West Africa Compare And Contrast Essay

Early in the nineteenth century, the british had set up settlements in west Africa along the gold coast. The growing European presence in west Africa led to increasing tension with African governments in the area. Most african states were free and maintained their independence until, 1874, great britain annexed the west coastal states as the first british colony of gold coast. This left france in control of biggest part of western africa.

The primary difference in the political organization of both East and West African from 1000-1500 CE comes in the form of government. While all sub-Saharan Africa utilized kin-based groups, West Africa was structured more around kingdoms, and East Africa structured around city-states. Some West African kingdoms had a strong centralized government, such as the Kingdom of Kongo. The government included a king, who controlled military, judicial, and financial affairs, with the help of his officials. When the emergence of formal states came about, the strong kin-based societies of the West survived for centuries later.

By the end of the century, most northern and western African countries had totalitarian or undemocratic regimes and legacies of violence. In South Asia, specifically India, multi party democracies were established after independencies from European colonists. Although India had one national party called the Congress Party, this political group included several parties with different ideologies and interests that people could choose from democratically. There was few civil discord, since the division of India and Pakistan eliminated any cultural differences capable of creating political issues. Ever since its independence, India acquired a Western form of political government, allowing elections, civil rights, and political order.

DBQ #2 The Islamic Caliphate gave way to much change in the Middle East during its reigning times, roughly 600-1300 C.E. Many political, economic, and social changes were imposed by the Caliph to different regions and cultures. New political changes were imposed on the people of Arabia and Africa. Christians and Jews also faced pressure from Muslims to convert due to benefits. Women’s rights also changed as part of the Caliphate.

The early 13th century is ultimately known for the uprising of two influential civilization in Tropical Africa and Asia. Sultan Iltutmish is credited as the founder of Delhi, while Sundiata is recognized as the founder of Mali. Although the Delhi Sultanate originated in India and the Mali Empire in Western Africa, both empires’ political, social, and economic structures are perceived to be established around a certain idealistic belief. The authoritarian structure of Delhi and Mali’s government system and the rigorous framework of their military were cultivated by adapting early Islamic culture; nevertheless, this commonality shared between the two civilizations resulted in the diversity of Mali’s wealth relying heavily on long distance trade,

European rule would continue to overwhelmed West Asia and North Africa. European languages, Christian values, and Western ideologies such as liberalism, and nationalism. Furthermore, by these Africans, adapting Western ideals and modern weapons into their African heritage, it would of still lead them to liberation of Africa from European rule. Asian peoples had few direct connections with the West. Few Asians new about Westerners, and those who did often saw them as “barbarians” from inferior cultures seeking the riches of Asian civilizations.

Colonies were formed based on joint stock companies or by proprietary means where the king granted the land to someone. Colonies were also created via offshoots of other colonies such as Delaware and Rhode Island. – Lecture “Their economic systems” Economic systems for the colonies included mercantilism, crops, indentured servants, and slaves (Africans).

Around the time of the 15 and 16 century , Europeans started to immerse in the slave trade . “European traders had previously been interested in African nations and kingdoms such as Ghana and Mali , due to their sophisticated trading networks “ ( MLA East of England 2009) and their keen knowledge of trading networks, they wanted to trade something more valuable: humans . They took slaves from Western Africa to Europe and America . In the beginning, it was a small amount but the slave trade grew during the seventh and eighteenth centuries. Europeans who came to America were tempted to do something which happens to be owning their own land and were opposed to work for others .

In African Society and Culture, the Bantu migrations helped shape many countries in Africa to have similar traditions and cultures. The main points of the section of the chapter are the Bantu migrations helped shape many cultures in Africa south of the Sahara, the African slave trade changed greatly when Muslims and Europeans began taking captives from the continent of Africa, and Enslaved Africans developed the rich culture that influenced many other cultures, including our own. Europeans came to Africa, people all over the continent had created many discrete cultures. The Bantu people spread skills like pottery making, mining, iron working, and languages. First, the Bantu migrations shaped many countries in Africa to have similar traditions and cultures.

In the past, a quality education was only attainable by the rich and powerful within these states. Recently, we have seen higher education attainability rates throughout the post colonial-world (Mann, “Post Colonial Development in Africa”). Post-colonialism is defined between nations and areas they colonized and ruled (Mann, “Post Colonial Development in Africa”). In 1957, the Gold Coast gained independence and became Ghana. In Kenya, there was a revolt which led to decolonization in 1963.

Colonialism can be defined as the policy of a nation seeking to extend or retain its authority over other peoples or territories, which is accomplished by acquiring political control the country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. Some countries use colonialism to acquire land for their people to live in or to use for agricultural purposes. The local inhabitants were often forced to move away, but often, due to the dominant colonial power over the indigenous people who were as slave labor. The European colonial period was from the 16th century to the mid-20th century. European powers built up colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

For the period 500 BCE to 1200 CE, the societies of Africa and the societies of Americas both developed primarily in isolation. The geography of these regions and environmental variations created great distance between the emerging civilizations within the two continents. For example, In Africa the civilization of Axum, located on the horn of Africa, emerged with ties to Arabia. The proximity to the Red Sea linked Axum with Egypt and subsequently Christianity. This civilization had a monarch political system, built monuments, and even developed a written language.

but, there are a lot of reasons why it did.some reasons are that they made an empire and took over other countries and forced them to have Islam as their religion. They also spread the Islamic religion by having trade routes that traded different goods with other countries and also natural resources such as: oil known as petroleum

While both of these exchanges involved trading between countries, the Columbian exchange often included unintended movement such as diseases, language, and culture. Also while the Columbian exchange was between two regions (Europe and the East coast of America), the Triangular trade extended between three different regions (Europe, America, and the West coast of Africa). Also the name of the Triangular trade route itself, is actually about the paths trading ships followed, in comparison to the Columbian exchange which was basically just an exchange of a large variety of

On pages 222 is a map of the Muslim travel pattern over the Byzantine and Persian Empires. However, on page 283 there is a map of Islamic conquests over a short period. Both reveal the spread of Islamic religion went very fast with the amount of conquering taking place before 1500 AD. The main key factor was, "...admitting non-Arabs to the faith and about maintaining the cultural distinction between conquerors and conquered" (Morillo, p. 221) By keeping a distinct difference between the Muslim Arabs and non-Muslim Arabs was important. Those that did not wish to convert to Muslim focused on the contract Muhammad made to give non-Muslim Arabs their freedom.