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The History of West Africa has been divided into its prehistory, the Iron Age in Africa, the period of major polities flourishing, the colonial period, and finally the post-independence era, in which the current nations were formed.
6 days ago · western Africa, region of the western African continent comprising the countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
The history of West Africa can be divided into five major periods: first, its prehistory, in which the first human settlers arrived, developed agriculture, and made contact with peoples to the north; the second, the Iron Age empires that consolidated both intra-Africa, and extra-Africa trade, and developed centralized states; third, major ...
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Sep 27, 2019 · by Mark Cartwright. published on 27 September 2019. The ancient and medieval Mediterranean might have been a bustling stage of ever-changing empires but, across the inhospitable barrier of the Sahara Desert, West Africans were equally busy building up and toppling down their own kingdoms and empires. With wealth gained from vast herds of ...
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Western Africa is underlain by crystalline rocks that outcrop over about 55 percent of the subcontinent. Where these do not outcrop, they are being buried under sedimentary rocks. Other surface rocks consist of volcanicrock which covers a smaller area than the other two types. Western Africa lies below 5,000 feet, with most of the region lying belo...
Prehistory
Prehistory, which is commonly defined as the time when the first human settlers arrived, began in West Africa around 12,000 B.C.E. The first settlers are thought to be the Pygmies, who began settling in the region in the thirteenth century B.C.E. They began developing different forms of agriculture and making contact with the Mediterranean civilizations to the north. Sedentary farming began around the fifth millennium B.C.E., and was coupled with domestication of cattle. By 400 B.C.E., iron w...
Empires
Beginning with the eighth century, agricultural and economic advances combined to create an environment favorable to political expansion. The first empire to develop was the Kingdom of Ghana, which was based in the city of Kumbi Saleh and came to dominate the region until the middle of the eleventh century. The power vacuum following their decline was filled by the Sosso Empire, but it met defeat in 1240 C.E. at the hands of the Mandinka forces led by Sundiata Keita. Keita would later form th...
Slavery and European contact
The fall of the Songhai Empire in the late sixteenth century ushered in an era of smaller West African states that drew on European trading contacts to survive. A major trading power among the newly emerged West African states was Portugal, who began establishing settlements along the coast in 1445 C.E. Other major European trading interests included France and Great Britain, who played major roles in dramatically increasing the exports of slavesfrom the region. The trans-Atlantic slave trade...
Despite the wide variety of cultures in West Africa, from Nigeria through Senegal, there are apparent similarities in dress, cuisine, musical genres and wealth. Many of the visual similarities lie along the lines of clothing, especially formal clothing. A typical formal attire commonly worn in West Africa is the flowing Boubou (also known as Agbada...
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was founded in 1975 by the Treaty of Lagos. It is an organization of West African states that aims to promote the region's economy. Other West African conglomerations also exist throughout the region, including the West African Monetary Union (or UEMOA from its name in French, Union économique ...
Brooks, George E. 2003. Eurafricans in western Africa: commerce, social status, gender, and religious observance from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Western African studies. Athens: Ohio...Davidson, Basil. 1969. Africa in history; themes and outlines. New York: Macmillan.Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa before the colonial era: a history to 1850. London: Longman. ISBN 0582318521 ISBN 9780582318526Encyclopædia Britannica. Western Africa. Retrieved July 25, 2007.Map showing European-controlled territories and advances in western Africa in the late 19th century. (more) As early as 1898 Europeans had staked out colonies over all western Africa except for some 40,000 square miles of territory left to the Republic of Liberia.
In Western colonialism: The race for colonies in sub-Saharan Africa …tropical Africa, located mainly in West Africa. Only France had moved into the interior along the Sénégal River. The other French colonies or spheres of influence were located along the Ivory Coast and in Dahomey (now Benin) and Gabon.
