city-states of eastern africa
Post on 06-Feb-2016
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City-States of Eastern Africa
SWAHILI COAST
• By 1100, Bantu-speaking people had migrated to the east coast.
• Villages grew around trade between East Africans and traders from Persia, Arabia and India.
Language…• Arabic blended with
the Bantu language to create SWAHILI (swah-HEE-lee)
• By 1300, 35 trading cities dotted the coast, including Mogadishu, Mombasa, and Kilwa.
Trade…
• They grew wealthy by …– controlling all incoming and outgoing trade.–manufacturing goods for export.
• Islam spread through trade.
• Most rulers, government officials, and merchants were Muslim.
• The majority of the people along the coast held on to traditional religious beliefs.
Religion…
GREAT ZIMBABWE
The Shona People• Bantu-speaking people who claimed the area
of Great Zimbabwe.• Benefits of the area….– Fertile, well-watered plateau–Well-suited for farming and cattle raising
a n d…
• Near an important trade route that linked the inland gold-fields with the coastal trading city of Sofala
• Leaders could tax traders along the route, and became wealthy
• The city was abandoned by 1450. • Left behind 60 acres of ruins.• Zimbabwe means “stone
enclosure”• The walls were 36 ft tall & 15 ft
thick
Most of what we know about the area is from studying the ruins.
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