Classroom notes for World History
Homework: Make sure you have completed Chapter 11 Section 1 Review Questions Page 371

Today's Geography question was:
2. By 12,000 years ago early people were living on every continent but one. Which one was that?

Read through your notes each night to help you study.

Chapter 11
Lesson 1
Notes

Africa

* The second largest continent in the world
* Five regions of Africa
* North Africa
* West Africa
* Central Africa
* East Africa
* Southern Africa

Great Rift Valley

* 3,500 miles long
* North and South through east Africa
* One of the world's longest and deepest valley systems


* Deserts cover large parts of Africa
* Sahara - world's largest desert
* 3.5 million square miles of North Africa

West Africa
* Most of west Africa is savanna
* Tropical rain forest - tropical region on the southern coast and central Africa

Why was survival for early people of the savanna easy?
* full of wild animals for hunting
* fertile soil for growing crops
Nok people
* 1) began to shape iron by heating in 300 B.C.
* 2) lived 900 B.C. to A.D. 200
* 3) lived in northern Nigeria
Iron changed the lives of the Nok people by:
* stronger weapons for hunting and fighting
* easier to clear land
* easier to grow crops
* made the Nok more powerful
Soninkes
* had taken over much of the West African grassland
* lived along the Niger River
* land was very fertile
* used their location by using water from the Niger River to irrigate their land
Soninkes were good traders
* location was ideal for a center of trade
* region lay between the forestlands south of Niger and ghe desert lands of the Sahara in North Africa
* North African merchants crossed the Sahara to trade with Soninkes
* Main trade good was gold

Soninke Trade Cycle
* Soninkes traded salt to Wangaras for gold
* Then Soninkes traded the gold to North African merchants for salt
Soninkes also traded for good such as:
* paper
* woven cloth
* Perfume
* This wealth led to the development of the first great empire in West Africa
Ghana

* West African empire
* Located between Senegal and upper Niger rivers
* Began its rise to power 700 B.C.
* Year 1000 B.C. covered 100,000 square miles
* Ghanaian army kept trade routes open across the savanna
* Charged tariff's on all goods passing through savanna
* Tariff money used for government and to feed army
* Ghana was called "master of the gold"
* War between Ghana and Berber that led to the end of Ghana empire
How did the contact with Muslim North Africans through trade change the lives of people of West Africa?

* Muslim traders showed West Africans how to use money
* Brought the Arabic language
* West Africans accepted the religion of Islam
* Kings became Muslims
Mali

* formed in West Africa
* people who founded Mali was call Malinkes
* Mali's riches came from the gold-and-salt trade
* Mali grew twice as large as Ghana empire
* Mansa Musa great leader, 1307 to 1332
* Mansa Musa encouraged knowledge and study
* Mali became a center of learning
* Established a university at Timbuktu
Songhay

* Mali weakened and Songhay rose to power
* Grew rich from controlling trade routes
* Songhay overthrown by the ruler of Morocco in 1591