CE.
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What did the Ancient Egyptians call their land and what did it mean?
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Kemet = the land of the blacks.
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What is the Afro-centric debate?
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It is an argument about whether the great civilization of Egypt was built by black Africans or Europeans.
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When were Lower and Upper Egypt united and who ruled over it?
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Egypt was united in 3100 BCE and was ruled by the Pharoah.
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Who called Egypt "the gift of the Nile"?
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the Greek historian Herodotus
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By when had the desertification process spread the Sahara to Egypt?
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2000 BCE
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How many people lived in Africa in 1000 CE and in which part did half of them live?
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There were 6.5 million people and half of them lived in Egypt.
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Over the next 2000 years, how large did the African population grow and where did the majority live? Why?
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By 1000 CE there were 33 million people, 70% of whom lived south of the Sahara. They had a stable food supply (farming)and made improved tools and weapons from iron, living longer than before.
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Name the three empires of West Africa in chronological order.
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Ghana, Mali, Songhai
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When did Ghana begin to rise to power, when did it peak and when was it overthrown?
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It began to rise to powere in 300 CE, peaked at 1000 CE and was overthrown in 1200 CE.
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How did Ghana gain much of its strength?
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Through trade. They dominated the salt-gold trade route. They bought (Sahara) salt from North Africa traders and paid with gold. They supplied gold to North Africa and Europe for hundreds of years. They had a monopoly on the trade.
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What other things did Ghana trade with North Africa and Europe?
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SLAVES, ivory, skins, cotton, honey.
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When was Islam introduced to Africa? How was it introduced?
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At the peak of Ghana's power, Muslim traders from Arabia came to Ghana. They were welcomed (because they were rich and cultured), and they were allowed to worship there in mosques the government allowed them to build.
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What increased with the spread of Islam in Africa?
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The slave trade. Slavery had been in Africa for centuries but when Muslims settled there thousands of people were taken as slaves yearly to Persia, Arabia, India and China.
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Where, when and by whom was Islam founded?
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In the 600's CE in Arabia by the Prophet Muhammad.
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What does the term Islam mean?
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Islam = submitting to God's will
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What book contains the words of the prophet?
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Qur'an
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What are the Five Pillars of Islam? (FOAFP)
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Faith, obligatory prayer, alms giving, fasting and pilgrimage to Mecca.
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What is the Hadith?
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It is a book of important Muslim sayings and stories (that further explain the words of Muhammad).
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What is Sufism?
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A mystical form of Islam
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Who eventually defeated Ghana and took power?
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First an army of Muslims from North Africa invaded, then the MANDINKA people defeated it and replaced it with MALI.
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Name the three most famous rulers of Ghana and what each was known for.
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SUNDIATA - led the Mandinkas to defeat Ghana;
ABU BAKARI II - sent ships to explore the world 200 years before Columbus; MANSA MUSA - built Timbuktu into a world famous city and center of Muslim learning; made a lavish pilgrimage to Mecca. |
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Who conquered Mali when it declined after Mansa Musa's death?
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the SONGHAI people, led by Muslim General Sunni 'Ali.
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Who followed Sunni 'Ali as emperor and what was his contribution?
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"Askia the Great" made Timbuktu even better known as a Muslim center of culture and learning where people came from all over west and north Africa to study.
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How did the Songhai empire fall?
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North Africans from Morrocco invaded and destroyed it in 1591. They had firearms.
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What was the primary religious value of traditional Africans?
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Kinship. They prayed to ancestors, made the oldest male priest, lived together, etc.
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How did Africans avoid conflict between their traditional beliefs and Islam?
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Many African leaders combined African and Muslim practices (like multiple wives) and people eventually accepted it. Africans also learned to read and write exclusively in Arabic.
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Approximately when did explorers from Europe arrive in Africa? What were they looking for?
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In the 1400's. They were looking for neew trade routes to Asia for gold, ways to spread Christianity and the mythical Christian ruler named Prester John from the ancient kingdom of Aksum.
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Who led the Portuguese to arrive first in Africa? What advantages did the Portuguese have over other Europeans?
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"Prince Henry the Navigator" set up an institute especially for exploration, hired the best sailors, and developed a superior boat (caravan). The Portuguese led the rest of Europe in accepting that the Earth was round.
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Why was it so important to the Portuguese to trade with Africa?
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They desperately needed money because their royals spent like crazy.
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What effect did Portugal have on the African slave trade?
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They began shipping slaves to Spain at the rate of 1000 per year. The descendents of some of these slaves arrived in the Americas eventually.
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How did the Portuguese' view of Africans change over time.
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As the Portuguese got more involved with the slave trade they began to view Africans as inferior (to justify trading them as slaves), where before they had been impressed by Africans' wealth and power.
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What happended between Spain and North African Muslims?
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Muslims invaded and took over Spain's Iberian Penninsula by 1050 CE, during the Crusades. Christian armies fought to take back that land for the next 300 years.
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How did Spain eventually push the Muslims out of Spain completely?
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When Ferdinand of Aragon in Spain married Isabella of Castile in Spain they were strong enough to defeat the Muslims entirely. Then they sent Columbus to the new world.
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