Notes








... Geography
... Climate / Vegetation Zones : Sahara Desert, Sahel Zone (Savanna), Tropical Rainforest, Islands in the Atlantic
... Geographical Features : Senegal, Niger, Benue Rivers, Lake Chad
... Cities, Historical : Timbuktu, Kano
... Cities, Modern : Dakar, Freetown, Accra, Lagos, Abuja
... States, Historical : Sahel Kingdoms : Kaarta, Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Sokoto, Kanem-Bornu (chain continues into Central Africa); closer to the coast : Futa Djalon, Ashanti, Dahomey, Benin



... Entities, Colonial Period : French West Africa, Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, French Soudan, Upper Volta, Niger, Guinea, Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire), Dahomey, British West Africa, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Gold Coast, Nigeria (Lagos, Royal Niger Company, Oil Rivers Protectorate, Northern Nigeria), Portuguese : Cape Verde, Portuguese Guinea, German : Togo
... States, Modern : Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin; Sierra Leone, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria; Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau; Togo



Official languages : French (Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, Togo; English : Sierra Leone, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria; Portuguese/Creole : Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau; Arab : Mauritania. Important regional languages : Haussa, Yoruba, Igbo (all Nigeria)

Religions : in the Sahel zone Islam dominant, further south trasitional animism, Islam, Christianity competing
Islam introduced south of Sahara by merchants. While Timbuktu and Kano were centers of Islamic learning, prior to Colonialism there was largely an oral Islamic culture with particular West African Muslim architecture and culture, which integrated traditional African elements.
Christian missionaries active since early 19th century. At first concerned about freed slaves (Freetown, Liberia, Lagos), then about inland population

Trade : West Africa connected via Trans-Saharan trade routes with Eurasian trade network ("Silk Road network"); West Africa supplied gold, ivory, leatherware, slavers etc., received salt, textiles, weaponry
West Africa had its own textile production; iron tools at least since 5th century BC. Cities such as Timbuktu rose to prominence as trade centers at southern end of the Trans-Saharan trade routes.
Arrival of the Portuguese provided West Africans, who were eager to trade, with alternative to trade with North African Arabs. Symbiotic trade relations as Portuguese/other Europeans and Wesat Africans alike benefitted from relations.
Due to geography, prices for important goods in West Africa (which had to be transported through desert or over sea) were high; African merchants got high profit margins.

Portuguese settled on islands (Madeira, Cape Verde, Sao Tome), established plantation industry (sugar). Engaged in coastal trade, did not go inland (tropical diseases : Malaria)
As coastal traders, Portuguese were joined by Dutch, French, British, Danes, Brandenburgers, Swedes, Courlanders
Slaves were a commodity on W Afr market when Portuguese arrived; they entered entrepot slave trade, then got permission from pope to hold slaves on Madeira etc. themselves
Europeans established trade factories on the coast - castle warehouses, to be defended against other Europeans. Example : Christiansborg (Accra). Over time trade in gold, ivory declined, trade in slaves (for sugar plantations in Brazil, Caribbean etc) increased. Market supply of slaves in West Africa exhausted; Europeans supplied their trade partners with weapons; Africans used weapons to "create" slaves. Emergence of warrior states (Ashanti, Dahomey).
1807/1815 abolition of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; most lucrative "commodity" declared illegal. Promotion of oil palm cultivation only partially successful. European-W Afr relations deteriorate; first clashes. Danes abandon Africa trade.
Steamship technology makes trade in larger quantities of goods profitable; industrializing world needs control of raw materials and markets.
Discovery of quinine to combat/prevent Malaria makes European penetration of hinterland possible.
Partition of West Africa by colonial powers : 1884-1900.
Introduction of taxation (Sierra Leone : Hut Tax Revolt), railroad & port contruction (major cities on the coast), plantation economy.

Colonialism creates artificial political entities, often on purpose cuts traditional entities into pieces (French, British, Germans partition Bornu; French, British, Germans partition Ashanti Kingdom etc.), combine peoples in a state who have little in common (Nigeria has 514 living languages). Many of the states created by colonial powers combine peoples of very different lifestyles : nomadic Sahara dwellers, semi-nomadic Sahel swellers, rainforest zone farmers; root of modern conflicts.
Colonial powers did not prepare population sufficiently for independence (paternalism, exploitation); independence came suddenly 1957-1965.
Rulers of newly independent countries overly optimistic in regard to economic development; many tended toward socialism. Huge projects (Volta dam); expansion of infrastructure (universities, airports etc). Pan-Africanism.
Democracy did not work; one-party states, dictatorships, coups. Biafra War (Nigeria 1967-1970).
New revenues : Mauritania - iron ore export, Cote d'Ivoire : cocoa, Nigeria : oil boom.
Extreme population growth; educated elite wants desk jobs, lack of innovators, corruption. Oil crisis, Reagonomics greatly affected Africanm economies.
Recent history : Blood diamonds; civil wars over control of raw material deposits

COUNTRY POPULATION
1900 1960 1980 2000 2009
015,589,000 042,739,000 080,704,000 123,337,800 151,319,000
Ghana 001,486,400 006,727,000 010,736,000 018,412,000 023,350,000
Cote d'Ivoire 001,355,000 003,230,000 008,194,000 015,981,000 020,591,000
Mali 002,672,000 004,375,000 006,863,000 010,865,000 012,711,000



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on December 9th 2009

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