World Geo Final 2 Cooper

•Oldest human remains were found in Africa. •Northern Portion: Dominated by Arabs and Berbers --> line that makes designation between two groups ~10 degrees North latitude •Oral tradition: their society was passed on by word of mouth instead of written tradition. Become hard to analyze because of distortion. Difficult to piece together. Story lasts only as long as people tell it. •Ancient Ghana: started series of Empires- Mali Empire followed. These empires had contact with Arabs and Berbers and who had written traditions- this is how we know about Ancient Ghana. Arabs and Berbers came down on camel caravans. Brought salt to trade. Ghanians traded gold, ebony. •Cross Saharan trade would also become first slave trade route established on African continent.

Africas Ancient States

•The Sahel region: transition between Sahara and Tropical rainforests. Desertification: desert grows. Sahara desert is growing southward. Human beings are not taking care of land - over grazing. •Tropical deforestation: particularly in congo river basin and madagascar. Loses ecosystems: species endangerment and extinction. Agriculture fuels this as well as push for woods.

Current Issues in Africa

•Huge problem in Africa- 25 million people are HIV positive. •Hardest hit were east african countries in 1980's. •Hardest hit today are Botswana and Swaziland. •Furthers the "brain drain". •Anti retro-viral drug "cocktails": number of drugs that attack virus all at once, prevents HIV from adapting to just one of the drugs. Prolonging onset of full blown AIDS. These are extremely expensive. •Radio is successful is spreading prevention.

HIV/AIDS

•We do find peaks that would feel @ home in major mountain ranges, but they are isolated volcanic peaks of East Africa. •Mount Kilimanjaro: classic, conic shape. Symmetry is found in volcanic peaks. "Permanent" snow cap. Almost right on equator but is so high it still has snow! Snow cap is disappearing though, expected to be gone by 2025..

Isolated Volcanic Peaks of Africa

•Effects from this continue into today. •Exploitation of Africa's resources- #1 Goal of European powers. Just because slave trade ended doesn't mean they treated Africans better. •"The Scramble" European powers trying to get as much African land as they could. Powers begin running into each other- rival claims, disputed claims, etc; •Otto von Bismarck organizes "Berlin Conferences" to settle claims of who owns what.

The Age of Colonialism and Imperialism

•Super imposed boundaries: boundaries that pay no mind to culture/history of an area. These boundaries were drawn in Germany- didn't care about people that lived there. Created a lot of multi-national states and stateless nations. •Organization of African Unity (OAU): now known as African Union (AU). 1963: Signed a charter, said that boundaries cannot change. wanted to avoid conflict/balkanization (the violent breakup along ethnic lines) of entire country. •Even though Africa got political independence, they didn't get economic independence. Left with excellent resources but they were under European control. •Europeans invested very little into industrialization in order to keep them in the dark and under their control. •1960: date that 1/3 Africas country got their independence. came quickly and with little preparation. Had untrained people in positions to rebuild continent.

The Legacy of Colonialism/Imperialism

•Cross saharan route was the first route on African continent. •East African route followed shortly after cross-saharan. •Trans-atlantic route- established by Europeans (LARGEST in terms of # of Africans impacted) ‣Europeans tired of dealing with Ottoman empire. West African empires were cut out of West Africa trade route. ‣Europeans began taking slaves from Africa and taking them to places like Colombia, US, The Caribbean, but mostly to Brazil. •Damage Estimates: ranges from 30-35 million, slave trade lasts from 350-400 years.

The slave trade and the damage done..