history of Africa
Cradle of humanity, Africa was the fish
pond many prosperous kingdoms until the end of the Middle Ages. The
countries of Africa, conquered by Europeans between
the xvi E and the xix E century, found
their independence during second half of
the xx E century.
AFRICA IS The CRADLE OF HUMANITY
Many archaeological discoveries
established that the origin of the man is in Africa. Approximately 8 million years
ago, whereas Africa is populated large monkeys, a geological upheaval makes
emerge a barrier of mountains between the east and the west of the continent.
To survive, the large monkeys (insulated in the east) are obliged to adapt to a
drier climate and a rarer vegetation. They are raised for better seeing the
danger and start to go on their two legs back: they become biped. They is
probably as were born our ancestors, in an area of Africa called the Valley
Rift.
The oldest skeletons of monkeys préhumains
(6,5 million years) were found in Africa. They are then the
Australopithecus, like Lucy (in Ethiopia, 3,5 million years), then the Homo
kind: Homo
habilis then Homo erectus and finally Homo
sapiens, 150 000 years ago At the Neolithic period, of
new cultures develop in north, like those of Ajjers (today in Algeria and
Libya).
AFRICA DURING ANTIQUITY
It is still a climatic accident which
causes a major evolution of the settlement and civilization: the
Sahara, hitherto fertile, becomes a desert. The populations are
forced to leave.
The migrations bantoues towards the
south of Africa
The people living in the south of the
Sahara move away little by little from the desert. They move more in the south,
towards current Niger where they settle.
The tribes speaking the bantou which live on these grounds are then forced to
migrate in their turn. In a slow shift in population, they gradually descend
the continent to reach the south of Africa (Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa,
etc).
Appearance of Egyptian civilization
Since the north of the continent, the
people fleeing the Sahara join the valley of the Nile in the east. They contribute to the rise
of the
Egyptian civilization, which lasts approximately 3 000 years. All along the
Nile, of Abou Simbel in Louxor and to the delta of the river, the Egyptians
build temples, tombs and large pyramids dedicated to the Pharaons (in
particular in Gizeh).
Successive conquests of North Africa
During Antiquity, several foreign people
in the continent seek to settle in the north of Africa.
–The populations coming from Arabia of the South settle to O C century before J-C in Abyssinie (today Ethiopia).
– Phéniciens come from the Middle East melt a series of colonies, in particular in Carthage (towards 800 before J-C), at the edge of the Mediterranean.
– The Romans also try to conquer North Africa. But their domination is limited to the Mediterranean littoral because, towards the interior of the grounds, the legions run up against the Berber ones.
–Lastly, the cruel invasions begin with the Vandals (into 429), to which are opposed Byzantins which directs the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.
–The populations coming from Arabia of the South settle to O C century before J-C in Abyssinie (today Ethiopia).
– Phéniciens come from the Middle East melt a series of colonies, in particular in Carthage (towards 800 before J-C), at the edge of the Mediterranean.
– The Romans also try to conquer North Africa. But their domination is limited to the Mediterranean littoral because, towards the interior of the grounds, the legions run up against the Berber ones.
–Lastly, the cruel invasions begin with the Vandals (into 429), to which are opposed Byzantins which directs the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.
POWERFUL EMPIRES WITH THE MIDDLE AGES
The Islamization of North Africa
To the
vii E century, the Arabs settle in North Africa and unify the
area around Islam. The Moslems try
to diffuse this new religion more in the south, but they run up against the
Christians of Abyssinie.
Great empires of Black Africa
In Black
Africa, many cities reign on an area, even on a country. Most significant
of these quote-States are in Nigeria (Ife, Oyo) and with the Benign one. Then,
thanks to the rise of the trade with the Islamic kingdoms of North Africa —which are done by caravans
of dromedaries crossing the Sahara—,
of great
empires appear in Black Africa, in
the areas in edge of the desert. Between
the ix E and the xv E century follow one
another the kingdom of Tekrour thus, the
kingdom of Mandingues, the empire of
Ghana, the empire of Mali then the
Empire songhaï (whose principal city
is Tombouctou).
These great States must face the attacks
of the Moslem kingdoms, which have as an ambition to convert these populations
especially practising the religion animist (which grants a heart to the things as with
the human beings). These attacks involve the disappearance of the empire of
Ghana to the
xi E century, whereas, for its part, the empire of Mali
adopts Islam like religion. More in the east, between Niger and the lake Chad,
the quote-States of Haoussa thrive (benefitting from the fall of Songhaï), just
as the empire of Kanem-Bornou.
More in the south, the kingdoms bantous
More in
the south of the continent (which is apart from the influence of Islam),
the Middle Ages are especially marked by great shifts in population. Thus, Peul settle in the area of current Guinea. In
center-is, the people bantous melt
starting from the xiv E century
the kingdom of Kongo (in the estuary of the Congo river) and, in
Southern Africa, the kingdom of Monomotapa (in current Zimbabwe).
The ARRIVAL OF EUROPEANS
First counters
In 1488, the Portuguese navigator
Bartolomeu Dias reaches the course of Good-Hope (located at the extreme south
of the continent). A little later Vasco de Gama skirts is of Africa. Europeans
arrive. They are besides the Portuguese who them first install small
colonies ("counters ")
along the coasts or the mouths of the rivers to trade with the Africans.
Trade of the slaves
At the same time, the discovery of the
American continent by Europeans has dramatic consequences in Africa. Indeed, in
order to exploit the territories of America, Europeans decide to take in Africa
their labour: men, women and children are thus reduced to slavery.
At that time, the trade of the slaves (called draft of the Blacks) already exists:
since the vii E century, the Arab
kingdoms buy black slaves or seize some by wars. With the new European
application, the traffic becomes extensive without precedent. Europeans find
support at certain African States which help them to develop this trade.
It is estimated that, between the
xvii E and the xix
E century, nearly 12 million slaves were taken along of force
of Africa towards America, and 7 million towards the Arab countries.
An unrestrained colonization
It is necessary to await the medium
of the
xix E century (1833 in England and 1848 in France) so that
slavery is definitively removed in Europe. At this point in time Europeans
start to occupy of the territories inside the African grounds and to
found colonies. The new objective of the colonizers is to exploit the richnesses of Africa (forest, ores) and to create large
agricultural plantations (cocoa, coffee, groundnut, etc).
The Dutchmen settle in South Africa;these colonists
(called Boers) run up against the local populations, Bantous and Zoulou. The
French colonize North Africa since
1830 (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) and most of the west of the Black Africa, but
they encounter a savage resistance, in particular that of king Behanzin in
Dahomey (in the south of Benign of today).
The British occupy is continent (Egypt, Sudan, Kenya,
South Africa) as well as Nigeria and Ghana. The king of the
Belgians has Congo; Portuguese
Angola and Mozambique; Italy, Germany and Spain also have some territories.
At the end of the xix E century, only Ethiopia remains an
independent kingdom, as well as Liberia (a small State granted to slaves freed
returned from America).
DECOLONIZATION TO The XX E
CENTURY
Impact of the two world wars
In first half of the xx E
century, the two world wars change the situation in the colonies of
Africa. The African soldiers took part in the combat of the First World War (1914-1918) for their metropolises (for
example, Senegalese riflemen come to help France); this is why the Africans hope
for a recognition on behalf of the
colonizing countries: to grant to the Blacks the voting rights, or to allow the
election of black deputies to the French National Assembly. But their waitings
are disappointed.
Again, during the
Second World war (1939-1945),
whereas France is occupied by Germany, North Africa gives its support for the
French Resistance directed by
General de Gaulle from London. In return, promises of autonomy or independence
are made with the French colonies, but the things evolve/move little.
The independence of the African States
The shortly after the Second World war,
independence movements multiply in the colonies of Africa. The French
government chooses to repress them hard, as in Sétif in Algeria (in 1945) or in
Madagascar (in 1949). The situation is particularly delicate in North Africa.
If Morocco and Tunisia obtain their independence without too much violence (in
1956 and 1957), Algeria is released only after one long and fatal war of
decolonization (1954-1962). Lastly,
in 1960, thanks to the action of great men (like Léopold
Sédar Senghor in Senegal, Sékou
Touré in Guinea or Felix
Houphouët-Boigny in Côte.d'ivoire),
the countries of French Black Africa obtain their independence, just as the
Belgian possessions (Belgian Congo).
British colony, Ghana reaches independence
in 1957. It is the first colony of Black Africa to find its freedom. The other
British colonies obtain their independence at the beginning of the years 1960.
It should be waited until 1974-1975 so that the Portuguese leave their
colonies.
In 1980, Rhodesia directed by the white
minority becomes Zimbabwe, where the capacity from now on is exerted by the
Blacks. In South Africa also, the capacity is transferred from the minority
White to the majority Blacks in 1994 with the
election of Nelson Mandela to the
presidency of the Republic.
AFRICA Today
Today, of many conflicts take place
between the various African States or inside even of the countries. They
are conflicts
between ethnos groups, like that which opposed Nigeria to the freedom
fighters of the area of Biafra (1967-1970), or that which opposed, in Rwanda,
Hutu in Tutsi (1994) and caused the death of at least 500 000 people. They are
also religious conflicts as in
Algeria where a civil war against the islamists was held of 1992 to 1999.
Among the other major problems of the
African continent that of health appears. Most of the population is
reached AIDS and the
famine returns regularly to
Ethiopia, Somalia and to Sudan.
TO GO FURTHER
? Africa
? old Egypt
? Egyptian pyramids
? medieval Islam
? colonizing Europe to the xix E century
? the First World War
? the Second World war
? decolonization
? the war of Algeria
? Dogon
? Massaïs
? Touareg
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