What was Africa like before European exploration?

What was Africa like before European exploration?

At its peak, prior to European colonialism, it is estimated that Africa had up to 10,000 different states and autonomous groups with distinct languages and customs. From the late 15th century, Europeans joined the slave trade. They transported enslaved West, Central, and Southern Africans overseas.

What was West Africa like before colonization?

There were many forms of government in Africa before Europeans knew it, ranging from powerful empires to decentralised groups of pastoralists and hunters. In the Middle Ages much of modern Senegal and Mali was governed by a confederation of states known as the Mali empire. …

What was life like in ancient Africa?

The commoners in Ancient Africa were typically very poor and had to work hard all their lives. Farmers – Most people in Ancient Africa were farmers. They spent much of their day working the land growing crops such as yams, sorghum, barley, and wheat.

How is life in West Africa a mix of the ancient and the modern?

How is life in West Africa a mix of the ancient and the modern? Traditional extended family are common throughout the region but women are taking on more modern roles.

How was life in Africa before Colonisation?

Pre- colonial societies were highly varied, where they were either stateless, run by the state or run by kingdoms. The notion of communalism was accepted and practiced widely; land was held commonly and could not be bought or sold, although other things, such as cattle, were owned individually.

What was ancient Africa known for?

The geography impacted where people could live, important trade resources such as gold and salt, and trade routes that helped different civilizations to interact and develop. A wide variety of peoples developed throughout Ancient Africa over the course of history.

When did humans arrive in West Africa?

The situation in West Africa is difficult to interpret due to a sparsity of fossil evidence. Homo sapiens seems to have reached the western Sahelian zone by 130,000 years ago, while tropical West African sites associated with H. sapiens are known only from after 130,000 years ago.

When was West Africa first inhabited?

Africa is considered the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, where the human species originated. During the middle of the 20th century, anthropologists discovered evidence of human occupation as early as seven million years ago.

What was life like in Africa before the Europeans came?

There were many forms of government in Africa before Europeans knew it, ranging from powerful empires to decentralised groups of pastoralists and hunters. In West Africa, archaeological excavations at Old Jenne (modern Djenné, in Mali) have uncovered a sophisticated urban settlement dating from the 3rd century BC.

What did the Europeans know before the age of exploration?

Before the age of exploration, the Europeans did not know what lay beyond Cape Non (Cape Chaunar) on the African coast, and whether it was possible to return once it was crossed. Hence, the overland Silk Road and the Spice Trade Routes are the extensive interconnected network of trade routes to the world.

What was the history of West Africa before the Europeans?

West Africa before the Europeans. The ancient kingdom of Ghana was based on the gold trade and flourished from at least as early as the 8th century AD. In the Middle Ages much of modern Senegal and Mali was governed by a confederation of states known as the Mali empire.

What did Africans do in the 16th century?

During the 16th century, African adventurers joined into the spirit of the Age of Exploration and crisscrossed the globe. In the early 1500s, Africans trekked across Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador, conquered New Mexico with Coronado, and gazed upon the shores of the mysterious Pacific Ocean alongside Ferdinand de Balboa.