1. Geographical characteristics of Africa begin with the continent comprising of 61 political territories representing the largest. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean sea and from much of Asia, Africa is composed of two segments at right, aangles the northern running from east to west. The southern from north to south with the subordinate lines cooesponding in the main to these two directions.
2. The significance of Africans practicing iron smelting, copperwork and art were that the slave trade taught Europeans that Africans were inferior and that helped justify imperialism in the minds of many Europeans. The lack of information known by Europeans made Africans appear warlike or childlike. Africa was painted as the “dark continent”.
3. The political organization of ancient African states can be tricky as the Europeans and arabs conducted the slave trade. The arabs conquered north Africa from a very early stage of the Islamic expansion. Arab traders penetrated into sub-saharan Africa through desert caravans, the nile river, and by establishing trading posts along the Indian coast of the continent. Europeans had little access to Africa blocked for centuries by arab control of north Africa. This began to change in the 15th century with the European voyages of discovery with the portugese edgeing their way down the African coast.
4. The majority of enslaved Africans came from west Africa.
5. There are 1250 to 2100 african languages and are classified by six traditional language families. 1. Afro-asiatic includes Arabic 2. Nilo –Saharan 3. Niger-Congo A (Bantu Branches) 4. Niger-Congo B (Bantu, Niger- Congo’s largest Branch) 5. Khoi-San 6. Austronesian (Southeast Asis)
6. Between 11thand 15th century, west Africa exported goods across the sahara desert to Europe and beyond. In the south cities, such as Timbuktu and Gao in the north cities such as Ghadames from there goods traveled onto Europe, Arabia, india and China. Muslim traders from...