Africa and the Atlantic World

Ch. 25

African Politics and Society in Early Modern Times

The States of West Africa and East Africa

The Songhay Empire & Songhay Administration•Songhay rulers built a flourishing city-state •By the 15th century, Songhay emerged as the dominant power of the western grasslands.•Sunni Ali built an elaborate administrative and military apparatus to oversee affairs in his realm•Appointed governors to oversee provinces •Instituted a hierarchy of command that turned his army into an effective military force•Created imperial navy to patrol the Niger River, which was an extremely important commercial highway in the Songhay empire

Fail of Songhay• In 1591 a musket-bearing

Moroccan army opened fire on the previously invincible Songhay military.

• Songhay forces withered under the attack, and subject peoples took the opportunity to revolt against Songhay domination

• Resulted in series of small, regional kingdoms and city-states emerged in west Africa.

Swahili Decline•In 1505 Portuguese naval expedition subdued all the Swahili cities from Sofala to Mombasa •Portuguese forces disrupted trade patterns •Swahili cities into a decline from which they never fully recovered

The Kingdoms of Central Africa and South Africa

The Kingdom of Kongo•Built a centralized state with officials overseeing military, judicial, and financial affairs•Kongo embraced much of the modern-day Republic of Congo and Angola. •Portuguese merchants had established a close political and diplomatic relationship with the kings of Kongo•Supplied the kings with advisors•Provided a military garrison to support the kings and protect Portuguese interests•Brought tailors, shoemakers, masons, miners, and priests to Kongo•Kings of Kongo converted to Christianity to establish closer commercial relations with Portuguese merchants & monarchy

Slave Raiding in Kongo•Portugal brought wealth and foreign recognition to Kongo•Led to the destruction of the kingdom and the establishment of a Portuguese colony in Angola •Portuguese merchants sought high-value merchandise such as copper, ivory, and, most of all slaves•Exchanged salves for textiles, weapons, advisors, and artisans•Portuguese merchants made alliances with local authorities, and provided them with weapons•Relations between Kongo and Portugal deteriorated, particularly after Portuguese agents began to pursue opportunities south of Kongo

The Kingdom of Ndongo•Was a powerful regional kingdom, largely on the basis of the wealth it was able to attract from trade •Portuguese forces campaigned in Ndongo in an effort to establish a colony that would support large-scale

slave trading

The Kingdoms of Central Africa and South Africa (cont.)

Queen Nzinga & The Portuguese colony of Angola

• Led 40 year resistance against Portuguese forces

• Mobilized central African peoples against her Portuguese adversaries

• Her aim was to drive the Portuguese from her land, expel the Dutch, and create a vast Central African Empire

• Angola was the first European colony in sub-Saharan Africa

• When Nzinga died, Portuguese forces faced less resistance

• Resulted in extended and

tightened control over Angola

Regional Kingdoms in South Africa•Kingdoms had begun to emerge as early as the eleventh century, largely under the influence of trade •In south Africa, regional kingdoms dominated political affairs•By 1300, rulers of one kingdom had built a massive, stone-fortified city known as Great Zimbabwe

European Arrival in South Africa•Europeans struck alliances with local peoples of South Africa in search of commercial opportunities•Intervened in disputes with the aim of supporting their allies and advancing their

own interests •Their conquests laid foundation for series of Dutch and British colonies•Became the most prosperous European possessions in Sub Saharan Africa

Islam and Christianity in Early Modern Africa

Islam in Sub Saharan Africa

• Was most popular in the commercial centers of west Africa and the Swahili city-states of east Africa

• Most African Muslims blended Islam with indigenous beliefs and customs

• This syncretic Islam struck many devout Muslims as impure and offensive

The Fulani and Islam• Were Muslims in sub-

Saharan Africa which had concerns about the purity of Islam

• Many Fulani had settled in cities where they observed a strict form of Islam

• Their Campaigns strengthened Islam in sub-Saharan Africa

• Laid a foundation for new rounds of Islamic state building and conversion efforts

Christianity and Sub Saharan Africa & The Antonian Movement

• Portuguese community in Kongo and Angola supported priests and missionaries who introduced Roman Catholic Christianity to central Africa

• Christian teachings blended with African traditions & formed syncretic cults

• An influential syncretic cult was the Antonian movement in Kongo

• Flourished when the Kongolese monarchy faced challenges throughout the realm

• Antonian movement began when Dona Beatriz proclaimed that St. Anthony of Padua had possessed her and chose her to communicate his messages

• Beatriz taught that Jesus Christ had been a black African man, that Kongo was the true holy land of Christianity, and that heaven was for Africans.

Social Change in Early Modern Africa

American Food Crops in Sub Saharan Africa

• Trade brought new food crops to sub-Saharan Africa

• American crops such as manioc, maize, and peanuts arrived in Africa aboard Portuguese ships

Population Growth• Bread made from manioc flour

had become a staple food in much of west Africa and central Africa

• It helped to underwrite steady population growth

• 34 million (1500) to 44 million (1600) to 52 million (1700) to 60 million (1800)

• American food crops supported expanding populations in all regions if Sub Saharan Africa during early modern times

The Atlantic Slave TradeThe Atlantic Slave Trade

Foundation of the Slave TradeSlavery in Africa• Slaves in Africa came from the ranks of

war captives• Criminals and individuals expelled from

their clans frequently fell into slavery • Once enslaved individuals had no

personal or civil rights• Agricultural plantations in the Songhay

empire often had hundreds of slave laborers,

• Africans routinely purchased slaves to enlarge their families and enhance their power

• They assimilated slaves into their kinship groups, so that within a generation a slave might obtain both freedom and an honorable position in a new family or clan

The Islamic Slave Trade• Muslim merchants from north Africa,

Arabia, and Persia sought African slaves for sale and distribution to

• Destinations were to the Mediterranean basin, southwest Asia, India, southeast Asia and China

• By the time Europeans ventured to sub-Saharan Africa, traffic in slaves was a well-established feature of African society

• A system for capturing, selling, and distributing slaves had functioned effectively for more than five hundred years

• Atlantic slave trade brought an enormous involuntary migration that influenced the development of societies throughout the Atlantic Ocean basin.

Human CargoesThe Early Slave Trade• Traders delivered their

human cargoes to Portuguese island colonies in the Atlantic

• Sugar planters called for slaves in increasing quantities

• Portuguese entrepreneurs extended slave labor to South America.

• In 1518 the first shipment of slaves went directly from West Africa to the Caribbean, where they worked on recently established sugar plantations

• Spanish authorities introduced slaves to Mexico

• English colonists introduced slaves to the North American mainland

Triangular Trade• 1st leg they carried horses

and European manufactured goods (mostly cloth and metal wares, especially firearms) that they exchanged in sub-

Saharan Africa for slaves • 2nd leg took enslaved

Africans to Caribbean and American destinations.

• 3rd leg, they filled their vessels' hulls with American products and embarked on their voyage back to Europe

• At every stage of the process, slave trade was an inhumane and brutal business.

The Middle Passage• After being captured, enslaved

individuals were forced to march to the coast, where they lived in holding pens until a ship arrived to transport them to the western hemisphere

• The dreadful “middle passage” refers to the trans-Atlantic journey, aboard filthy, crowded slave ships

• Conditions were so bad, slaves attempted to starve themselves to death or mounted revolts

• Ship crews attempted to preserve the lives of slaves, intending to sell them for a profit at the end of the voyage

• Treated the unwilling passengers with cruelty and contempt

• Approximately 25 percent of individuals enslaved in Africa did not survive the middle passage

The Impact of the Slave Trade in AfricaVolume of the Slave

Trade in Africa• The Atlantic slave trade

brought about the involuntary migration of about twelve million Africans to the western hemisphere.

• Kingdoms like Rwanda and Bugunda escaped the slave trade, partly because of resistance, and because their lands were distant from major slave ports on west African coast.

• Other societies flourished and benefited economically from the slave trade

Social Effects of the Slave Trade & Gender and Slavery

• The Atlantic slave trade deprived African societies of about sixteen million individuals

• in addition, several million others were consumed by the continuing Islamic slave trade during the early modern era.

Political Effects of the Slavery Trade

• Approximately two-thirds of all slaves were young men between fourteen and thirty-five years of age

• Resulted in a gender imbalance

• Militated against slaves reproducing in most places of colonial America

• Resulted in women making up more than two-thirds of the adult population of Angola,

• This encouraged Angolans to embrace polygyny (the practice of having more than one wife at a time).

The African Diaspora:

The dispersal of African peoples and their descendants

Plantation SocietiesCash Crops• Sugar was one of the most

lucrative cash crops of early modern times

• Soon tobacco rivaled sugar as a profitable product

• Rice became a major plantation product, as did indigo

• By the eighteenth century, cotton and coffee had begun to emerge as a plantation specialty

• Caribbean & American plantations specialized in the production of some agricultural crop in demand, where African or African American slaves performed most of the labor

Regional Differences• In Caribbean and South

America, many slaves fell victim to tropical diseases such as malaria and yellow fever

• Of all the slaves delivered from Africa to the western hemisphere, about half went to the Caribbean, and about one-third went to Brazil

• About 5 percent of enslaved Africans went to North America where diseases were less threatening

Resistance to Slavery

• Some forms of resistance were mild but costly to slave owners

• Slaves often worked slowly for their masters but diligently in their own gardens

• Slaves occasionally sabotaged plantation equipment or work routines.

• A more serious form of resistance involved running away from the plantation community

• Maroon (runaway) communities flourished through out slave holding regions of the western hemisphere

Plantation Societies (cont.)

Slave Revolts• Most dramatic form of resistance was the

slave revolt

• Slaves far outnumbered others in most plantation societies

• They had the potential to organize and overwhelm their masters

• Only in the French sugar colony of Saint-Domingue did a slave revolt abolish slavery as an institution

• This revolt declared independence from France and renamed the land Haiti, and established a self governing republic

Slavery and Economic Development

• The physical labor of African and African American slaves made crucial contributions to the building of new societies in the Americas

• Slave labor cultivated many of the crops and extracted many of the minerals that made their way around the world in the global trade networks of the early modern era

The Making of African American Cultural Traditions

African and Creole Languages & African American Religions

• European languages were the dominant tongues in the slave societies of the western hemisphere

• African languages also influenced communication

• Slaves spoke a creole tongue that drew on several African and European languages

• Some slaves shipped out of Africa were Christians

• Others converted to Christianity after their arrival in the western hemisphere

• All the syncretic, African-American religions drew inspiration from Christianity

African American Music

• For many of these involuntary laborers, the playing of African music brought a sense of home and community to mind

• Slaves in the Americas adapted African musical traditions

• This included their rhythmic and oratorical elements, to their new environments

• This was a means of buffering the shock of transition

• Was also a way to survive and to resist the horrid conditions of their new lives

African American Cultural Traditions

• Slaves introduced African foods to Caribbean and American societies

• Helped give rise to distinctive hybrid cuisines

• Slaves introduced rice cultivation to tropical and subtropical regions, including South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana

• Added variety to American diets

• The African diaspora influenced the ways all peoples lived in plantation societies

The End of the Slave Trade and the Abolition of Slavery

Olaudah Equiano• Some freed slaves

contributed to the abolitionist cause

• Write books that exposed the brutality of institutional slavery

• Most notable of them was the west African Olaudah Equiano

• Published an autobiography detailing his experiences as a slave and a free man

The Economic Costs of Slavery

• Plantations, slavery, and the slave trade continued to flourish as long as they were profitable

• Slave labor did not come cheap.

• As the profitability of slavery declined, Europeans began to shift their investments from sugarcane and slaves to newly emerging manufacturing industries

End of Slave Trade & The Abolition of Slavery

• The end of the legal commerce in slaves did not abolish the institution of slavery itself

• As long as plantation slavery continued, a clandestine (secretive) trade shipped slaves across the Atlantic

• The last documented ship that carried slaves across the Atlantic arrived in Cuba in 1867

• Officially, slavery no longer exists, but millions of people live in various forms of servitude even today.