AFRICA



AFRICA

INTRODUCTION

• Second largest of the earth’s seven continents

• 22% of the world’s total land area

• Approximately 12% of the world’s population

• 642 million people live in Africa, making it the world’s second-most populous continent after Asia.

• Sahara Desert—Largest in the world ( approx. 25% of the land mass)

o Above desert—Northern Africa (Egypt, Algeria)

o Sub-Sahara—South of the Sahara Desert

Northern Africa

• More populous

• Nile River—agricultural

• Oil

Sub-Sahara

• Countries (Ethiopia, Somalia, and Uganda)

• Central and West Africa (Angola, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Congo (Formerly Zaire)

Southern Africa

• South Africa

• Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia

General Information

➢ Africa as a whole encompasses about 50 nations.

➢ Widely believed that human life began in Africa sometime between 5 million and 8 million years ago.

➢ Home to one of the world’s first great civilizations. (Egypt)

➢ Last 500 years dominated by foreign colonization and political and ethnic struggles.

➢ Continent remains mostly rural, despite some urban growth in the second half of the 20th century.

➢ Agriculture is still the main economic activity.

➢ Devastating famine and outbreaks of disease are common

Cultural

➢ Maybe the most diverse of any continent’s inhabitants

o Has thousands of different ethnic groups and more than 1000 different languages.

o Black Africans make up the majority of the continent’s population but there are also large populations of

▪ Arabs

▪ Asians

▪ Europeans

▪ Berbers

SINCE THE 1950’S, MOST AFRICAN NATIONS HAVE GAINED INDEPENDENCE FROM THEIR FORMER COLONIAL POWERS

CLIMATE

Five main climatic zones can be distinguished

1. Central portion—Tropical rain forest climate

2. North and south of the rain forest climate is supplanted by a tropical savanna climate zone that encompasses about one-fifth of Africa

3. Sahara zone—dry and extreme temperatures with little annual rainfall (July temps 90’sF and 32F)

4. The extreme northwest of Africa—Mediterranean climate

5. Highlands of Eastern Africa—Moderate temperature and rainfall (Kenya and Uganda)

Mineral Resources

1. Fossil fuels are abundant (coal, petroleum, and natural gas)

2. Gold, diamonds, copper bauxite, manganese, nickel, platinum, cobalt, radium, germanium, lithium, and phosphates

3. Iron ore, chromium, tin, zinc, lead, thorium, zirconium, vanadium, antimony and beryllium

4. Clays, mica, sulfur, salt, natron, graphite, limestone, and gypsum

RELIGION

➢ Christianity—Africa’s most widespread religion was introduced into northern Africa in the 1st century and spread to the Sudan and Ethiopian regions in the 4th century.

➢ Islam-the second most widespread religion in Africa was introduced throughout northern Africa in the 7th century.

➢ About 15% practice indigenous or local religions.

➢ Small numbers of Jews are located in northern and southern Africa

➢ Hindu, Buddhist, and Daoist peoples are scattered through eastern and southern Africa.

EARLY EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM

➢ Prince Henry the Navigator – (Portugal) sends out numerous expeditions starting in 1434.

➢ 1497 Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached India

➢ Motivation for these explorations:

1. Desire for knowledge

2. Wish to bring Christianity to what they perceived as pagan peoples

3. Search for potential allies against the Muslim threats

4. Lucrative trade routes to the East Indies (WEALTH)

➢ English, Spanish, French, and the Dutch soon follow

➢ Portuguese establish a chain of trading settlements along the West African coast

➢ El Mina, founded on the Gold Coast in 1482, was the most lucrative trading post.

➢ Trading gold, ivory, foodstuff, and slaves were exchanged for firearms, textiles, and foodstuff.

BRITISH EXPANSION

➢ 1821 British take over the Gold Coast

o Exporting palm oil

o Importing missionaries

➢ 1843 Ashanti control

➢ 1852 Calabar, Bonny and Brass

➢ 1861 Lagos

PORTUGUESE EXPANSION

➢ Central and East Africa expansion

➢ 1840’s Angola and the Congo

o Convert to Christianity in an attempt to convert to a Western State

o Slave trade interrupted by civil strife and in the 16th century the kingdom collapsed

➢ 1575 Luanda

➢ 1542 Ethiopia

DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA

➢ 1652 Dutch farmers called Boers (Afrikaners) settle into the region.

➢ Settled around Cape Town

➢ 1795-1815 British have established control of South Africa

➢ British vs. the Zulus (1878)

o Series of wars (divide Zulu land into 13 separate territories)

o Reduction of British influence in South Africa by 1914

o Boers were among the first whites to explore the African interior.

o Boers Wars: British defeated the Afrikaners in the Boer War in 1902

FROM 1880-1905 MOST OF AFRICA WAS PARTITIONED AMONG BELGIUM, FRANCE, GERMAN, BRITAIN, ITALY, AND PORTUGAL

WITH THE MANY CONFLICTS OVER COLONIZATION (EUROPEAN NATIONS)

➢ 1884 Berlin West African Conference

➢ Defined the spheres of influence and laid down rules for future occupation on the coasts of Africa

➢ When a power acquired a new territory, it must notify the other powers.

➢ No African states had been invited to the Berlin conference and none signed the agreement

African Resistance

➢ French face revolt in 1970 Algeria (defeated)

➢ 1880 and 1899 Boers resist British rule

➢ British resistance also in Mat abele, Shona Ashanti land and Sierra Leone.

➢ Germans 1904 revolt in South-West Africa (Maji Maji)

➢ 1896 Italians defeated by Ethiopians Battle of Adwa.

COLONIZATION BY 1900

British

Egypt

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

British East Africa

British Somaliland

Southern Rhodesia

Northern Rhodesia

Bechuanaland

Orange Free State

British South Africa

The Gambia

Sierra Leone

Nigeria

British Gold Coast

French

Algeria

Morocco

Ivory Coast (French West Africa)

French Equatorial Africa

French Somaliland

French Sudan

Madagascar

German

German Kamerun

German East Africa

German South-West Africa

German Togoland

Portuguese

Portuguese West Africa

Portuguese East Africa

Portuguese Cabinda

Portuguese Guinea

Italian

Italian North Africa

Eritrea

Italian Somaliland

Belgian

Belgian Congo

Spanish

Spanish Sahara

Rio De Oro

Rio Muni

Independent Nations

Liberia

Abyssinia (Ethiopia}

World War I (1914-1918)

➢ Before War: European administrations began to develop transportation systems, institute tax systems that would force subsistence farmers either to raise cash crops or to engage in migrant labor.

➢ After War: Exploitation of the colonies ere tempered and greater attention was paid to providing education, health services, and development assistance and to safeguarding African land rights.

➢ Algeria, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), and Kenya were given considerable internal self-government.

o Western-educated African groups could vote.

o With the coming of WWII many Africans served in the Allied forces.

o Fighting on the continent was limited to North and northeast Africa.

➢ After WWII (The New Africa)

➢ German territories were divided amongst the Allied powers

➢ By 1947 French rule is opposed in North Africa

➢ 1954 Algeria begins its movement towards independence (achieved by 1962)

➢ 1956 Morocco and Tunisia gain independence

➢ 1954 Sudan gain independence over Britain

➢ 1958 Ghana and Guinea

➢ 1960 – 17 countries gain independence

➢ By 1970 most African nations were independent

➢ Zimbabwe gained legal independence in 1980

➢ Namibia’s independence in 1990

SOME PROBLEMS THAT YOUNG AFRICAN NATIONS FACED

1. Most African countries retained the boundaries arbitrarily drawn by the late 19th century European diplomats.

2. Ethnic groups may be divided by national boundaries, but loyalties to such groups are often stronger than those to the state.

3. Nationalist movements and their leaders installed themselves in virtually permanent power. (Single-party states)

4. These governments proved unable or unwilling to fulfill popular expectations, the resort was often military intervention.

5. Economic development has proven difficult. (Poor finances, and the lack of foreign investment—“too risky”)

6. World wide recession in the 1980’s hurt Africa

7. Serious foreign-exchange problems

8. Famine and drought

9. Refugees from wars

10. An epidemic of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), cholera and other diseases

11. Destabilized governments have halted economic progress (Algeria, Liberia, Sudan, Somalia and Central and southern Africa)

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