Assignment:
Part I: Fill in the Blanks
Fill in the blanks to complete the following sentences.
1. North African Civilization, 1000-1800 C.E.
a. The written record of the past and the study of past written records is called .
b. Sunnis struggled against Shiites, especially , for the faith of North Africans in the 11th and 12th centuries.
c. Between 1000 and 1800, North African politics was characterized by as its tribes and city-states fought to maintain effective . Several empires controlled parts of the region north of the Sahara during this time, including the , but none was able to control the large areas for long periods of time.
d. The were rulers of Morocco who claimed to be descendants of .
e. Islam spread southward across the desert primarily with Muslim . The , a group of zealous Muslims, began trying to convert people by force in the 1030s.
2. Civilization in the Sahel and Sudan, 1000-1800
a. The kingdom of Ghana, with its capital at , controlled the slave and trade in the 11th and 12th centuries. Traders and government workers who followed were influential, but the king and court practiced paganism and idol worship.
b. Following the decline and collapse of Ghana in the late 12th century, the region consisted of several smaller kingdoms until the empire of consolidated power in the mid- and late-13th century. The Muslim kings of this empire made pilgrimages to and encouraged trade.
c. Mali's most important kings from the Keita dynasty were , who extended Mali's power west to the Atlantic and established the Malian capital at , and , who encouraged Muslim scholars, artists, architects, scientists, and poets to settle in Mali. Many of these intellectuals moved to , where the madrasas and libraries made it a lasting center for culture in West Africa.
d. The Songhai became an empire after the conquests of Timbuktu and Jenne during the reign of , who practiced traditional African religion. His successor, , was a Muslim and encouraged Muslim settlement and scholarship. Under Songhai rule, ________ expanded its role as the center of Islamic learning and scholarship in the Sahel and Sudan. Trade continued to expand under the rule of , who defended the empire against the Mossi and Berbers. Soon, though, civil war and an invasion force armed with _____________from Morocco caused the decline of the Songhai empire.
e. The empire in the central Sudan and , southwest of Lake Chad, were the centers of an Islamic empire with an economic foundation based on .
f. The Nubian kingdoms of and gradually became more and more influenced by Arabic culture and Islam.
3. Civilization in the Central and West African Forestlands: 1000-1800
a. Ewuare was the , or king, of Benin who transformed it into a large kingdom and shifted rule away from the , or council of chiefs, by establishing broad royal authority. Later, slaves were to the oba as his role expanded from a military and political leader into a spiritual leader with supernatural powers.
b. The kingdom of in Central Africa was a major partner of Portuguese slave traders during the 16th century, and thrived in the 17th century as Christian and indigenous African traditions blended.
c. The arrival of merchants, traders, and colonists from along the West and Central African coasts changed the continent drastically between 1500 and 1800. Food crops from the Americas, such as , expanded African access to nutrition. The first white proprietary colony in Africa was Portuguese-controlled , where the international slave trade quickly depopulated the region around Luanda.
4. East African Civilization:1000-1800
a. Arab and Persian merchants traded heavily with East Africa and helped convert the coastal regions to . The most important export good from East Africa was , but the traders also bought slaves, gold, wood, and cotton cloth. These traders also contributed to , a trade language made of a blend of Bantu and Arabic influences.
b. In the 14th and 15th centuries, coastal Swahili city-states like Kilwa, Manda, Lamu, Mombasa, and were cosmopolitan trading centers.
c. Portuguese trading arrived in East Africa in the 16th century, contributing to the economic ______ of the Swahili city-states. In 1698, the Portuguese were expelled from most of East Africa by the state of on the Arabian Peninsula, which established a southern stronghold in .
5. Southern African Civilizations :1000-1800
a. -speaking Shona people founded a thriving civilization between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers south of the Swahili city-states. Its greatest city, known now as , reveals to archaeologists a wealthy, sophisticated society that flourished due to population growth, herding, farming, and the trade. This civilization, which likely declined because of depleted , appears to have divided into a southern kingdom, , and a northern kingdom ruled by the Mwene Mutapa (Master Pillager), .
b. The Shona kingdom conquered the northern kingdom and pushed the Portuguese out in the 1690s, but mixed-blood , of Portuguese and African descent, continued to dominate Southeastern Africa.
c. The peoples of Southwestern Africa were integrated into the economy and displaced by European colonists from after the founding of the first Cape settlement in 1652. Nomadic European herders called expanded European influence, and a new language, , emerged from the blended culture of the Cape Colony. By the 18th century, Dutch and indigenous African cultural influences in the Cape Colony were joined by new influences from colonists.
6. Medieval European Civilization
a. The Roman Catholic Church recovered strength in the Middle Ages, through the efforts of
, the first king of Germany who was not a Frank, and the reform movement centered on the monastery at , which led efforts to free the Church from political influences. The popularity and influence of the were demonstrated by the strong efforts of European warriors in the Crusades, holy wars against neighboring peoples who practiced the religion. The , which lasted from 1378 to 1417, had rival claimants to the papacy in Rome and Avignon.
b. The Crusades and reconquest in encouraged cultural exchange with Asia and Africa, granting Europeans access to classical literature, philosophy, and learning.
c. The Hundred Years' War, fought between and , helped establish the national identities of both countries. The inspiring leadership of helped the French drive England off the continent, but she was executed by the Inquisition in 1431. New military tactics made noble mounted obsolete during this conflict.
d. The , or bubonic plague, swept across Europe several times in the 14th century. Factors that encouraged the plague included overpopulation, infestation by rats and , brought on by crop failure, and increased trade with Asia. Along with widespread death, the plague contributed to a deep social , the Flagellant movement, a decline in the importance of the nobility, centralization of power under , declining prices, increasing prices for , and growth of power in trade guilds.
e. The late Middle Ages was characterized by the importance of kings and national monarchies like France, England, Russia, and Spain-which was united by the marriage of of Castile and of Aragon. The Russian Empire, centered in , was freed from Mongol rule by , who united northern Russia.
7. Renaissance Italian Civilization
a. The Italian city-states grew wealthy from with Europe and the Near East. By 1500, most city-states were despotisms ruled by a strongman known as a who maintained law and order. Venice, the exception, was a republic ruled by wealthy . The city-states handled competition with one another by practicing diplomacy and establishing resident .
b. The wealthiest and most powerful family in Florence, the family, controlled the city for many decades and sponsored the arts.
c. Scholarly research of classical Greek and Roman authors and the founders of Christianity, or , helped launch the Renaissance, a time of extraordinary learning, re-learning, and innovation.
Part II: Cultural Contributions
Complete the following matrix with at least one element for each category.
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Civilization
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Intellectual Contributions
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Artistic Forms or Contributions
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Architecture
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Religious Beliefs
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Traditions
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North Africa, 1000-1800
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Fatimid: Mali, Ghana, Songhai, Kanem, Kanem-Bornu, and Nubia
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Forestlands
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East African
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Southern African
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Medieval European
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Renaissance Italian
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