United States History Student Edition

Western and Central African Empires and Kingdoms Trade led to the development of numerous empires and kingdoms across Western and Central Africa.

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GEOGRAPHY CONNECTION 1. Exploring Place Which resource was found in the kingdom of Mali? 2. Spatial Thinking Describe the relative location of the kingdom of Kongo.

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Makkah (Mecca)

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Gao Timbuktu

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Ghana, c. 1050 C.E. Mali, 1300s C.E.

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Benin

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Benin, c. 1500 C.E. Songhai, 1500s C.E. Kongo, c. 1500 C.E. Ndongo, c. late 1500s C.E. Trade route Salt mines Gold mines

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0 600 kilometers 600 miles 0 Azimuthal Equidistant projection

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Luanda

In some cases, the Portuguese tried to seize control of any kingdom that sought to limit the slave trade, sometimes by supporting the kingdom’s neighboring enemies, to whom they provided arms. With their guns and cannons, the Portuguese shattered the power of the West African kingdoms. Without strong kingdoms, and with a society in disarray because of the Europeans, the West Africans found themselves less able to resist the kidnapping of their people for the growing slave trade. 7 CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING Summarizing Describe the civilizations that had developed in West Africa before and around the time of European explorations. Columbus and the Americas GUIDING QUESTION Why were Columbus’s voyages significant? Even as the Portuguese found their way by sea to India, other parts of the world remained unknown to most Europeans. Several centuries earlier, in the 800s and 900s C.E., northern Europeans had sailed to North America. Known as Vikings, or Norsemen, their ships sailed from present-day Scandinavia to Iceland and Greenland, and they

established settlements there for a brief period of time. According to Norse sagas, or traditional stories, a Viking sailor named Leif Eriksson explored lands west of Greenland in about the year 1000 C.E. The sagas refer to this land as “Vinland.” Ruins from around that period can be found in northeastern Canada and could support the sagas. The Vikings’ voyages were not well-known throughout Europe, however. Other Europeans did not “discover” the Americas until an explorer named Christopher Columbus made his historic voyage. Columbus and His Voyages Born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451, Christopher Columbus became a sailor for Portugal. He traveled as far north as the Arctic Circle and as far south as Africa. To reach Asia, Columbus had a different route in mind than the one used by his Portuguese comrades. He planned to sail west. Although Columbus had a plan for reaching Asia, he needed money to pay for his expedition. He visited European monarchs, looking for support. Finally, he found a sponsor in Spain. For most of the 1400s, Spanish monarchs devoted, or committed, their energy to driving the Muslims out of Spain. Muslims had invaded Spain in the 700s C.E., but their power had been declining. The last Muslim kingdom in Spain fell in 1492.

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Exploration and Colonization