Preview

short history of ghana

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
331 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
short history of ghana
The Republic of Ghana is named after the medieval West African Ghana Empire.[1] The Empire became known in Europe and Arabia as the Ghana Empire after the title of its emperor, the Ghana. The Empire appears to have broken up following the 1076 conquest by the Almoravid General Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar. A reduced kingdom continued to exist after Almoravid rule ended, and the kingdom was later incorporated into subsequent Sahelian empires, such as the Mali Empire several centuries later. Geographically, the ancient Ghana Empire was approximately 500 miles (800 km) north and west of the modern state of Ghana, and controlled territories in the area of the Sénégal River and east towards the Niger rivers, in modern Senegal, Mauritania and Mali.

Historically, modern Ghanaian territory was the core of the Empire of Ashanti (or Asante), which was one of the most advanced states in sub-Sahara Africa in the 18th to 19th centuries, before colonial rule. It is said that at its peak, the king of Ashanti could field 500,000 troops.

For most of central sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural expansion marked the period before 500. Farming began earliest on the southern tips of the Sahara, eventually giving rise to village settlements. Toward the end of the classical era, larger regional kingdoms had formed in West Africa, one of which was the Kingdom of Ghana, north of what is today the nation of Ghana. Before its fall at the beginning of the 10th century Akan migrants moved southward and founded several nation-states, including the first great Akan empire of the Bono founded in the 11th century and for which the Brong-Ahafo Region of Akanland is named. Later Akan groups such as the Ashanti federation and Fante states are thought to possibly have roots in the original Bono settlement at Bono manso. Much of the area was united under the Empire of Ashanti by the 16th century. The Ashanti government operated first as a loose network and eventually as a centralized kingdom with an advanced,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    territory, while the Swahili city states did not. The Sudanic states of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    4. Both Kingdom of Kongo and Kingdom of Ghana were states. The government of Kongo consisted of a king and officials who oversaw affairs and beneath the king and officials were six provinces administered by governors. Chiefs governed the local villages. They were famous for their tight centralized government. The kingdom of Ghana was famous for their trade in gold. Thus they became the most important commercial site in West Africa and became the wealthiest kingdom in Africa.…

    • 1657 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kane-Bornu Empire Essay

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Kanem- Bornu Empire was an African trading empire. It was ruled by the Sef dynasty that controlled the area around Lake Chad. Their territory is now known as southern Chad, northern Cameroon, northeastern Nigeria, eastern Niger, and southern Libya. The first capital was Njimi, northeast of Lake Chad. In the late 11th century the ruler Sef Mai Umme became a Muslim, The location that Kane- Bornu was an Islamic state. But because of the area a lot of trading between North Africa, the Nile Valley, and the Sub- Sahara region.…

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sundiata Research Paper

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Arab conquest of North Africa in the seventh and early eighth centuries placed an outlook for increasing contacts between Arabs and Black Africans. The Arabs began to cross the Sahara and when they arrived they found thriving kingdoms in position. Then Ghana (modern Mali), one of the largest sub-Saharan kingdoms, was found about 300 C.E. By the ninth century Ghana was a partner and rival of the northern Berbers for control of Saharan trade; traded thought these routes were gold, slaves, hides, and ivory in exchange for copper, silver, metal goods, horses, dried fruit, cloth, and salt. By the eleventh century traders from the north invited people from the south to adopt their religion and came to establish new communities of faith and good works. The common people were not affected until the nineteenth century, leading traders and rulers to begin to convert to Islam. Around 1235 the Keita kings of Mali had greater access to the Niger River so they exceeded Ghana in importance. Therefore, Mali’s founding king, Sundiata, encouraged his people to accept Islam and Sundiata became a national epic about the tale of the king,…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    HIST 325: Colonial Africa

    • 3255 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Winter 2013 – TR 6:00-7:20pm, McKenzie 214 – CRN 23274 Version 1.00, 7 Jan 2013 Professor: Dr. L. F. Braun Office: 311 McKenzie Hall Telephone: x6-4838 on-campus. Email: lfbraun@uoregon.edu Office hours: T 2:00-4:00pm & by appt. Overview and Objectives Africa is central to human history. It is the continent where our species arose, where some of the greatest ancient civilizations throve, and where dynamic, complex, and innovative cultures confronted a variety of social, political, and environmental challenges. Many African states and societies were materially wealthier than their European counterparts until the 1700s, and Africa has always been connected— however tenuously at times—to the wider world. Yet in the popular, Eurocentric historical imagination in the U.S. and Europe, there is sparse knowledge of Africa’s history, and it was rarely even considered a subject for historical study until the 1950s. For the period before European political dominion in Africa (c.1880-1960), this lack is even more pronounced. In this course we will explore the history of Africa between the 800s and the late 1800s, while at the same time discovering the…

    • 3255 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Often, achievements of older civilizations are lost in the shadows of their successors. Such is the case with the early civilizations and people of Africa. Before Europe stepped in, they were a quite advanced, flourishing continent by themselves. They had their own trade routes and systems, enormous wealth, as well as a great lack of corruption alongside an abundance of generosity, and were also advanced in the way of knowledge, even valuing it above other resources.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Three major different empires rose in strength, one after the other, in ancient Africa on the west coast. The first was Ghana: The king Dinga Cisse did not want his people to know the Muslim traders. He built the traders their own city, so his people would be protected from the Muslim traders and from their ideas. The second was Mali: Mansa Musa the king of Mali found the religion of Islam to be most interesting and thought it to be inviting and familiar. Mali had religious freedom.…

    • 187 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trade has been a part of this world for millenniums and continues to be an important pillar in the modern day world. Africa used to excell in this area. The relationship among the three empires, Ghana, Mali and Songhai was one of the most important in African history. Aksum was also a huge trading center in the northeastern part of ancient Africa. Many of the successful empires, kingdoms, and cities of Africa had a foundation based on trade.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    African Civilization DBQ

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ghana soon began to fall, people who were under their control fought for the control of the lucrative trade. Mali was established in 1235 by Sundiata. Male became rich off of the Saharan trade routes. King Moses controlled Gao and Timbuktu his power extended also to the Taghaza salt mines. According to document 9 “ They put their children in chains if they show any backwardness in memorizing it, and they are not set free until they have it by heart”(304).It basically means that the power that they had over other people also were towards their children which…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    None

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The African empires, kingdoms, and cities had many great achievements before the arrival of the Europeans. African empires, kingdoms, and cities were very successful with trading and social structure. The kingdom of Ghana gained control over the trans-Saharan gold and slat trade (doc. #2).Ancient Ghana was a very complex empire it had many characteristics of a powerful nation needed as if of today’s nation.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    3.2 world history

    • 684 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I start my journey of my trip through the kingdoms and city-states of Africa today. I start out in Great Zaimbabwe in Southern Africa. Great Zimbabwe, the ruined city near Lake Mutirikwe and the town of Masvingo, close to the Chimanimani Mountains, along with the Chipinge District. Great Zimbabwe was seen as a place was seen as an important symbol of achievement for Africans, and regaining the history was a major aim for those seeking a majority rule. In 1980, the internationally recognized independent country was renamed for the site, and its famous soapstone bird carvings were retained from the Rhodesian flag and Coat of Arms as a national symbol and depicted in the new Zimbabwean flag. Later in 1980 it officially became the modern state it is today. I also learned that in 1350, Great Zimbabwe was a center for gold trade. Local people told me that people from across the southern Africa brought gold to the Great Zimbabwe. The city didn’t really have a social structure, it was just classes of rich and poor…

    • 684 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Econ 333 Paper

    • 4024 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Ethiopia is known to be the oldest independent country in Africa due to the five million year old remains found in the Awash Valley. Ethiopia was home to one of the most powerful kingdoms, Axum, which flourished as a main trading point as early as 1st century BC. Ethiopia just recently elected Mulatu Teshome as…

    • 4024 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ghana and Mali

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Before Columbus sailed to the New World and before Europe reached their "Enlightenment Era" two significant kingdoms flourished on the west coast of what some refer to as the motherland: Africa. The name of these two mighty states are Ghana and Mali. Ghana was the first West African state of which their was any record. After the downfall near the end of the eleventh century, Mali rose up to take their place as the economic, religious, and cultural hub of West Africa.…

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the political and social structures of Sub-Saharan Africa developed during the years 400 - 1450 C.E., hierarchy structures based on kinship were maintained, however self-contained city-states grew into large empires.…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Imperialistic Africa

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages

    "[Regents Prep Global History] Imperialism: Scramble for Africa." Oswego City School District Regents Exam Prep Center. Ed. Thomas Caswell. Regents Prep, 1999-2003. Web. 24 Nov. 2011. .…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics