History Flashcards
Where was the Mali Kingdom?
The western part of Africa, south of the Sahara Desert.
It stretched across west Africa to the Atlantic Ocean
When was Mali at the height of its power?
The 14th century
What river flowed through the Mali Empire?
The Niger River
How long is the Niger River?
Over 4000km
What was mined in the Mali Empire?
Gold
The main trade routes went from Timbuktu to which 2 African Countries?
Egypt and Morocco
a procession of camels travelling together in single file is called…..
A Camel caravan:
What were used to transport goods and people along the Trans-Saharan trade-route through the Sahara Desert to West Africa.
Explain why.
Camels,
because they could go many days without water.
they could carry heavy loads of goods and people.
Their bodies were adapted to walking on desert sand, heat and sand storms.
Camel milk was rich in vitamins and minerals and was a source of nutrition
How hot can the Sahara desert get?
57 Deg C in the Summer
Why did traders travel together.
to keep safe from robbers and danger.
Why is the Sahara Desert one of the most difficult places to cross? (or be)
There is very little to no water to drink
Little to no vegetation - No shade or food
It is one of the hottest places on earth during the day
Dust storms and hot winds
Very difficult to navigate
Robbers
Where does a camel store its fat?
In its humps
Why did the Kingdom of Mali become rich and powerful?
As a result of the trans-Saharan trade
Sahara trade linked Mali to the Middle East and Europe
What items were brought into Africa from Persia and Arabia?
rugs, swords, daggers and glass
What Items were brought into Africa from India?
Spices, dyes, cloth and beads.
What would the Arabs trade their goods for?
gold, slaves, ivory, salt and ostrich feathers.
What was Mali very rich in?
Gold
Why was gold in great demand in Europe and the Middle East?
Gold was used to make coins, which was used as money.
How did the King of Mali make profits on gold trade?
by taxing traders who used trade routes that passed through the Mali Empire.
Why did the people of Mali need salt?
People cannot survive without salt. In the hot climate of Mali, people and animals need a lot of salt to replace what the body sweats out.
Salt is also used to preserve food.
Where did Mali get their salt from
The salt-rich village of Taghaza, north of Mali
Besides goods brought in to trade, what else did the Arab traders bring into West Africa?
They brought the religion of Islam to West Africa
What are followers of the Islamic religion called?
Muslims
Why did many west-Africans convert to Islam?
it enabled them to get better prices when trading with other Muslims.
It also gave them the chance to read and write
Who made Islam the state religion in the Kingdom of Mali, but still allowed religious freedom.
Mansa Musa
What is Mansa?
King or Emperor of Mali
Muslims believe that there is only one God, called …
Allah.
The holy book of Islam is the ….
Koran.
The building where Muslims worship is called a …..
mosque.
How often must Muslims must recite prayers, called Salah?
5 times a day
What are Material sources or artefacts.
These are objects made by people
and studied by archaeologists, e.g. buildings
What are Written sources.
These are books, newspapers and letters that have been written.
What are Visual sources.
These are photographs, maps and drawings.
What are Oral sources.
These are stories told by people, songs and poems
passed on to other people.
Historians study sources of information to find out how people lived long ago.
There are four different types of sources: what are they?
Material sources or artefacts
Written sources
Visual sources
Oral sources
Who ruled over Mali between 1312 and 1337?
Mansa Musa
What did Mansa Musa encourage the people of Mali to grow and mine?
He encouraged
people to grow cotton, beans, rice and onions and to mine gold.
What did Mansa Musa become known as?
Mansa the Magnificent and
The Lion of Mali
What is the lion a symbol of?
Royal power
Bravery
Strength
Did the people of Mansa like or dislike Mansa Musa?
They loved him
How did Mansa Musa divide his empire?
Mansa Musa divided his empire into provinces, each ruled by a governor.
Each province consisted of many villages.
Each village had a mayor.
What did Mansa Musa fund? (Give money to)
During his rule, Mansa Musa funded
the building of mosques, centres of learning and libraries.
How did Mansa Musa maintain his power?
Through taxes. He taxed imports and exports
Who did Mansa Musa employ to help him strengthen his control of the large empire?
He employed judges, scribes and civil servants.
What did Mansa Musa do that travellers and traders could move without fear of attack by robbers?
He had a strong army that was able to keep order
What became a more common form of money in Mali?
Cowrie shells
What is a pilgrimage?
a religious journey to a holy place
a black stone building in Mecca shaped like a cube. This is the most sacred Muslim pilgrim shrine.
Kaaba
Hadj is the Arabic word for the pilgrimage to __________ (in modern Saudi Arabia) to pray at
the place where Mohammed went up to heaven. It is the religious duty of every Muslim
who can afford it, to go on this pilgrimage.
Mecca
a person who designs buildings
Architect:
What is a Minaret?
the spire or steeple on a mosque
What is a World Heritage Site?
a natural or historical site, area or structure which has international
importance and needs special protection
Why did Mali appear on maps throughout the Middle East and
Europe for the first time ever?
Mansa Musa gave away the gold to the poor he met along
his journey on his pilgrimage to Mecca.
Wherever he stopped on a Friday, he paid for a mosque to be built.
He became famous for how much he spent and his generosity.
What was significant about the Djingareyber Mosque?
When Mansa Musa returned to Mali from his pilgrimage to Mecca, he ordered a new mosque to be built in the city of Timbuktu.
This building was called the Djingareyber Mosque.
The Djingareyber Mosque is a magnificent building, with two
minarets.
It is made entirely of heat-baked bricks of mud mixed with straw and rice husks.
There was enough space inside for 2 000 Muslims to pray facing East towards the holy city of Mecca.
What is the most famous mosque in Mali?
The Great Mosque in the city of Djenne.
The Mosque still stands today. It is the largest structure in the world to be made entirely out of mud.
Both mosques were declared World Heritage Sites in 1988.
Where is Timbuktu?
On the southern edge of the Sahara Desert.
Where was Leo Africanus born?
In Spain
What religion was Leo Africanus?
He was a Muslim who later turned Christian
Why did Europeans call Africa ‘The dark continent’?
Because they knew very little about it.
What was the title of the book that Leo Africanus wrote?
What was it about?
‘Description of Africa’
It was an eye-witness account of his travels
He wrote about the large cities and empires, complex cultures and
societies.
How did Leo Africanus’ book help Europeans?
learn more about West Africa and its people.
At one time, what was worth as much as gold and why?
salt, as it was very hard to find in other parts of the world other than Taghaza
Why was Timbuktu was a well-known centre of Islamic learning?
The wealth created from trade was used to build schools.
It had 180 schools, teaching the Koran, and three
universities, as well as many mosques.
The first university in the world was the Sankore University in Timbuktu.
Who was Sankore?
Sankore was the name of a very wealthy Muslim woman who wanted to do good deeds for other people.
She paid for the building of the Sankore Mosque and The Sankore University.
Scholars came from Saudi Arabia, Europe and other parts of the
world
What subjects did students learn at the Sankore University?
Chemistry, physics, optics, medicine, history, geography, the
traditions of Islam, government laws and much more
What are Manuscripts?
Handwritten books
In what language were the Timbuktu manuscripts written in?
Arabic
How were the Timbuktu manuscripts decorated?
With gold and covered in leather
What happened after Mansa Musa died?
The kingdoms of Mali fought against each other.
Morocco invaded Mali and took all the wealth and burnt some of the libraries.
They killed many scholars or sent them to Morocco.
WHat threatened the preservation of the Timbuktu Manuscripts?
Pages becoming brittle and falling apart easily
Insects eating the paper
Damp weather in Mali’s rainy season
The selling of manuscripts to tourists for money to buy food
Who ruled Timbuktu in 1893?
The French
When did Timbuktu become an independent republic?
1960
Who became very involved in the preservation of the Timbuktu Manuscripts? Explain your answer.
Former South African president, Thabo Mbeki visited Mali in 2001 and promised to help rescue the manuscripts and educate the world about African history.
The South Africa-Mali Scrolls Project was started in 2003, which involved the following:
∞ collecting, conserving and cataloguing the documents.
∞ building a special library to safely store the manuscripts.
∞ training researchers and librarians from Mali to look after the manuscripts.
∞ studying the manuscripts.
∞ making digital copies of all the manuscripts to store on computer.
In 2009 South African architects and engineers helped to build a new library in Timbuktu at
the Ahmed Baba Institute. It holds about 300 000 old manuscripts.
The manuscripts are housed at the Ahmed Baba Institute in a building with temperature
and humidity controls to provide the correct conditions for preserving the manuscripts.
What does UNESCO stand for?
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
What does UNESCO do?
UNESCO encourages countries and people to identify, protect and preserve cultural and natural heritage.
* UNESCO selects places such as forests, mountains, deserts, lakes, monuments, buildings and historical sites (of great importance) as World Heritage Sites.
Who do World Heritage Sites belong to?
All the peoples of the world,
regardless of the country in which they live.
In 1988, Timbuktu was declared a World Heritage Site, what does this mean?
That the interesting past of its architecture and learning will be protected by certain laws for future generations all over the world.
Why is the area where the old Kingdom of Mali used to be located, one of the poorest regions in the world?
In 2012, Mali experienced a civil war.
Many of the Timbuktu Manuscripts were destroyed.
It has been neglected.
Why is the Ahmed Baba Institute a good place for preserving the manuscripts?
It has temperature and humidity controls to provide the correct conditions for preserving the manuscripts.
Name 5 well known World Heritage Sites found in South Africa.
Robben Island
Cradle of Human Kind
Great Zimbabwe
Timbuktu
Victoria Falls
Kingdom of Mapungubwe
Drakensberg
Name 3 countries in West Africa
West Africa today consists of sixteen
countries. They are Benin, Burkina Fasco,
Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana,
Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali,
Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra
Leone and Togo
What is Kinship?
a family relationship.
What were the people of the Shonghai Empire skilled in?
medicine, mathematics and astronomy.
Craftsmen and artisans produced beautiful artwork.
What was the Shonghai Empire region famous for?
Its bronze, ivory and gold works of art.
What were the three distinct empires in the west African region?
Mali,
Ghana and
Songhai.
Who were the first Europeans to trade with the West Africans?
The Portuguese who arrived in the 1400s.
What is a slave?
A slave is someone who is owned by another person or other people.
A slave cannot choose to find another employer but the slave-owner can choose to sell his or her slaves.
Slaves are not paid for their work although a slave-owner needs to provide enough food, drink, clothing and shelter so that the slaves can do their work.
How did Africans treat their slaves?
The Africans who employed slaves generally treated them well and followed strict rules about looking after them.
Slaves were to be treated honourably and fairly.
They could lead very ordinary lives like other people.
They could marry and even own land and houses and some were well educated.
In West Africa, the slaves were usually people who:…..
were captured in battle
were criminals
had been chased away by other local societies
were bought to perform unskilled work or domestic labour
might later become soldiers
What is a raid?
an attack or invasion
How did slavery change in West Africa at the beginning of the 7th century?
Arab Muslims raided and traded for black African slaves in West Africa. Thousands of slaves were sent to North Africa, parts of the
Middle East and southern Europe.
Later, kings like Mansa Musa, raided their weaker neighbours and sold their captives as slaves.
What did powerful rulers use their slaves for?
As soldiers in armies.
Slaves worked in the gold mines and farmed the land.
Slaves were usually exchanged for horses.
What is smelting?
melting metal at a very hot temperature.
What does BCE stand for?
Before the Christian Era, formerly known as BC.
What does CE stand for?
Christian Era, formerly known as AD.
What were West African people in Nigeria smelting around 400 – 200 BCE
iron
What did the people of Nigeria sell up and down the Niger River?
their pottery
What is a plantation?
a large farm for growing crops like sugar cane, rice, tobacco and cotton.
Why were slaves from Africa first brought to the AMerican colonies during the 1600s?
The slaves were needed to work on the
plantations in the American South, where tobacco, sugar, rice, cotton and other crops were grown.
What was the first plantation crop grown in the American
colonies?
Tobacco
Why did rice plantations earn more money than tabacco plantations?
rice is easier to grow.
Why were the areas in which rice grown unhealthy for slaves?
because the land was wet, swampy and full of disease.
Why did cotton plantations become a very popular way of making a great deal of money?
- The great demand for cotton in Europe and elsewhere.
- The invention of the cotton gin, a machine that could clean large
amounts of cotton fibre in a short time.
In the 1600s, the country we know as the United States of America was divided into North and South.
Why did the white Americans in the South own slaves, while the people in the North did not?
People in the South had huge plantations, so they needed many more workers than those in the North did.
Why did the North and South have a civil war?
differences in the North and South’s views toward the institution of slavery.
Many owners mistreated and abused their slaves.
as long as there was a good supply of slaves, the plantations could
make profits.
Why did many slaves die?
because of overwork and cruel punishment.
Name 3 states or colonies in the South Americas that had cotton plantations
Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, had huge
cotton plantations
What trade routes did the slave traders use?
the trade routes developed in the Atlantic Ocean.
How did West Africans try to escape capture from slave traders?
by disfiguring themselves, eating dirt and poisoning themselves, or
committing suicide.
How many people from Africa did the transatlantic slave trade involve capturing?
at least 14 million people
What does the word ‘transatlantic’ mean?
across the Atlantic ocean
When did the transatlantic slave trade start and when did the law that ended slavery come into effect?
The transatlantic slave trade started in 1619.
The law that ended slavery in the USA came into effect in 1865.
(246 years)
What did African Kings exchange for their cargoes of African Slaves?
iron and copper bars, brass pans and
kettles, cowry shells, old guns, gunpowder, cloth and alcohol.
How were slaves captured, sent to the Americas and sold?
Slaves were captured inland and force-marched to the coast.
People were crammed together and cruelly treated.
Many did not survive.
On their arrival in the Americas, slaves were sold off to the highest bidder.
From what area in Africa did most of the slaves come?
West Central Africa
Who were the raw materials that were farmed on the plantations where slaves worked sold to?
sometimes in the United States but mainly to Western Europe, where
factory workers turned the raw goods into finished products such as cloth and clothing.
These products were sold all over the world, including back to the American South.
What was life like for a slave working on a plantation?
Men, women, and children over the age of 12 worked in the fields for 18 hours a day.
The slave drivers whipped them cruelly if they did not work hard enough.
The slaves did not have much food to eat and all food was strictly rationed (measured out).
They slept in small houses, often on dirt floors with only coarse blankets.
Slaves were not allowed to learn how to read and write.
Punishments were vicious and extremely cruel.
Slaves were starved, badly whipped, beaten, or even rolled down a hill in a barrel with nails stuck into it.
What was it like on a slave ship on its way to the Americas?
slave ships were jam-packed. Men, women and children
were squeezed like sardines into the holds of ships.
The stench became awful.
Many died, and their bodies were simply thrown into the sea.
It was not unknown to have 50% death rate during the passage from Africa.
Slaves who were too ill to survive the trip were thrown overboard to drown.
The government tried to stop slaves from organising group resistance to slavery. Therefore, some
slaves tried to show their resistance by deliberately: How?
- working very slowly and sluggishly, trying to do as few duties as possible.
- approaching their work passively and not responding to instructions.
- drinking alcohol to make their pain go away.
- running away from the plantations.
Why was Nat Turner put to death on 11 November 1831?
He had led a slave rebellion on 21 August 1831
Nat Turner and a few trusted friends went to homes to free slaves. They didn’t use guns, but they aimed to create ‘terror and alarm’ among whites. In total, 55 white men, women and
children were killed.
56 slaves and freed slaves were executed as a result of
this uprising.
Joseph Cinque was married, and a father of three. He lived in Sierra Leone, where he was a rice
farmer. He was captured, but fought against being taken to America and sold into a terrible life of misery and slavery.
Explain what happened next.
53 slaves on board, led by Cinque, mutinied and took over the ship.
They killed the captain and the cook. They did not kill the navigator, as they wanted him to sail the Amistad back to Sierra Leone. However, the navigator continued to sail for America. The ship was captured by the US Washington, an American ship, and the slaves were
arrested and jailed in New Haven.
The men were tried for murder, and the case went to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
John Quincy Adams, who was a past president of USA, felt so sorry for the captured Joseph Cinque and his fellow Africans that he agreed to be their lawyer for no pay. He made such a powerful speech, which lasted for eight hours, about how evil slavery was and how the men had
been illegally kidnapped that he convinced the judges to set them free.
Explain what the Underground Railroad was.
The people who didn’t support slavery helped slaves to escape from the South to the North. (where slavery was illegal)
A system of secret routes and safe houses, called the Underground Railroad, existed to help them.
In 40 years, more than 30 000 slaves apparently escaped using this network.
If slaves were caught fleeing, they were often severely punished, as was anybody who helped them.
As safety and secrecy were very important, the slaves used code words to plan their escapes.
Who were station masters?
The owners of the safe houses.
Some were caring church people and others were free slaves
Who was Harriet Tubman?
Harriet Tubman was born to parents who were slaves, so
she was also a slave.
When she was 12 she was hit on the head with a heavy object by an over-seer. This injury caused her to sleep a lot.
She had dreams and visions in which she believed God was going to free her and others from slavery.
Harriet managed to gain her freedom by using the Underground Railway and moving north.
This journey was nearly 145 kilometres and took between five days and three weeks.
The trip was made more difficult by bounty hunters who were on the lookout for slaves trying to escape.
When Harriet gained her freedom, she went back South and helped her family and other slaves to become free.
She died at 93, and is remembered for her fight against slavery and helping others. She was a true heroine.
Harriet Tubman made nineteen trips as a ‘conductor’, risking her life every time, and successfully freed about 300 slaves.
She carried a gun and threatened any slave who wanted to turn back.
A reward of $40 000 was offered to any bounty hunter who brought her in to the authorities,
Why was Harriet Tubman known as ‘Moses’?
because she freed her people just as Moses freed the children of Israel from Egyptian slavery.
Who was John Brown?
He and his supporters killed five pro-slavery Southerners in what was called the Pottawatomie Massacre.
He also tried to start a freedom movement among the slaves in
Harpers Ferry, Virginia. However, the army got involved and some of
Brown’s supporters were killed and he was captured.
He was tried for treason against the state of Virginia, for the murder of five pro-slavery Southerners and for starting a slave rebellion.
He was found guilty and was later hanged.
How was the economy of America effected by slavery?
The American economy profited heavily from slavery.
Slavery helped the economy of the USA to develop through the growth
and export of cash crops like wheat, rice, sugar and especially
cotton.
How did Britain benefit from slavery?
Many of the raw materials produced by the slaves were sold in Britain.
This meant that, during the time of slavery trade between America and Britain grew.
The British developed industries to process the raw materials imported from the American South.
Ports like Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow also profited from the slave trade because of the slave ships using them.
How did the Transatlantic Slave Trade effect Africa?
Slavery had a negative impact on Africa and the continent suffers from the effects of these events to this day.
So many people were taken as slaves that the population of some parts of Africa was greatly decreased. In some of these areas, there were not enough people left to manage the land
successfully.
In other areas, people who were trying to avoid being captured got together in numbers that were too large and this resulted in over-population.
West African societies were so weakened that they could not
resist being taken over by European colonists, who interfered with farming all over West Africa. They forced the local
people to grow crops, such as coffee, that could be sold in
Europe, rather than allowing them to grow the food crops that they
needed in order to survive normally.
Slaves were bought with goods from Europe. In time, the African kingdom came to rely on trade with Europe. This trade benefitted the few powerful people who ruled, but not the majority of
Africans.
In addition, most of the very healthiest and strongest African people had been sold as slaves and were therefore not able to
contribute as workers in their home areas.
Slavery also caused an increase in the number of wars between Africans. In order to gain wealth, one tribe might attack its neighbour in order to take prisoners. These prisoners were then sold to slave traders. This caused the further weakening of many West African societies.
What other valuable goods, besides gold, were traded from West Africa?
Ivory and Ostrich Feathers and Slaves
What did Europe have to offer West Africa?
silk, cloth and beads
What did North Africa have to offer West Africa?
Horses and books
What was the most valuable item that West Africa wanted from North Africa?
Salt
Who brought the Islam religion to West Africa?
Where did they bring it from?
Muslim Arab merchants.
From North Africa and The Middle East.
Why would West African merchants, convert to the Islamic religion?
- They would have an advantage when trading with Arab traders who were Muslim because Arab traders preferred trading with fellow Muslims.
- They would become equals to North African leaders who were Muslim.
- The Islamic religion brought literacy.
What centuries did the kingdom of Mali exist?
between the 13th and 15th centuries. AD
What came before the Kingdom of Mali?
The Kingdom of Ghana
What came after The Kingdom of Mali?
Songhai Empire
Who was the first king of Mali?
What was he like?
What did he do for Mali?
Sundiata Keita
(Mansa Musa’s grandfather)
He was young, clever and a very good king
He expanded Mali so that Mali controlled some of the gold mines to the south and
some of the salt mines in the north.,
Who ruled Mali after Mansa Musa died?
Mansa Suleyman.
(Mansa Musa’s brother)
What was the real benefit to Mali from Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca?
He came back with learned scholars and architects who helped him make the Kingdom of Mali a centre of learning.
Why was Timbuktu in the perfect place to become Mali’s biggest trading centre.
It was where the desert met the Niger River, and was the crossroads for traders travelling trade routes north to Europe and North Africa, or south to the Atlantic Ocean.
What universities were there in Timbuktu?
Sankore University
Jingaray Ber University
Sidi Yahya University
(and 180 schools)
