I HISTORY NOTE-GRADE_11 PREPARED BY OROMOO STUDENTS
UNIT ONE
HISTORY AND THE HISTORIANS CRAFT
1.1 The Meaning and Use of History
History is a branch of knowledge that deals with all that had been done by people who lived in the past. By learning their deeds we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. It also helps us to increase our understanding of the past and present society and may forecast about future society.
1.2 Key Elements in the Study of History
Among the key elements in the study of history sources are the decisive ones. No one can write history without sources. Historians use two main types of sources in their research. They are called
Primary sources and
Secondary sources
▪︎Primary sources- have direct relations to the events and nearer in time and place to the event. But, Secondary source- does not have direct relations or nearness to the event.
Examples of primary sources are;
Monuments diaries eye-witness
Inscriptions memories
Coins chronicles
Letters documents
Examples of secondary sources are
History book
Oral traditions
Novels etc.
▪︎Primary sources are more reliable than secondary sources because they have immediacy to the event and as such they are better sources of history. However, critical evaluation of both primary and secondary sources is very important for establishing their authenticity and for clear and deep understanding of the meaning of our evidence. Otherwise there is the possibility of miss-representation or wrong interpretation of historical evidences. Historical information also presented in an attractive and readable way to the reader. Objectivity is another key element in the study of history.
1.3 The Study of Ethiopian History
An Ethiopian study was founded in Europe in the 17thc by a Germen historian named Job- Ludolf (1624-1704). Ludolf wrote the first modern history of Ethiopia, which was published in 1684. The establishment of the institute of Ethiopian studies (IES) in the early 1960,s at the Haile sellassie I university college changed the pattern of Ethiopian studies. Ethiopian studies focused only on the north until 1960,s because the northern part has the following advantages;
A, the north had been in contact with the outside world as result ,Arab, Greek and Roman writers had left important information for the study of its history.
B, the north has written language that served to keep records and so many chronicles of the Christian kings are available.
C, since the Christian kingdom had maintained strong contact with the Egyptian Coptic church several sources on the kingdom are available in Egyptian archives.
D, Northern inscriptions and monuments are studied by large, etc.
In case of the southern part of the country the people’s history is not studied thoroughly. Furthermore, the south has no written language as such to keep its history recorded. In addition to these scholars was unwilling to use oral traditions as legitimate historical source until recent times.
1.4. Periodization in History
Time is an important factor in the study of history. This is because it simplifies the works of historians and historians present past events by organizing them according to their sequence of time. After that history is studied on the basis of periodization. The starting point for this periodazition is proposed to be 2 million years before present (B.P). This was the time when early humans began to walk on upright position and began to produce and use instruments of labour. Generally, history of humanity is divided in to two major periods called pre-history and history. The period of history began about 6000 B.P with the beginning of the technique of writing. This period is further divided in to three minor periods called ancient, medieval and modern. However, there are no uniform and fixed time gaps for the subdivisions throughout the world for instance;
The ancient period of European history started from the rise of civilization in ancient Greece about 1,250B.C and lasted up to 5thc.
The medieval period lasted from the 5thc A.D up to the 16thc.
The modern period dates from the 16thc A.D up to the present.
■Periodization in African history has developed unique features as a result of European colonization and expressed in terms of pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial.
■Periodization in Ethiopia is different from the rest of African countries; because of Ethiopia is the only country that succeeded in keeping its independence by averting attempts of the European colonizers. In this regard
The ancient period of Ethiopian history falls between 1000B.C – 1270AD
The medieval period lasted from 1270A.D up to 1855A.D and
The period since 1855A. is called modern period.
UNIT TWO
EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN BEINGS
2.1 Theories of the Origin of human beings
☆Creationist View:-they believe that man was created by a Supernatural force with all complete physical shape and structure.
☆Scientific View: - explains that human beings developed from lower beings through a gradual and natural process of change with the publication of the work of Charles Darwin entitled “Origin of species by natural selection”.
2.2 Human Evolution
•Hominids
A hominid is a member of the scientific family made up of human beings and pre-historic human like creatures. The Two Africans apes, Gorillas and chimpanzees are the closest living relatives of humans. These Species classified as members of a different zoological family, often called pongidae and about 98.5 % of the genes in People and chimpanzees are identical and making chimps the closest living biological relatives of humans. This does not mean that humans evolved from chimpanzees, but it does indicate that both evolved from a common ape ancestor. Investigations have calculated that the split between hominids, chimpanzees and gorillas occurred about million years ago.
The First Humans
Australopithecines
Scientists refer to these earliest human species as australopithecines. The name australopithecines translate literally as “southern ape” in reference to South Africa, where the first known australopith fossils were found. Countries in which scientists have found australopiths fossils include Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, and Chad.
■Origin of Genus homo
•The Genus homo appeared b/n 2 Million and 2.5 million Years ago. The three species of Homo are Homo Habilis , Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens.
Homo habilis – the oldest type of human being lived in E and S, Africa about 2million years ago. Sites of Homo habils were Omo basin in Ethiopia, Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Sterkfontein in S. Africa and Lake Turcana in N. Kenya. Homo Habils made the first tools consisted of flakes and cores and are known as Oldowan technology named after the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
Homo erectus- Originated in Africa and migrate from Africa to Asia and Europe and about 1.7 to 1.8million years old. Homo erectus made tools known as “Acheulean’’. They were the first human beings to use fire around 1.5 million years ago .Sites of Homo erectus were lower Omo Basin ,Melka –Kunture ,konso –Gardula, Middle Awash and Gadeb. Other Homo erectus fossils were found In Indonesia, Germany and China.
Homo Sapiens–are classified in to two sub-groups, one is “archaic” and other is “modern” Homo sapiens.” Archaic” Homo sapiens evolved from Homo erectus between 300,000and 600,000years ago and is considered as an intermediate between Homo erectus and modern human beings. “Modern“ Homo sapiens include all living people plus those fossil populations from about the last 100,000 years .They are anatomically very similar to the living human Beings.
2.3 Early Cultural Development
The Stone Age was a period of human technological developments characterized by the use of stone as the principal raw material for tools; the Stone Age began roughly 2.5m years ago and ended in 5000 years ago.
The Stone Age divided into different stages. These are Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and Neolithic (new stone age). During the Old Stone Age, people learned to make stone tools and weapons by chipping one stone against another. They discovered fire. People lived in caves. During middle Stone Age people tamed the dog, made the first pottery and make crude boats. In the New Stone Age people make sharper stone tools and fire clay to make pots. They become food producers by domesticating animals and plants. They formed towns, made laws, created governments and developments of religion. In such a way that human conscientious of society led to early cultural developments.
Early Stone Age (lower Paleolithic)
The lower Paleolithic dates from 2.5m years ago until 200,000 years ago. Two successive tools were made during the lower Paleolithic. These are Oldwan and Acheulean tools.
The Oldwan tools were made by technique known as the “direct percussion ‘method. The acheulean tools were first developed about 1.5million years ago. Acheulean tools are known as “bifaces” flaked on both sides. Hand axes are typical of the Acheuleam tool industry. Among the oldest Acheulean sites in Ethiopia are Konso-Gardula, Gadab and Melkakunture. In general, Oldwan tools are identified with Homo Habils while the Acheulean tools are associated with Homo erectus.
Middle Stone Age (Middle Paleolithic)
The Middle Paleolithic extends from 200,000 years ago until 30,000 years ago. It was at this time that Home-erectus evolved into the human species called Homo sapiens or modern human.
Later Stone Age (Upper Paleolithic)
The upper Paleolithic extends from 40,000 years up to 10,000 years ago. In the upper Paleolithic standardized blade industries appear and became much more widespread than in previous times.
The Neolithic Revolution
This Period Refers to the time after 11,000years ago when food producing through the domestication of plants and animals replaced as the dominant means of subsistence. The rise of agriculture began in the Middle East. The first farmers lived in a region called the Fertile Crescent, which covers what is now Lebanon and parts of Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. We observe sites of sedentary life, domestication of plant and animals, new tools and diversification of human diets that implied division of labor. As a result of sedentary way of life, families and communities were emerged in defined territorial areas.
The Neolithic Revolution in the Ethiopia Region
The existence of this Neolithic type of culture in northern part of Ethiopia and the horn of Africa is attested from.
-Gobedra rock Shelter (3000B.c) and
-Lalibela cave (5000B.C)
Therefore, it is assumed that the practice of agricultural tradition in Northern Ethiopia was already in existence between 3000and 2000B.C. During this time Neolithic culture in Ethiopia, New economics and cultural development appeared. The communities started sedentary life, domestication of plants and animals and used ceramics and root plants and crops such as enset, teff, noog, finger mille, chat. and coffee also manifested.
UNIT THREE
THE ANCIENT WORLD
3 .1 Emergence of states
Theories of the emergency of states
There are different theories for the emergence of ancient states. Probably the emergence resulted from such factors on;
_religion
_war leadership
_control of trade routes and
_irrigation
According to the divine right theory empire states are created by God and the emperors are regated as God’s representatives or agents on earth. Unlike devine right theory, democracy is a system of government established by the people in whom the supreme power is rested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents.
The ancient Greek city states that exercised democracy for the first time had not opened the door for democracy to all members. The Greeks were divided in to three social groups, namely, citizens, plebeians and slaves.
Citizens were very few in number. They were free to participate in decision making. They had the right to elect or to be elected to public officers. They also enjoyed the right to own private property including slaves.
The plebians were free members of the society. However, they did not enjoy political rights, right like citizens.
The slaves were not free members of the society and had no rights what so ever.
Likewise, in ancient Rome, citizens were limited to a small numbers and privileged group of the Romans only. These were men who owned property. Women, however, were not considered as citizens. Therefore, in ancient states, the rights of citizens were not fully respected, because they did not have the mechanism like constitution and representatives of the government of the people to keep these interests.
3.2Ancient world civilization
Africa
Ancient Egypt
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus said that Egypt was “the gift of the Nile” meaning that Egypt could not have existed without Nile that brought water and soil to Egypt. Egypt is desert on both sides. According to tradition, Egypt was united when a king named Menes (c.3200b.c) united Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt under his rule.
The history of ancient Egypt is usually divided into the:-
Old kingdom ( c.2686_2181b.c)
Middle kingdom (c.2040_1730b.c)and
New kingdom (c.1550_1080b.c)
There are also the first and the second intermediate periods.
After the new kingdom, however indigenous rule ended in Egypt with the final Persian conquest in 343 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered Egypt from the Persians in 332 B.C Macedonia -Greek rule continued until Egypt became part of the Roman Empire in 30 B.C
In Egypt the king was regarded as incarnate god and after his “death” on earth he would be a god watching Egypt was called “pharaoh”. The word “pharaoh” is meaning “great house” that is the place where the king lived.
The capital of the old kingdom was Memphis located the present-day Cairo. During the middle and the new kingdoms, the capital was moved to Thebes. Officials were called Viziers helped the king and they acted as mayors, tax collectors and judges. Ancient Egypt was divided into 42 provinces called “nomes”. The king appointed an official known as “Nomarch” to govern each province. Most of the ordinary people in ancient Egypt were engaged in agriculture.
Egypt built a great empire and reached the height of its power during the 1400’s BC, under king Thutmose III. He led a military complain into Asia for 20 years and brought Palestine and Syria into the Egyptian empire.
Thutmos also established Egyptian control over kush and Nubia. Rameses the second (r. 1290 – 1224BC) was one of the known pharaoh of the time. The well known voyage to punt sent by Queen Hatshepsut had also taken place in the New Kingdom period.
Ancient Egyptians developed a remarkable progress in government, Religion, engineering, architecture, writing and science including mathematics.
kush/meroe
Kush was a kingdom along the Nile river in what is now N.E. Sudan and existed as early as 2000 B.C and lasted until 350 A.D.
Egypt conquered Kush in the 1500’s B.C and the kushities adopted elements of Egyptian art, language and religion. Later the kushities conquered Egypt about 750 B.C when its power declined. Napata was the capital of the combined territory of Egypt and Kush. The kushities ruled Egypt until 670 B.C when Assyrians from Asia attacked Egypt. An Assyrian army then destroyed Napata, the capital of Kush.
The capital of the kingdom also shifted to Meroe north of Khartoum. In the middle of the fourth century A.D the axsumite king called Ezana invaded Meroe and Ezana”s army sacked and burned Meroe and thereby the ancient kingdom of Kush came to an end.
ASIA
Mesopotamia
By about 2900 B.C a civilization of city states emerged in s. Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) in the area called sumeria between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The name mesopotamia comes from a greek word meaning between rivers. The rulers of sumerian city-states were absolute kings called Lugals . The plough was first used in sumeria before the establishment of the city-states. Sumerians developed knowledge in astronomy and mathematics.We got the 60 minutes in an hour and 360 degrees in a circle from the sumerians.
The people again developed a writing system called cuneiform. The sumerians made remarkable contributions in law, arts and science and made careful study of the heavenly bodies. This laid the foundation for the study of modern astronomy.
The old Babylonian Empire, Assyria and
The New Babylonian Empire
The Old Babylonian Empire
Bablion was a great city of the ancient world . It was the capital of the kingdom of Babylonia and two Babylonian emperors. Babylon stood on the banks of the Euphrates river near the present day city of al-hillah Iraq.
King sumuabum was the first babylonian ruler founded a dynasty in 1894 B.C. The best known king of that dynasty was Hammurabi r .1792-1750 B.C developing a wise and fair code of law. punishments for the common people were more severe and physical. Hamurabi’s code of laws becomes a model for later codes.
Assyrians
The assyrians were semetic speakers and their homeland was in what is now N .Iraq . Their capital was at first Ashur and later Nineveh.
The assyrian army, which consisted of cavalry , chariots and infantry , was efficient and well-organized.
The medians and the babylonians attacked assyria. In 612B.C, Ashur and Nineveh were captured and destroyed and internal struggle for succession weakened the Assyrian empire and the empire replaced by the new Babylonian empire.
The New Babylonian
The new babylonian empire began in 626 B.C, when the babylonian military leaders Nabopolassar became king of the babylon. Attacks by the babylonians and their median allies in 614 and 612 B.C, Put an end to the Assyrian empire. Babylon achieved its greatest glory under the new Babylonian empire. Nabopolssar and his son Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilt the city on a ground .
Nebuchadnezzar successors were unpopular, and the empire became weak. In 539 B.C Persian invaders captured Babylon and over threw the new Babylonian empire.
The Persian Empire
Ancient persia was a land that included the present day Iran and Afghanistan. The founder of the Persian Empire was the conqueror Cyrus the great (557-530 BC). The Persian emperor called “the great king, the king of kings”was an absolute ruler as the representative of the Persian god Ahura Mazda.
The empire was divided in to provinces called satrapies each governed by an official called a Satrap. A gold currency called Darics was used all over the empire. The Persian darics were named after the emperor Darius I (fifth century B.C).
Zoraster was a Persian prophet who lived in the sixth century B.C. He introduced the religion called zorastrianism. He preached about the good and evil. The good was represented by the supreme god called Ahura mazada, and the evil by Ahriman.
finally Alexander the great conquered the persian empire in 331 B.C , and the region became part of alexander’s empire.
India
The first indian civilization began in the indus valley at about 2500 B.C , and reached at its apex at about 1500 B.C . This civilization was started by the people called Dravidians who were indigenous to northern India. Archaeologists have discovered two major cities of the Indus valley civilization.
Mohenjo-daro and
Harappa
Different kinds of explanation have been given for the destruction of the indus valley cities. Same of them are
Environmental degradation caused by deforestation
Epidemic disease like malaria
Changes in the course of the river Indus and Climatic changes
Hindu religion developed from the beliefs of the indo-aryans. According to Hinduism mankind is condemend to a cycle of rebirth. A person can be reborn as some one spritually higher and better or someone even an animal lower and worse.
Buddhism emerged from hinduism as a reform mov’t buddhism was founded by Siddharta Gautama (563 -483 B.C). Buddhiism teaches the”Middle way” for salivation by avoiding extremes of asecticism on one side or materialism on the other side. It spread outside India to S.E, Asia, China and Japan.
China
The first dynasty in china was called the shang dynasty (c. 1700-1122 B.C ) centered in the Hunanghe valley. The chinese writing system is called Logographic.
About 1122 B.C the Zhon (chou) people of w.china overthrew the shang and established their own dynasty and ruled china until 256 B.C
Confucius (551-479 B.C)) was the most influential and respected philosopher in chinese history. His real name was King qiu. The name Confucius is a Latin form of the title kongfuzi which means Great Masterkng. Confucianism stresses the need to develop moral character and responsibility. Conficianism put great emphasis on personal ethics as”do not do to others what you do not want done to you”
The confucianism was further developed by Menicus (meng-tzu) 372 -289 B.C the most important early confucian philosopher.
In 221 B.C, the Qin(chin) state defeated all its rivals and established china’s first empire under the first emperor shih huang-ti. The ruler believed in philosophy called Legalism. Legalism emphasized.
—The importance of authority
—Efficient Administration
—Strict laws.
A combination of legalistic and confucius moral values helped the chinese empires endure for more than 2000 years.
Europe The Ancient Greece
Ancient greece was the birth place of W.civilization about 2500years ago. The Greek city states were called Polis. The best knoen city states were called Athens and Sparta. Athens became the most successful democracy of ancient Greece. Athens was a direct democracy by elected representativies.
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are considered as the most important Greek philosopers. The ancient greek pioneered in medicine, physics, Biology and mathematics. The Greek historians, Herodotus called “father of history” and Thucydides, established proper historiography. Modern medicine also sees its founder in the Greek doctor, Hippocrates. In many schools today, doctors take the”hippocratic oath” on graduation.
The glorious days of Athens ended with the out break of the pelonnesian war (431-404 B.C) in which Athens was defeated by Sparta.
Macedonia, a country north of greece, was becoming stronger as the Greek city-states grew weaker. The independence of Greek city-states ended in 338 B.C when king of Macedonia Philip II defeated them and brought them all under his control.
Alexander the Great, philip’s son led a Greek and Macedonian army and conquered the entire persian empire. Alexander died in 323 B.C. His generals divided his empire among them selves. The period of greek history following alexander’s death is known as Hellenistic Age. This period lasted until 146 B.C when the Romans took control of Greece
Ancient Rome and the Roman Empire
The first known settlers of ancient Rome lived on the palatine hill about 1000B.C. These settlers were called Latins.
About 600B.C, Rome and other towns in latium came under the control of the Etruscans, a people who lived north of Latium. Under Etruscan rule, Rome grew form a village of farmer and sheepreds into a prosperous city. The Romans become powerful and overthrew the monarchy and established the Roman republic in 509 B.C. Two elected officials called Consuls headed the government. A consul served only a year. The Senate was the most powerful government body of the Roman republic. They served for life.
Roman citizens were divided into three classes;
The Patricans (nobles)
The Equites and
The Plebians (common people).
The patricians (nobles) were members of Rome’s oldest and richest families who held all important political powers in the state. All senators were particians.
The Equits were the richest of the non-nobles. They also owned land but they were sometimes bussinessman as well.
The plebians, were small farmers in the country side but also craftsman, shopkeepers, labourers, e.t.c.
There were huge numbers of slaves in the city of Rome in part of italy and the roman territory of carthage. These slaves had mostly been obtained in war, as Rome expanded. Slaves were used on Latifundia (great land lord properties) as agricultural labourers. The only real hope for a slave was called manumission in which the ex-slave become a freed-man or freed women.
Conflicts among leaders caused upheaval in the Roman republic during its last 100 years. Finally, a successful general, Julius Caesar (100BC-44BC) had become sole ruler of the Roman world. But a group of senators who feared that Caesar assassinated him in 44 B.C. Coesar’s adopted son and heir, Octavian and mark Anatony, caesar’s friend, avenged caesar’s murder and then divided power between them. Octavian and Antony then fought each other for control of Rome.
Antony sought the support of Cleopatra Queen of Egypt(47-30B.C) and they fell in love. In 31 B.C Octavian defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra and made Egypt a Roman province,
In 27 B.C, Octavian became the first Roman emperor and took the title Agustus, thus named Augustus caesars. Inspite of his power Augustus avoided the title of emperor and preferred princeps, meaning first citizen.
The reign of augustus marked a long period of stability which became known as paxromana (Roman peace) lasted about 200 years. Augustus died in AD 14.
The Roman Empire was divided into the
_West Roman Empire and
_The East Roman Empire
After emperor Theodosius died in 395.The West Roman empire grew steadily weaker. The vandals, visigoths, and other Germanic peoples invaded Spain, Gaul (present France) and Northern Africa. the fall of the Empire is dated 476 AD. In that year, the Germanic chieftain Odoacer forced Romulus Augustius the last ruler of the empire from the throne. However, the East Roman Empire survived as the Byzantine until 1453 when the Turks captured Constantinople.
Christianity Origins of christianity
Among the subject peoples of the Roman empire, the Jews with their religion called judaism a monothest religion of the ancient jewish kingdom of israel or judea(later called palestine). In the 1.c A.D another monothestic religion Christianity emerged in Palestine. It was centered on beliefs about Jesus christ who had lived and thought in palestine until his crusifcation at about A.D 30 under Roman governer, pontius pilate.
Early christianity and its expansion
The christian bible includes both the old and new testaments. Christianity developed a strong and efficient church organization. The leaders of the church were called clergy and ordinary Christians called laity or lay people. However, by the second the clergy began to divide in to three parts Bishops at the top _priests and_deacons.
The clergy were responsible for teaching the doctrines of the church. They also administered the property of the church. In general the clergy had spritual outhority over the laity.
The head of each local christian church or community was the Bishop. He had spirtual outhority over all the clergy and laity of the community. In time Archbishops appeared he had spritual outhority over the bishops, other clergy and laity of a large area. Then the rank of patriach emerged. A patriarch, bishops, other clergy and laity of very large regions called patriarchates. There were five patriarchates;
Rome Constaninople
Alexander Jerusalem
Antioch
The patriarch of Rome also called the pope was claiming leadership over the other Patriarchates. From the middle of 3 c A.D onwards monostries where monks and nuns lived in separate communities were established. Those monks who lived together had a leader called abbot and those monks who lived alone were called hermits. Doctrines which were rejected and condemned by the church were called heresies and the followers of these doctrines were called heretics. The council of Nicaea in 325 A.D established the doctrine of the holytrinity and this .Doctrin was confirmed by the council of Constantinople in 385 A.D. The doctrine of the holy trinity says that one god exists in three persons.
_God the father
_God the son (jesus christ) and
_God the holy sprit
All these persons are equal. The council condemned Arianism a belief that Jesus was not completely divine.
The Roman government became suspicious of Christianity because Christians would not make sacrifice in honour of the emperor. Refusal to sacrifice was considered as political disloyality by the Roman government. The Roman emperors therefore persecuted Christians. Rather than weaking the young religion, persection strengthened it and consequently, the number of Christian increased. In 312, the Roman emperor Constantine the great become a Christian himself and officially declared Christianity to be the state religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity also had a Western and an Eastrn church. The center of the W.church was in Rome under the leadership of the pope and the E.center was in constantinoplc under the patriarch. In 1517, a movement called the Reformation began when Martin Luther a German monk critized certain church practice.
UNIT FOURE
4.1. Europe during the middle ages
Invasions and the age of feudalism
In the 5th c .AD, the Germanic tribes began invading Roman territory. As a result the Roman Empire had lost much of its grate power and its armies could not defend the long frontier.
The Visigoths invaded Spain about 416 AD.
The Angels, Jutes and Saxons settle in Britain about 450 AD.
Franks established kingdom in Gaul (now France) in the 480’s and
The Ostrogoths invaded Italy at about the same time.
The barbarian invasion divided the huge Roman Empire into many kingdoms and destroyed the European trade that the Romans had established.
By the 9th c, most of W. Europe was divided into large estate of land called Manors. A few wealthy land lords ruled the Manors, but most of the people were poor peasants who worked the land .This system of obtaining a living from the land was called Manorialism.
The Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church was the main civilization force of the people and saved W.Europe from complete ignorance. Missionaries traveled great distance to spread Christianity.
Two church institutions the Cathedral and the Monastery become center of learning in the early middle Ages. Cathedrals were the churches of bishops. Monasteries were communities of monks. The Latin language also continued to be a living language in many part of Europe. The Roman Catholic Church also becomes the largest landholder in W.Europe and rulers and feudal lords gave fiefs to the church in return for service performed by the clergy.
4.2 The Byzantine Empire
The W.Roman Empire collapsed in 476 AD, While the E.Roman empire continued to survive for another one thousand years after that. The E. Roman Empire survived, because geographically.
It was not open to barbarians attack on the west, except in the Balkans.
It was also richer, had more population and had more towns and cities with defensive walls than the west.
The E, Roman Empire is also called the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium. The word byzantine comes from Byzantium, the Greek name for the city on the strait of Bosporus.
In 330AD, the Roman emperor Constantine the great moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium (latter Istanbul) the city was renamed Constantinople after him, the Roman Empire was divided in to two part t, the W. Roman and the E.Roman Empire in 395AD. The Byzantine Empire reached its greats size under emperor Justinian I (r, 527-565 AD). The Byzantines organized many laws of ancient Romans .this collection of laws became known as the Justinian code the basis of the legal system of many countries. Justinian also built Hagia Sophia (st.sophia), the empire largest and most splendid Christian church in Constantinople.
A division between the W.Catholic church and the Eastern (Greek and Russian) Orthodox Church is took place in the 11th c. One of the reasons for this division was the dispute over the authority in the church.
After Justinian’s death in 565, barbarians attacked the Byzantine Empire on all fronts and threatened by the invasion of the Persians. However, Heraclius (r, 610-642) temporarily stopped its collapse by defeating the Persians .finally, the Byzantine Empire ended in 1453, when Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople. The last byzantine emperor, Constantine XI died while defending the city.
4.3 The Rise and explanation of Islam
Islam is the name given to the religion preached by the prophet Mohammed in the 7th c AD. Mohammed was an Arab who was born in Mecca about 579.mohammed preached that there is only one God (Allah) and that he, Mohammed, was God’s messenger. Those who believe in the one God and accept Mohammed as hisare called Muslims.
Mohammed began his teaching in Mecca about 610.soon the Quraysh Arabs and wealthy merchants in Mecca considered his teachings a treat to their privileges.
The annual pilgrimages to the ka’ba a holy shrine in Mecca, visited by thousands of Arabs from the whole peninsula, had been source of considerable income for the Meccan merchants. So he and his followers were persecuted and several attempts were made to kill him.
Therefore, Mohammed and his follower fled to the town of Yathrib, latter renamed Medina al nabi (the city of the prophet) or Medina. This event, known as Hijira took place in 622, the first year of the Islamic calendar.
The inhabitants of medina who invited Mohammed to their town come to be known as the Ansar (the helpers). The Meccan emigrants were known as the muhajirun. These two groups formed together the Sahaba. From 622 until he died in 632, Mohammed strengthened and governed the Muslim community (umma), successfully resisted his Mecca enemies and established his authority over much of Arabia through both diplomacy and war.
Between 8th and9th c, Muslim scholar’s codified the whole Islamic law in to a coherent system and eventually emerged four legal schools.
Hanafi
Maliki
Shafi
Hanbali
They also agree on the Quran and Hadith as source of the shar’a, they give priority to one or the other two sources of low that is analogy and consensus. Before his death, the prophet indicated that governing the community should be based on shura (consultation).After his death four caliphs were elected. These are,
Abu Bakar (1632-34) Uthman ( 644-56)
Umar (634-44) Ali ( 656-61 )
In the 7th c, the Muslim world had been divided in to two major sects. These are, The Shiites and Sunnites.
Those Muslims who supported Ali believed that the caliphate should go to the family of the prophet represented by Ali and his descendants. Ali was married to Fatima the daughter of the prophet Mohammed. They wear known as shi’at Ali (the party of Ali or the Shiites.
The Sunni Islam supported the Sunna that is the way of prophet. Today Sunnites comprise 90 % the world s total Muslim population.
Within one hundred years after the death of the prophet, the Muslim Arab Empire includes an enormous territory and the conquered people embraced Islam and become the center of Islamic world.
The Ottoman Turkish Empire
The Turks were a nomadic pastoralist people in central Asia. They were pagan but converted to Sunni Islam in the 10th c and become firm, strong Muslims.
In 1071, Turkish sultan, Alp Arslan, defeated the byzantine army at the battle of Menzikert in E, Asia Minor .the term ottoman comes from Osman, also called Othman the founder and first sultan of the empire.
In 1453, the ottoman sultan Mehmet II Fatih, the conqueror (r, 1451-1481) took Constantinople, renamed Istanbul and made it the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire continued to expand its territory. Included Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Cyprus, Crete, present day Ukraine and Poland and most of Hungary.
The Ottoman Empire reached the height of its power under Sultan Suleiman I “the magnificent”(r 1520-1566). The Ottoman Empire was the great Muslim state in the world.
Medieval society
Medieval Europe was feudal in its rural economy. Which mean, feudalism describes relation of peasants dominated by lords. Europe was beginning to enter the middle age as early as the 14thc. In the late Roman Empire we can see the existence of dependent peasants called coloni. They were not slaves but they owed labour service to their land lords and could not leave their land lord’s land. These coloni were very similar to the serfs of the middle ages.
A lord had a manor or several manors. On a manor lived peasant, many of them serfs. They cultivated the land. The lord kept part of the land of the manor and his own direct control. This land called the demesne was cultivated for the lord by unpaid, compulsory Corvee labour of his serf s. The produce of this land went to the lord for his own household consumption or to sell. The peasant also paid feudal dues, in kind like cheese, eggs, cloth, honey, etc… or in money to the lord. The peasants were allowed to cultivate some of the land of the manor to support themselves and their families.
The feudal society in medieval Europe was sharply divided in to the privileged upper class (king ,nobles ,higher clergy and knights )and the unprivileged lower class (the great mass of peasant ,or serfs ) position in the feudal society was determined by birth
The Crusades
Crusades were Christian military expedition organization mainly to recapture Palestine during the middle age. Palestine, also called the holy land was important to Christian’s because it was the region where Jesus Christ had lived.
During the 11th c Seljuk Turks from central Asia invaded the near east and Asia Minor, Palestine and Syria. The Turks had become Muslims. But unlike Muslim Arab, they made it difficult for Christian’s pilgrims to reach the holy place.
The Crusaders, who come from W.Europe, organized eight major expeditions’ between 1096 and 1270.they had two stated goals
1, to gain permanent control of the holy land and
2. To protect the Byzantine Empire
Not all the crusaders however, joined the expedition for religious reason. For example the French knights wanted more land, Italian merchants intended to control the trade of Middle Eastern ports etc.
The word crusade comes from the Latin word crux, meaning cross. Member of the expedition sewed the symbol of the cross of Christ on their clothing.
Result of the Crusades
The Crusades failed to accomplish their main goals. They recaptured the holy land for a time, but could not established lasting control over the area. Western Europeans also learned how to build better ships and make more accurate maps and magnetic compasses to tell direction. This achievement contributed to the explanation of early capitalist relations in the early modern world. This is a turning point where the process of separation of church and state began.
The middle age in the Far East
India
From about 300-500, India had a period of greatness. Art and architecture flourished, great literature was produced and science advanced.
Trade grew especially dyes and spices were to be found in market as far as Egypt and China.
By about 500, however, this period of peace and prosperity in India come to an end with new external attacks. The first attack comes from the white Huns. Under these condition progress slowed down and strong government for India become impossible. Religion exercised strong influence on Indian culture. Hinduism and Islam continued to exist side by side.
China
The Sui dynasty (581 -618) reunified china after almost 400 year of division. The Tang dynasty replaced the Sui in 618 and ruled china for nearly 300 year. The Tang period was an age of prosperity and great cultural accomplishments. The tang declined by a rebellion in 907. Five dynasties struggled for succession until the Song dynasty reunified china in 960. The song dynasty introduced two major changes in side china.
1, Established a civil service examinations.
2, Neo-Confucianism as state philosophy.
In 1126, the Song dynasty lost its power to invaders from Manchuria. The song then moves their capital from kaiteng to Hangzhou and the dynasty become known as southern Song.
During the 13th c, Mongol warriors’ invaded china from the north .The Mongol leader, Kublai khan established the Yuan dynasty. It controls china from 1279- 1368, and for the first time that all china had come under foreign rule. Marco polo, a trader from Venice, traveled widely in china 1275-1292.
Rebellion drove the Mongols out of china and the Ming dynasty established and ruled china from 1368-1644. In 1444, the Manchu people of Manchuria invaded china and established the Qing dynasty. The Manchu ruled china until 1912.
Japan
During the late 15th c, new ideas and technology began arriving in Japan from China. Prince Shotoku encouraged the Japanese to adopt Chinese ideas. In 858, the emperor and his court fell under the control of a powerful noble family called fujiwaras, ruled Japan for about 300 years.
The lords who controlled the estate were called the Daimyo.The daimyo hired bands of warriors to protect their land and the peasant who worked them. These warriors become known as samurai.
In 1192 the emperor gave Yoritomo the title shogun (general) Yoritomo’s military government becomes known as shogunet. Shogun rule lasted until 1867.
4.6 The development of early capitalism in the middle age
The period from 1000-1500 can be called the latter Middle Age. In this period, Europe’s economy expanded. There are some important characteristics of capitalist economy which distinguish it from other system, like
In capitalist land is an absolute private property and able to bought and sold like any other commodity.
A market economy in which goods of all kind are produced for sale
Labor is free in order to work for money wages with no slavery or serfdom.
Legal equality of all member of society with no special legal privileges for noble or others of a high status.
Business men are respected and profit making is strongly motivated in society.
Investment or saving is encouraged rather than just spending on personal use alone.
However, the legal equality of all citizens did not come in most of Europe until after the French revelation of 1789.
Town and long distance trade
In the period between 1000 and 1300, towns and cities grew in size and number and long distance and other trade expanded. The countryside sold food to the town and the towns sold manufactured goods to the country side.
Town and cities were also centers of administration by feudal lord and become center of royal administration as the power of kings increased. Archbishops and bishops always conducted their church administration from a city.
However towns and cities were not democratic. Their administration was controlled by the richest citizens, usually merchants. Apparently democracy has disappeared with ancient Greece and Rome. During the middle Ages, The rich and powerful were expected to rule and the rest to obey them.
Technology
The middle Ages made important advances in technology. The use of water and wind power to make products increased production. Mostly production was by simple hand operated tools, some heavy work like grinding grain was done by water or wind power.
The earliest gun in Europe in the beginning of 14thc and printing type was invented in Germany in the mid 15thc helped to spread literacy.
The rise of towns and the growth of long distance trade with technology made important progress in medieval Europe.
UNIT FIVE
5.1 Peoples and languages of the Ethiopian and the horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is located in the N.E part of Africa and it consisted of four modern states of Africa. These are Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea. As we know that north east Africa is generally taken as the Cradle of human kind.
Ethiopia is one of the areas where early civilization emerged. It is a nation composed of people from diverse ethnic groups having different languages, religions, traditional values and life styles. However in spite of their diversities the Ethiopian people share a number of common things. For example;
The Ethiopian Muslims and Christians share important values like pride in their country.
Cooperation for common good and willingness to defend their country from external aggression.
Share similar moral and ethical values and norms such as respect for the eiders, hospitality, faithfulness, modesty and the like.
More than one thousand languages are spoken in Africa. These languages belong to four super families they are;
Afro-Asiatic
Nilo-Saharan
Niger Congo and
Khoisan
The largest super family with large number of speakers is Niger Congo which has b/n 300-400m speakers. The next Afro Asiatic has b/n 200-300m speakers. The Nilo Saharan has 30 million and the smallest number of speakers is Khoisan which has about 300,000 speakers.
Among the four super families Afro Asiatic and Nilo Saharan are spoken in the Ethiopian region and the horn of Africa. The afro Asiatic has six families. They are
Berber
Chadic
Ancient Egyptians
Cushitic
Omotic and
Semitic
The later three are spoken in Ethiopian and the horn. These are Cushitic, Omotic and Semitic. The majority of the peoples of Ethiopian and the horn are speakers of the Cushitiic family.
The Omotic family is spoken mainly by the peoples living in Omo vally in southern and S,western Ethiopian.
The main speakers of this family are;
Walayta
Gamo
Gofa
Dawro
Konta
Gimira
Kafa
Maji
Arsi
Sheko
Dorze and
yem The semetic languages of Ethiopia and the horn are generally known as Ethio-Sematic. The main speakers of this language are;
the north Ethio-semetic languages are
Tigre
Tigrigna
Geez
The south Ethio- Sematic divided in to two sub branches. The ‘outer’ and ‘transversal’ south Ethio- semetic.
One of the ‘outer’south ethio semetic is Gafat but it is now dead (extinct), b/c no one speaks it. The other speakers are C, W and N Gurage
The ‘’transversal’’ south Ethio sematic are
Amhara
Argoba
Harari
Silt The languages of Nilo Saharan super family are also spoken in Ethiopia particularly Benshangul gumuz and gambela. The main speakers of this people are anuak, nuer, manager, Berta, gumuz, komo, mao and kunama.
5.2 The Aksumite Kingdom
Pre- Aksumite states
Even though several pre-Aksumaite states might have existed in the region, Punt and Damat were the two states for which we have some evidences. Our evidences concerning punt come from Egypt. The ancient Egyptians used concerning punt come from Egypt. The ancient Egyptians used the territory to the south of Egypt as the land of punt.
The best known expedition to punt state was dispatched by the order of Queen Hatshepsut (r, 1490-1468). However we do not have information about the precise location of the land of punt. But scholars suggested that the territory of punt might have stretched from the Nile valley up to the Red Sea coast and further extended south wards.
The second pre-aksumite state was called Damat. It was located a little to the south of Aksum. According to the evidence which is left by its rulers or kings, Damat had maintained a very strong contact with South Arabia. For instance unknown king of Damat used the politico-Religious title of south Arabia which was known as Mukarib.
The Aksumite State
The Aksumite state developed in N.part of the Ethiopian region. Its centre was the present town of Aksum. Aksum was mentioned for the first time in a document entitled the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea. It was a trade manual written in the middle of the 1stc AD. by an unknown Greek speaking sailor who visited the red sea port of Adulis and the surrounding regions. It states that amen named Zoskales was the king of Aksum. On the basis of this document scholars have suggested the rise of Aksumite state to the middle of 2ndc B.C.
The expansion of Aksum
At first the power of the aksumite state was limited to a relatively small area. But Aksum expanded its territory to
The The north as far as Beja lands
The west as far as the kunama and Tekeze river
The S.East as far as Babel mandeb
Aksum also brought Adulis the oldest port on the red sea coast under its control. By using its army Aksum expanded to include a vast territory by attacking Meroe and crossing the red sea. This expansion and military strength of Aksum enabled it to emerge as one of the three powerful empires of the world with Byzantine and Persia.
In fact the Aksumite control over south Arabia did not last long b/c the S.Arabian tribes united and defeated them.
There after a kind of on and off Aksumite control come into being. In the early 6thc the king of Himyarites on the opposite side of the Red Sea persecuted the Christians. Emperor Justinian I of Byzantine Empire requested the king of Aksum. Then Kaleb crossed over into Arabia and conquered Yemen which remained subject to Ethiopia for about 50 years.
The expulsion of Aksum from Arabia was followed by the conquest of Egypt by the forces of Islam in the middle of the 7thc. This is the major factor for the decline of the kingdom.
Aksumite state structure, society and economy
The great majority of the population was consisted of the peasantry while the rest included artisans, merchants and slaves.
The Aksumite state structure was more or less monarchical. The kings were at the centre of the political power but the kings did not have absolute power.
Agriculture and trade were the dominant economic activates in the Aksumite empire. With the growth of their power and prosperity the Aksumites monopolized the Red Sea trade with the port of Adulis which rendered shipping services.
To promote the trade activities Aksumite kings issued coins of gold, silver, copper and bronze in the late 3rdc and continued until early 7thc AD. Almost all of the coins bore the names and effigies of diffrent Aksumite kings.
According to a Greek traveller Cosmos Indicoplestes who visited Aksum in the first half of the 6th c A.D, the Aksumite kings had sent their commercial agents to the lands of south of Blue Nile known as Sasu to buy gold. Cosmos later on produced a book entitled the Christian topography based on his visit.
As a result of both international and external trade the aksumite state become prosperous. This prosperity also enabled the aksumite kings to build large palaces and churches and the building of monumental steles or obelisks. The longest stele is 33 m long; the second is 25m high it was taken to Rome in 1937 during the Italian occupation and returned to Ethiopia very recently and the third is 24m high found in Aksum.
However the purpose of this Stele is not sufficiently known. Some scholars suggested that they were erected for religious purposes, while others say tombs of the kings.
The Introduction and expansion of Christianity in to Aksum
With the introduction of Christianity to Aksum the worshipping of the gods was abandoned. Christianity was introduced to Aksum during the reign of Ezana (r 320-350 AD) in about 330AD. Ezana was the first king to be converted to Christianity. But he was not the first convert in the empire; foreign Christian residents existed in Aksum, Coloe and Adulis.
According to tradition Christianity was introduced to Aksum by a Syrian Christian called Fermnatos. He was appointed by the Alexandrian patriarch Atenatewos (328-373) as the first bishop of Aksum. Thus the r/n b/n the Ethiopian orthodox church and Alexandrian church of Egypt continued by sending bishops from Egypt until 1958.
In the 5thc missionaries called Nine Saints come to Aksum mainly from Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus. With the help of local clerics the nine saints translated the bible and other religious literature from Greek to geez. Aksumite kings closely worked with the missionaries to prompt the expansion of Christianity. People living in d/t parts of Aksum converted into Christianity and several churches were built.
The decline of Aksum
The growth and prosperity of Aksumite state was a result of the Red Sea trade. However loss of control over this trade led to the decline and downfall of the empire. Among threat to the aksumite economic and political interest in general. The loss of income from the red sea trade weakened the economic power of the Aksumite Empire. In addition, the Aksumite power over a few people in the south become nominal and the Beja pastoralists pushed the territory of Aksum and invaded it. All these internal and external factors led to the decline of the Aksumite Empire.
5.3 The Zagwe dynasty
The Zagwe dynasty comes from the ruling class of the Agew people of the Lasta region. When the aksumite political centre shifted southwards, the Agew chiefs inter-married with the Aksumite court and served in various government bureaucracies, including military leadership. This gave advantage of power to the Agew early from the weakened aksumite rulers.
The dynasty comes to power around the middle of 12thc. The founder of the dynasty was Marara also called Marra Tekle Haymanot. He established his centre in Adafat in the district of Bugna in lasta. Later on shifted to a small town of Roha renamed Lalibela after the well known kings of Zagwe dynasty.
The period of the Zagwe dynasty coincided with the Crusades. However the Zagwe dynasty did not take part in the war. The Zagwe kings wisely followed a neutral policy and maintained friendly relations with both the Muslim and Christian states. As result the Zagwe kings getting land in Jerusalem from the Muslim authorities to build a church for the Christian community and the pilgrims to the Christian holy land.
Achievements of the Zagwe kingdom
The Zagwe period is renowned in Ethiopian history by remarkable architectural achievements. This was the building of a monolithic rock hewn church during the region of Lalibela ruled about 1190-1225 AD. Lalibela was responsible for the construction of 11 monotheistic churches from a single rock. They registered by the UNESCO as one of the cultural heritages of the world.
Fall of the Zagwe dynasty
Both internal and external factors are responsible for the downfall of the Zagwe dynasty. Internally there was no smooth political succession to the throne. On the death of Lalibela a serious power struggle broke out between Ne’akuto and Yetbark. The former was the nephew and the latter was the son of king Lalibela.
Internally there were strong oppositions against the Zagwe kingdom from the Tigrean and Amhara regions. The rulers of both regions accused the Agaws as illegitimate rulers of Ethiopia why because they did not trace their genealogy from the ‘Solomonic’ dynasty. As result, the Amhara region located south of Lasta took the initiative to depose the last zagwe king Yetbarek in 1270 AD.
II SECOND SEMISTER Unit six
The Transition from Medieval To Modern Period
6.1 The Renaissance A Rebirth of Learning
The renaissance meaning rebirth of learning was a serious of literary and cultural movements in the 14, 15th and 16th c. This movement began in Italy and eventually expanded in to Germany, France, England and other parts of the Europe. It marked the transition between medieval and modern Western Europe.
The renaissance began with the rediscovery of the Greco-Romanian civilization which had been neglected by the religious minded Christian medieval world. It emphasized reasons, acquisitioning attitude, and free inquiry, in contrast to the medieval concern with faith, authority, and tradition. It featured great achievements in literature, art, and science.
The renaissance first started in Italy because the Italian cities were the center of Greco- Roman culture. During the middle ages, for example, the most important branch of learning was theology. However, renaissance thinkers paid greater attention to the study of humanity.
Humanism was the intellectual movement started in the 14th c and typified the renaissance sprit. The humanists concerned not with religious maters, but with every day human problems.
An Italian poet and scholar Francesco Petrarch and another Italian writer Giovani Boccaccio studied and rediscovered classical writings.
Renaissance scholars in northern and western Europe were not as interested as the Italians in studying classical literature. Instead they sought to apply humanistic methods to the study of Christianity. They were especially concerned with identifying and carefully editing Christian humanities. Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus and an English sir Thomas more were the leading Christian humanists.
Erasmus was born in the Netherlands, educated in Paris and traveled throughout Germany, England and Italy. He had a thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek. In his famous work called ‘The Praise of Folly ‘published in 1511, he ridiculed superstition, prejudice, upper privileges and church abuses. By exposing social evils, Erasmus encouraged people to think about reforms.
Sir Thomas More was born in England and devoted his life by serving his Country. In his best work, Utopia published in 1516, more portrayed an ideal state free from war, injustice, poverty and ignorance society.
Revolution in arts, literature and drama
During the middle Ages painters and sculptors tried to give their works a spiritual quality. During the early 14th c, the Florentine painter, Giotto Dibondone (1260-1337) portrayed nature realistically. Giotto attempted to create life like figures showing real emotions. The sculptor Donatello (1386-1466) curved many figures of men on horseback. He is famous for his life-size statues of St.George in armor.
Arts of the late 15th c and early 16th c were dominated by three men. They were Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo Davinci.
Michelangelo (1475-1564) was a many sided Renaissance man, excelled as painter, architect and poet. For example his famous statue of Moses painted in 1516.
Raphael (1483-1520) painted a number of beautiful pictures. The work of Madonna is one of his greatest works.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) was the ideal Renaissance man. He was skilled as a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer and scientist. He painted the last supper, in 1497, and the portrait Mona Lisa in 1503. Leonardo made drawings of human skeletons and muscles trying to discover how the body worked.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) who wrote during the 13th c is often said to represent the transition in literature from the middle ages to the renaissance. His great work called Divine Comedy written in 1308 reflects the powerful interest in all aspects of human life and behavior. Dante used Italian language rather than Latin as the standard language of literature in Italy.
An Italian Nicolo Machiavelli’s (1469-1527) in his famous book the ‘prince’ Machiavelli discussed ethics and government.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) an English man is often considered as the greatest poet and play write of all time. His best-known plays include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Julius Caesar and Macbeth.
Renaissance scientific achievements
The renaissance was built up on the existence of scientific writings of the Greeks and Romans. The renaissance scientists developed the scientific method of observation and experimentation. They challenged medieval superstition and the general acceptance of Aristotle’s theories.
Some of the famous renaissance scientific writers were
A polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) disproved the Ptolemaic theory, which claimed that the earth is the center of the universe. Copernicus promulgated the theory that the sun is the center of our solar system and the earth is one of the several planets revolving about the sun.
An Italian astronomer and physist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) propounded the law of falling bodies and greatly improved the telescope. His observations confirmed the Copernican theory.
An English physician William Harvey demonstrated that the blood circulates through the body. His researchers furthered the study of medicine.
An English chemist and physist Robert Boyle discovered a law of gasses that is fundamental to modern chemistry.
These renaissance scholars challenged the oldest establishment rationalizing their arguments on the basis of knowledge based on empirical evidences. The works of literature, science and arts of this time were the foundations for the future development of society and the growth of pursuit of wisdom.
6.2 The Reformation
Reformation was a religious revolt started in 1517, against the Roman Catholic Church. There were unsuccessful early attempts at reforms in the 14th to 15th c. An English priest, John Wycliffe (1328-1384) condemned the wealth and worldliness of the Catholic Church.
Denying the pope’s religious supremacy, Wycliffe argued that the Bible is the highest religious authority. He translated the Bible in to English. He was then denounced by the pope. His followers were harshly persecuted.
The actual reformation movement was started by a German Martin Luther (1483-1546). Luther had educated and entered a catholic monastic order. He was also appointed professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg.
Luther condemned the sale of what was known as indulgences (accepting money for church pardons, without requiring true repentance).
In 1517 Luther nailed to the door of the church at Wittenberg a statement of his religious beliefs, the Ninety-five theses, which arouse tremendous popular support.
Luther denied the pope’s supremacy and proclaimed that the Bible is the final authority. He translated the Bible into German and urged each individual to read and understand it.
He criticized a number of catholic practices. He developed the doctrine of Justification by faith, that faith alone ensures salvation. Therefore, Luther was excommunicated by the pope and faced punishment from Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor.
However, the political situation much favored Luther and accepted Luther’s ideas as a new religion, Lutheranism. Lutheranism soon expanded to Scandinavian countries. The rulers of Norway, Sweden and Denmark were converted to Lutheranism and established it as an official state religion. They confiscated Catholic Church properties. Scandinavia had been almost entirely Lutheran by end of the 16th c.
The Lutheran success in N. German and Scandinavia encouraged similar movements in other countries to challenge Catholic Church authority. Religious reformers, such as Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin and John Knox played significant role in the spread of the movement to many countries.
Generally, Luther’s struggle teaches us that it is possible to attain our objectives of struggle against social evils through non violent or peaceful ways.
The Roman Catholic Church and Counter Reformation
The Counter Reformation consisted of two movements;
A defensive reaction against the reformation and
A catholic reform.
The Roman Catholic Church called the council of Trent partly as a defense against Protestantism. The council met in sessions between 1545 and 1563 in Trent, Italy. The council of Trent tried to stamp out abuses by the clergy. During the Counter Reformation many religious orders experienced reform and considerable growth. The capuchins played a major role in the renewal movement through this preaching.
Jesuit colleges trained many members of upper-class catholic families in Europe. Prayer and religious donation intensified. Books teaching by Ignatius Loyala and Saint Francis de Salas became popular.
Missionaries brought new peoples to Catholicism. Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits and members of other orders worked among the inhabitants of Africa, Asia and the Americans.
Historical significance of the Reformation
In many parts of Europe the diversity of religious life created the necessity of religious toleration and respect for the importance of individual conscience.
The establishment of state churches as occurred in England reflected the growth of nationalism. Lutheran regions tended to be conservative and supported strong central governments.
Calvinist area where Protestants were often in the minority, tended to support democracy and argued for a citizen’s right to oppose tyranny by monarchs.
Luther and other Protestants opposed the Celibate life of monks and nuns and idealized family life. The protestant stress on the holiness of a person’s daily life encouraged industriousness, thrifty living, and carful management of material things. This altitude became known as the protestant ethic. It may have contributed to the growth of industry and commerce during the 18th c and 19th c. protestant leaders also emphasized education. They promoted educational curriculum based on Greek and Roman literature and a high respect for teachers and learning.
The Rise of absolute monarchs and national states
Through out history many monarchs have wielded absolute power, sometimes based on their presumed divinity. By the 15th and 16th c absolute monarchs such as King Henry VIII of England and King Louis XIV of France ruled the countries of Europe.
Abuses of power, as well as growing dissatisfaction among the growing middle class or bourgeoisie, helped to bring about the end of many absolute monarchies.
Revolution in England in the 17th c and in France in the 18th c was a landmark in the limitation of absolute power and crystallization of the idea of citizenship. The term “citizen “refers to a person who has the right to be a full member of a particular state while the actual legal status of membership to a state is called “citizenship”, hence the idea of citizenship expresses the existing relationship between a state and its people.
In feudal Europe of the middle ages, the people were expected to give their full allegiance to rulers and they were not considered as citizens rather they are “subjects” who were governed by the wishes of the governors. It was only the economically privileged persons were considered as citizens.
Beginning of national states
England
Early English history was the story of invasions. The two main invading tribes were the Angels and the Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons established several small kingdoms in England.
In 1066, the Normans led by William, Duke of Normandy in N. France, defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the battle of Hastings. William, who became known as William the conqueror, was crowned king of England.
In time the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons became a united people. The Normans spoke French at first. But eventually, their language blended with that of the Anglo-Saxons to make the beginning of the present day English language. William I established a strong central government in England.
About a hundred years after William’s time, England was ruled by another remarkable king Henry II. The Jury system grew under Henry II. King John Henry’s youngest son, brought troubled times to England. He was treacherous and cruel. John tried to overthrow his father and also plotted against his older brother, Richard the lion-hearted.
John became king after Richard’s death in 1199. In an attempt to reduce John’s power, a group of church leaders demanded a reform and then rebelled. They forced John to accept a document in 1215 that became known as Magna Carta (great charter) the charter placed the king under English law and limited his power.
In 400 years between Williams victory at Hastings in 1066 and the time when the Tudor family assumed power in 1485 England had become more united and royal power had increased. For over 100 years (1485-1603) the Tudor family ruled England and strengthened royal authority. When Henry of Tudor won the battle field of 1305 in 1485 and become King Henry VII. Following Henry VII’s, there was his son Henry VIII and Henry VIII’s three children Edward, Mary and Elizabeth come to power.
Henery VIII was crowned king in 1509. He was talented and popular, but he was selfish and wasteful. He married Six times in all; twice he dissolved his marriage, twice he had his wives beheaded, one wife died a natural death, one outlived him.
During Henry VIII’s reign, England and Wales were finally united. In 1547, after a reign of nearly 40 years Henry VIII died.
Edward VI, his sickly son, ruled only a few years. Then Mary, Edwards’s half-sister, becomes queen. She was an ardent catholic and reestablished Catholicism as a state religion. Mary ruled only five years. Then her half-sister, Elizabeth I becomes queen in 1558.
The reign of Elizabeth I often called the Golden Age of English history. Elizabeth was a strong but cautious ruler. After Elizabeth I died in 1603, her cousin James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne. James belonged to the house of Stuart which had ruled Scotland since 1371.
France
Many historians mark the beginning of the French nation from the coronation of Hugh Capet 987. For many years the capetiain kings controlled only their royal lands. Philip II, called Philip Augustus, was the first great captain king. After he came to the throne in 1180, he more than doubled the royal domain (land) and tightened his control over the nobles. Philip built up a large body of government officials, many of them from the middle classes in the towns. He also developed Paris as permanent expanding capitals.
The handsome Philip VI, called Philip the fair rebelled against the pope’s authority and he called representatives of all estates or classes of people in France in 1302. This council of the estate was called the Estates-General.
It was made up of representatives from the three estates, or classes the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. He taxed church officials and won public approval for his actions in the first estates-general.
The last king of the captain dynasty, Charles IV died in 1328 without a male heir. A cousin succeeded him as Philip IV. King Edward III of England claimed the French throne. In 1337 Edward landed an army in Normandy. This invasion started a series of wars between France and England which became known as the hundred year’s war (1337-1453).The English won most of the battles. But the French, after their victory at Orleans under Joan of arc drove the English out of most France.
Louis XIV was the outstanding example of the absolute French king. He is said to have boasted. “I am the state” after his prime minister died in 1661 Louis declared that he would be his own prime minister. In 1685, Louis persecuted the Huguenots field France which weakened the country’s economy.
Spain
In 1469 prince Ferdinand of Aragon married prince, Isabella of Castile. Almost all of what is now Spain thus came under their rule.
Ferdinand and Isabella wanted to create a strong united Spain. They considered Jews and Muslims to be a threat to this goal. In 1480, they established the Spanish inquisition, a court that imprisoned or killed people suspected of not followings Roman Catholic teachings.
Russia
In 1547, Ivan IV also known as Ivan the terrible became the first ruler to be crowned czar. He made the power of the czar over all Russia complete.
In 1613, a kind of parliament with little power called the ZemskiSobor (land council), elected Michael Romanov czar. The Romanov czar ruled Russia for the next 300 years, until the February revolution which ended the czarist rule.
In 1682, a struggle for power resulted in the crowning of two half-brothers peter I (peter the great) and Ivan V. Both were children, and Ivan’s sister Sophia ruled as regent. Peter’s followers forced her to retire in 1689. Peter made close contact with the many western Europeans living in Moscow and absorbed much new information from them. He came into full power in 1696, when Ivan died.
In 1703, Peter founded St. Petersburg on the Baltic. The capital was moved from Moscow to St.Petersburg in 1712. Peter forced Russia’s nobility to adopt many western customs. After peter’s death in 1725, a series of struggles for the throne took place.
Prussia
The rulers of Prussia, headed by the royal family of Hohenzollern, controlled lands originally peopled by Slavs, and conquered and colonized by Germans in the middle ages.
The main cities of Prussia were Berlin, the capital and Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad) in East Prussia. Prussia was greatly strengthened during the rule of the great elector, Frederick William, from 1640-1688. His son Frederick I was crowned the first King of Prussia in 1701. He built a strong army. Frederic II came to the throne of Prussia in 1740. He believed in the idea “might make right”. His tax collectors were called war commissars, and all the members of his cabinet were called war ministers.
Austria
In the late 8th c, Austria came under the rule of Charlemagne, king of Germanic people called the franks. In the 10th c, tribes of Magyars overran Austria. But the king of Germany, Otto I, defeated them in 955.Austria came under his rule. In 962, the pope crowned Otto emperor of what later became known as the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1273, the princes of Germany elected Rudolf I, a member of the Hapsburg family of Switzerland, as holy Roman emperor.
In the 14th c, the Hapsburgs lost the Holy Roman crown. In 1359, the great grandson of Rudolf I Rudolf IV claimed the title of archduke of Austria.
Strong monarchs and hundred years war 1337-1453
Hundred years war extended over the reign of five English and five French kings who fought for control of France. The English loss of Normandy in France in 1204 developed as the basic Cause of the war.
In the fighting that followed, the English won most of the battles. But the French won the war. English resources in man power, supplies, and wealth were about a third as great as those of the French. Several events hindered the course of the war. These included peasant rebellion
Pillage in France by unemployed soldiers, the Black Death and peasant’s revolt in England in 1381.
The French continued to win battles. By 1453, England had lost all its territory on the continent of Europe except Calais. The French took Calais in 1558.
6.4 European expansion overseas factors encouraging overseas voyages
Exploration and discovery took place in a large scale in the 15th and 16th c because of the development of
More efficient sailing ships and
Availability of navigation instruments like the compass, the quadrant and astrolabe.
Prince Henry the navigator of Portugal (1394-1460) did much to encourage exploration. Let us now look at the principal voyages of exploration.
In 1497-98, Vasco da Gama sailed to India and back and “cape route” round Africa and a cross the Indian Ocean to the East was open.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian in the service of Spain, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the islands now called the West Indies. He did not know that the American continents were across his route. Other Spanish voyages soon confirmed that a new continent had been discovered.
In 1519-22, Magellan’s expedition first sailed round the world. But before complete his journey Magellan was killed in Philippines in 1521.
The Victoria, one of the five ships reached Spain on Sep. 6, 1522 nearly 3 years after the voyage had begun.
The Spanish and Portuguese led the voyages in the 15th and 16th c. the Dutch, the French and the English followed in the 17th c and 18th c. by about 1800, the coasts and oceans of the world were well known and had been accurately put on a maps.
European colonial empires in Asia (16 to the 18th c)
In the 15th and 16th c, no large colonial empires were established in the east that is India, china, Japan and south East Asia. Because Asian states were still strong to be conquered. Europeans, first the Portuguese and the Dutch, English and French came to trade.
The Portuguese established trading posts in Asia and during the 16th c controlled most of profitable Far East trade. The Portuguese managed to control Macao and Goa. The Dutch also controlled the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), while the English became a strong influence in India.
The British gained a strong foothold in India. Trading companies were responsible for the founding of British colonies. One was the British east India Company. In 1784, the east India Company was placed under control of the English government.
Portugal, Spain, Holland, France, English and in the new world
Portugal
In the new world, Portugal claimed Brazil as a result of cabral’s discovery. In 1500, a Portuguese captain named cabral set out from Portugal with 13 ships. But strong winds blew cabral’s fleet from the W. coast of Africa to the E, coast of the south American country called brazil. The cabral claimed brazil for Portugal.
Spain
One of the most important expeditions of Spain in the new world began in1519. That year, Hernando Cortes who commanded about 600 spainard armies marched to the azetic capital at Tenochtitlan (now Mexico). There the azetic and their emperor, Montezuma welcomed the strange white vistors as gods. But cortes took Montezuma captive and put the empire under his control. This led to the Spanish conquest of Central America and made Mexico one of Spain’s important bases in the new world.
Holland
The Dutch west India Company was founded in 1621 to trade in the new world and w. Africa. In 1624, the company colonized new Netherlands which consisted of parts of present day New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware.
France
French fur traders played a leading role in the exploration of North America. In 1603, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain followed the route up to St. Lawrence River and founded the city of Quebec as a fur-trading post in 1608.The French had some island in the West Indies and the headquarters were in Quebec.
England
The first permanent English settlement in N. America was founded at JamesTown Island in Virginia in 1607. Plymouth was the second English settlement in America. There were three major types of America colonies
Royal- under the direct control of the king
Proprietary- controlled by a prominent individuals agrant from the king.
Corporate- operated as arule or a chart or optained from the king by a company’s stock holders.
All the 13 English colonies were founded either as proprietary or corporate colonies. By the time of the American war of independence in 1775, however, eight of them had become royal colonies.
Large numbers of Europeans went to settle and live there permanently. The original indigenous populations were greatly reduced by disease. English colonies in the new world became populous, partly because England allowed religious minorities to settle there. By 1640 about 60,000English men had immigrated to the new world. The expansion of European influence also spread Christianity and W. ideas and they tried to force these native peoples to became Christians and to adopt European ways of life.
The most harmful effect was the growth of the slave trade. The economic policies followed by most European colonial countries in this period were called “mercantilism “the mercantilist believe that a country would be rich and strong if exported more than imported.
Unit Seven
The Ethiopian region and the horn of Africa up to 1529
7.1 “Restoration” of Solomonic dynasty and the Christian high land kingdom
The founder of the new dynasty was a local ruler in Amhara called yekuno Amlak. This dynasty which came to the power in 1270 called itself ‘’solomonic‘’ .yekuno Amlak and his followers used this dynastic name to justify their legitimacy by claiming that the Zagwe rulers were illegitimate.
To justify this they restored to the legend of Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. The agew were considered illegitimate rulers of Ethiopia since they do not trace their decent to minillik the 1st. yekunoamlak took political power in 1270; he tried to justify by establishing a genealogy that linked him to the family of minilik the 1st. through Dilnaod the last king of Axumite state. So, he said “I restored the lost power” and hence, the restoration of the Solomonic dynasty from about 1270 until the fall of the despotic hailesalessie 1st rule in 1974. All the Ethiopian kings who assumed [power over the central state, claimed descent from this family. This means that the Solomonic dynasty can be Stayed to have lasted for over 700 years.
However, the success of Yekuno Amlak was not simply based on legendry claims. His success had economic and military reasons. By using revenue from the trade, yekuno Amlak built an effective army by which he challenged the agew rule and defeated the last king of the Zagewe dynasty called YEKUNO AMLAK.
in 1285, the dynasty began to face internal political instability due to lack of succession to the throne.
All male descendants of yekunoamlak were detained at a royal prison at Ambagishen after he came to the throne. The passes and foothills of the mountain were guarded by royal warriors. This measure solved the problem of succession and facilitated the consolidation of the power of the Christian kingdoms of the medieval period.
But the rise of Amde Tshion from (1314-44) grandson of Yekuno Amlak began territorial expansion against the neighbouring state and people. Amde Tshion was the most expansionist king of the medieval period. In the early period of the Solomonic dynasty, the economy of the Kingdom mainly depended on agriculture which was dominated by mixed farming.
Trade also played a very important role during the medieval period.
Another development of the period was the further expansion of the Orthodox Church. At the time of Yekuno Amlak the church had been strongly established in;
Tegray
Wag
Lasta
Angot
Amhara
Subsequently, the church further expanded in to Shoa, Gojjam and around Lake Tana. A very important feature of the medieval period Christian kingdom was the consolidation of the feudal mode of production.
Officials administrative as well as military were given the right to collect tribute from the local people over whom they were appointed. This system was called gult system.
Gult was a right to leavy tribute on the owner of the rest. rest was hereditary right to land use by members of families.
Another main feature of medieval period was mobile nature of the royal court. There was no permanent capital city like Axum and Lalibela. Instead, the kings lived in roving or moving capitals due to lack of provision or supply for large number of camp followers and shortage of fire woods and to control rebellion in different region of the empire. In fact, some kings after the middle of the 15th century tried to stay at one region for many years. For instance, emperor Zere ya'ekob (1434-68) found the town of Debrebirhan in 1454
7.2 Muslim states in the Ethiopian region and the horn of Africa up to 1529
Islam was introduced to the region through two gates.
The Red Sea and Dahalak
The Gulf of Eden coasts(zeila)
The friendly reasons between Axum and the muslim arabs was later changed to rivalries over the red see trade between the two. As a result of existence of strong christean community in the highland regions of northern Ethiopia, Islam could not make successful penetration in to the interior of the region in that direction. Rather, limited on the red see costal territories of low land region.
The introduction of Islam in the region, together with trade, led to the establishment of a series of muslim sultanets or states along the zeila trade route in to the interior.
This sultanets shared many features in common, such as
Their population was made up of muslim communities
Their rulers exercised both religious and political powers
Islam and trade were the main factors for their emergency
Most of the sultanets were located in the south east lowlands of Ethiopian region .
Some of the communities practiced mixed farming. The economy of the sultanets was mainly depending on trade.
Beyond this common features however, each sultanets developed in its own peculiar way.
The sultanet of shoa
It was located north east half of the present day province by that name. It was the oldest Muslim state in Ethiopia. The 1st ruler of the sultanet came to the power in 897 AD.
The ruling dynasty of this sultanet was called makhzumite claimed from the makzumite clan of south Arabia. The rulers used the Muslim title called sultan
The Sultanet of Dahlak
Dahlak is a common name for a group of island in the red sea. The island is located not far from the port of metsewa.
The Arabs established their settlement on the Dahlak Island after they had attacked and destroyed adulis in 702. By then Islam had already firmly established in the islands and by 10thc. a prospereous sultanate of dahalak had emerged.
The sultanet of Ifat
The sultanet of ifat emerged in the mid 13th c, in the low lands of the shoan plateau. It was founded by a local muslim ruling family called wallesma.
Umar wallasma was the first ruller of sultanet and ifat attained military political prominence during his reign.
The sultanet of Hadeya
We don’t know when the sultanet came to the power. However, the sultanate is mentioned for the 1st time during the reign of AmdeTshion. At the time of the sultanet was one the of the tributaries of the christean kingedom. The economy of Hadeya mainly depends on mixed farming while some part of the population led pastoral life. Trade also contributes to the economy of the state and hadeya was the main source of slaves for the region.
The rulers had the title of garad.the doughter of a well known hadeya garad was married to emperor ZereYakobe and became Queen Elini.
The sultanate of Bale
Its ruler also used the title of garad. We don’t know when Bale emerged as a state. However, from the 14 c., the sultanet come under the control of AmdeTshion and since then the garad of bali paid tribute to the chiristean kingedom up to the 16th c.
The sultanet of sharka
The present territory of the arsi oromo made hart of the territory of sharka. We don’t know when the sultanet emerged as a state. By from 14th c onwards it existed as tributary to the christean kingdom up to the first quarter of 16th c when it was controlled by army of Imam Ahmed Ibrahim
The sultanet of dera
Dera was a very small sultanate located east of the awash river between the sultanets of dawero and bale. The christean kings used dera as a place of exile for unruly monks.
The sultanet of fatagar
It was emerged around the middle 13th c. located between lake zeway in the south and the present town of bishoftu(debreziet)in the north. The territory of fatagar included more or less the present district of shenkora, minjar, ad’a, in shoa.
The sultanet of arbabani
It was very little and the information which comes from arabs historian called al –umari.
Sultanet of adal
It was emerged at the end of 14th c. ifat and adal shared a common history. At one time or another both were ruled by the same dynasy called wallesma. Once ifat was concurred and become tributary of the christean kingedome, its ruling class begun to be drived in to two groups. The 1st group decided to recognize the authority of the Christian kingdom over the ifat. The second group, the militant wing, however, opposed this christean domination and determined to regain the lost independent of ifat. Therefore, this militant group established a new base by reatreating further the south east low lands of Harer were they founded the sultanet of adal around 1380.
Omotic states in Ethiopian region and the horn of Africa up to 1529
The kingdom of damot
It roughly occupied the western and s.w part of the Ethiopian region. We don’t know when the kingdom of damot came in to existence. However, the history goes back to the axumite period. At that time damat was known for its gold which reached the market of Axum and part of the red sea coast.
Among the kings of damot, motolomi is constantly mentioned in the records of the period and damat attained the peack of its power during the reign of this king. One indication to this is fierce struggle between motolomi and yekunoamlak over the control of shoa. In the struggle motolomi was finally defeated. After this defeat motolomi was converted to christinity and damot became the tributary of christean kingedom and continued to exist up to the time of the expansion of mecha oromo towards the end of the 16th c.
The kingdom of keffa
The medival kingedom of keffa was located south of the Gojebriver. We don’t know exactly when the kingedom came in to existence. However, there is evidence which indicates the rise of the kingdom in the 14th c
The people of keffa called themselves kefficho. They trace their origion to the people called minjo. This original people of keffa is considered as a royal clan from wich the kings of keffa were descended. The king had absolute power and assisted by a counscle of seven called mikerecho. The economy of keffa was depend on trade and agriculture. With strong internal political organ defence and economy of keffa survived as an independent state until it was incorporated by minilik II.
The kingdom of enarya
Enarya was located immediately to the north of gojeb river and west Gibe river. We don’t know when this state came in to existence but it is mentioned for the first time in the document of christean kings towards the end of axumit period.
Pure gold from enarya was exported to the country as far as Egypt Greece and Rome. Enarya resisted the mecha oromo for more than a century finally it was defeated by one of the clan of mecha called zimmu. Finally the conqueror renamed it as limu enarya.
The kingdome of bizamo
It existed on the southern of bend of the abay river just opposite to the present district of wambarma in Southern gojjam. It existed until the end of the 16th c. under the control of the christean kingdom.
The bizamo consisted the speaker of the omotic language family and the present day of shinasha.
The kingdom of wellayta
It was located south of hadya. It may have drived its origin from the ancient damot. During the reign of AmdeTshion, walleyta became the tributary of christean kingdom and paied tribute in horses to king Yesaq. In the 16th c. walleyta was invaded by imam ahmed Ibrahim but did not fall under Muslim control.
The kings of walleyata used the title of kawo.
The kingdom was successively ruled by 3 dynasties. 1st come to power towards the end of the end of the zagwe period.the founder was motolomi.2nd one came from kucha ruled walleyata until1550. The3rd one extended its influence among people living in the omo river like Gamo, Kucha, Boroda and Dawero. And ruled walleyeta until 19th c when the kingdom was made part of the territory of Ethiopia.
The kingdom of yem
It existed between the Gibe River and the upper course of omo river. The first king was belonged to a dynasty called Halmam Gama later this dynasty overthrown by a clan called mowa. The economy was mainly depended on agriculture additionally trade.
Hegemony of the Christian kingdom in the Ethiopian region and the horn of Africa up to 1529.
From 1270-1529 the kingdom was in constant war particularly with Muslim sultanates over the control of the long distance trade.
The war was initiated by AmdeTshion. He was the most expansionists and his first military company directed against damot, felasha and gojjam in 1316 and 1317. The struggle continued during the time of the next sultan called Saddin who waged a gorilla type resistance. He escaped from the battle field but he was pursued and killed in zeila in 1403.
For the next 30 years the kingdom did not face any challenge from adal. The power of adal was weakend and the sultans were exiled to Arabia. They returned from exile and sultanate again revived under ahemed badly one of the most powerful sultan of adal.
King yishaq(1413-30), marched to adal to finish of this Muslim resistance. But he lost his life in 1430. Unfortunately ahmed badly faced an equally powerful Christian king Zere Yakob(1434-68). Badly also gained the support of mahigo, the garad of hadeya but finally ZeraYakobe defeated the army of adal in 1445. Sultan badly and mahigo were killed at the battle.
The dominance of the Christian kingdom begun to decline during the last quarter of the 15 c. during the the reign of beademariam 1468-78 the successor of zereyakobe was not powerful enough to push back the mounting pressure and faced series defeat. This led to the establishment of the Muslim hegemony in Ethiopia and the horn of Africa in 1529
UNIT- EIGHT
8.1 PORTUGUES AND OTTOMAN TURKISH RIVALRIES AND THE HORN OF AFRICA
After Vasco da game’s voyage the Portuguese launched a huge naval expedition to the red sea and the Indian ocean .They set up a series of posts along the coasts of Indian the Persian gulf, Arabia& East Africa .They also blockaded the Red sea and diverted the trade to the new sea route around the continent of Africa .Above all, the Portuguese dominance in the Indian ocean undermined the economic and political interest of the ottoman Turks. Thus,the Turks immediately challenged the Portuguese .In 1517;the Turks defeated Egyptian mumluks and used Egypt as a base from where they attacked the Portuguese naval base in the red sea &the Indian Ocean.
As stated earlier, the late 15thc was marked by the decline of the Christian kingdom and the growth of threat from the sultanate of Adal. As a result, the Christian kings were in need of the Military help of their European Christian counter parts against the Muslim threat.
Therefore, Queen Elleni, the wife of Zara Yacob sent a mission to Portugal in 1512. In 1520, the Portuguese government sent an official diplomatic mission to the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. But this mission stayed for six years & left Ethiopia in 1526 on the eve of the wars of Imam Ahmed without concluding any agreement with King Lebne Dengel (1508-40) .The king ignored the mission B/c of his military victory over the forces of Emir Mahfuz who was killed in 1517. Yet, both countries were eager for military alliance.
Thus, the military conflict Between the Christian kingdom & the sultanate of Adal had led to the intervention of Portugal & ottoman Turkey.
8.2 CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE SULTANATE OF ADAL & THE HIGHLAND CHRISTIAN KINGDOM
After Zara Yacob’s victory over the army of Ahmed Badley of Adal in 1445 , the sultanate of Adal was reduced to a tributary status. However, ZaraYacob’s successors were not strong enough to maintain their hegemony over Adal.
After the death of Mahfuz by Lebne Dengel in 1517 various Emirs fought against one another for power. But, finally the leadership of the Muslim sultanate of Adal passed to a powerful Imam called Ahmed IbnIbrahim (Ahmed Gragn ). He fought a major battle with the Christian army led by Lebne Dengel in 1529 at a place called Shimbra Qure , near Mojjo . At this battle Lebne Dengel and his army suffered a crushing defeat.
Since 1529 battle of Shimbra Qure , Lebne Dengel had lived as a fugitive .However,he remained optimistic about defeating Imam one day decide to took the Portuguese for military assistance.
In 1535 Lebne dengel sent Bermudez to Europe with letters addressing to the Pope of Rome and the king Portugal.In 1541, Bermudez arrived with 400 soldiers led by Christopher Dagama, son of Vasco Dagama. Lebne dengel did not live to see the arrival of the Portuguese military assistance. He died in 1540 in the monasteries of Debre Damo in Tigray and was succeeded by Gelawudios ( r,1540-59).
The decisive battle was fought in 1543 at the place called Woina Dega near lake Tana.The Imam was shoot by one of the Portuguese soldiers. The Imam died and his army retreated to Adal.However, ultimately, the war weakened both sides of an immense wealth human and in material.
8.3 Oromo Population Movement
The Oromo are one of the indigenous and oldest people of Ethiopia and the Horn and they belong to Cushitic –speaking groups of people.
According to Oromo oral traditions the original home land of the Oromo people is the high lands of the present day of Bale and Sidamo provinces. The ritual and political centers, more specifically known as Madda Welabu.
The Oromo were organized in to two separate confederacies called Borena and Barentu.The Borena confederacies consisted of the
Mecha Tulama
Guji and
Southern Borena Clans
While the Barentu consisted of
Karayu
Ittu
Akachu
Marawa
Humbana and Warantisha
Religion: Before their conversion in to Islam and Christianity, the Oromo worshiped their own traditional religion called Waqa, which refers to both the sky, and skygod. The power of Waqa is manifested through the sprit called Ayana.The spiritual leader known as Qallu.
The Qallu was also called Abba Muda i.e. father of anointment .He got these name from the ceremony named Muda. This ceremony was celebrated ones every eight years in honor of Qallu in the ceremony, The Qallu gave his blessing and anointed the Gada officialswho governed the Oromo for eight years. Thus, The Muda ceremony was the point at which the gada system and the Qallu institution intersected
The Gada System
In their long history of egalitarian culture the Oromo developed a democratic socio political Structure known as Gada system.
The five commonly used party/group names used in the Gada system are
Birmaji 3. Bichile 5. Robale
Horata 4,Duulo and
The Grade or Eight Years periods are
Grade
Numbers of year
Age of Individuals
Iti-mako
0-8
8-16
Daballe
8-16
16-24
Folle
16-24
24-32
Qondala
24-32
32-40
Luba
32-40
40-48
Among the officials, the highest authority was vested up on the Abaa Bokku or Abba Gada.Others officials such as Abba Sera chief of Judge and Abba Dula commander of the army.
Different external and internal factors contributed to the decline of Gada system.
These were frequent wars during the migration that led to the emergence of powerful war leaders/Abba dulas who gradually emerged as Motis (Kings).
The development of long distance trade, the introduction Islam. The influence of the hierarchical system of the Ethiopian Empire.
Cause and direction of the Oromo movement
The main cause for the movement of the Oromo was population pressure and the conflict between the Christian kingdom and Muslim state accelerated their free movement in the region.
As a result between 1550 and 1580 there was rapid Oromo Population movement in to the east, south east, west, south and north region of Ethiopia. The Oromo also moved to the present day of Kenya and Somalia.
There are two important reasons for the success of the Oromo population movement.
Oromo socio –political military organization gave the superiority in military tactics
The civil war war between the Christian and Muslim sultanate of Adal contributed a lot for success of the Oromo population movement.
Consequence of Oromo Population Movement
The movement brought the Oromo into contact with various peoples of the Ethiopian region
The Christian kingdom was restricted to north of River Abbay and the Sultanate of Adal also reduced to a city state the surrounded by the wall of Harar.
The kingdom of Kafa and Wolayita had survived mainly because of their heroic resistance and sacrifices. But the others like Damot, Gafat, Bizamo, Bali, Hadiya.Ifat, Dawaro and Fatagar were completely destroyed.
UNIT-NINE
The Ethiopian Christian highland kingdom(1543-1855)
9.1 attempts to consolidate and shift the political central of the highland Christian kingdom
The raids from Adal, the Oromo population movement, and the encroachments of the Ottoman Turks on the red sea coast became the major threat of the Christian kingdom in the 2nd half of the 16thc. As a result the three Christian kings who ruled the 2nd half of 16thc completed their reigns in a continous struggle to tackle these problems. Among the three kings, Gelawdewos was the first to confront the raids of adal and the Oromo incursions.
Meanwhile, in 1559 gelawdewos led his army to fight against adal. The army of adal led by emir nur mujahid, scored a sparking victory over the Christian army. Gelawdewoshimself was taken to harar as a war trophy.
After the death of Gelawdewos, nur Mujahid did not pursue their victory over the Christian forces and reconquor the kingdom. Rather they returned to harar in order to defend the sultanate from Oromo forces. However, the Oromo forces on their way back to harar defeated emir nur and they were not able to save the sultanate from Oromo attack. With that, the sultanate was reducing to the walled city of Harar, which was built by Emir Nur to check the Oromo assault.
The Oromo got a free hand over the powerful Christian army called janamora which was defeated and driven out of fatagar. Then fatagar became a new base from where the oromo launched their attacks on the Christian kingdom and the neighbouring provinces.
Gelawdewos was succeeded by his brother minas. Minas decided to shift the center of the kingdom from shewa to the north of Abbay River. His decision was influenced by the fear that the army of nur would follow up its victory and take over the Christian kingdom like ahmed ibn Ibrahim, on the basis of this calculation, minas moved his center across the abbay to eastern gojjam to a place called mengistesemayat.
The successor of minas was his son Sarsa Dingil who came to power at the age of thirteen. The first years of his reign were marked by political instability that was coused by the rebellion of old generals like Hamelmal and Fasilo rebelled against the king.
The attention of Sarsa Dingil shifted towards another problem. This was the encroachment of the ottoman Turks on the northern kingdom. From this base they advanced into the interior and occupied the highland village of Dabarwa, the capital of the coastal areas which is ruled by Yeshaq who had the title of Bahre Negash.
Sarsadingil’s brother, Fasil was stationed with his large army in waj. Unfortunately, fasil and his army perished in a devastating attack of the Jawi Oromos in 1588. Sarsadingil wanted to avenge the death of fasil and the destruction of his army. But he was unable due to shortage of provisions in the territories and many of the Christian troops perished from hunger and disease.
In 1597 sarsadingil became ill and died in the district of shat .up on the death of sarsadingil the Christian kingdom once again fell into political disorder and bloody civil wars, because the old generals wanted to put their own candidates on the throne. From 1597 to 1601, ya’igob, Zadingil and Suseniyos were enthroned and dethroned one after another. Finally, suseniyos succeeded in securing the Oromo warriors when he stayed during his exile for more than two decades.
9.2 Catholicization and civil wars
As stated earlier, the Portuguese military help came in 1541 and played a decisive role in ending the Muslim hegemony in Christian kingdom. However, the Portuguese soldiers did not with draw from Ethiopia. Rather they stayed in the country and invited the catholic missionaries, known as the Jesuits.
The attempt at conversion began as soon as the Portuguese soldiers entered the Christian kingdom in 1541. Bermudez began to try to force Gelawdewos to fulfill the alleged promises of his father and he required the emperor to convert to Catholicism and recognize his position as a pathriarec of the kingdom. But gelawdewos rejected the request of Bermudez. The official appointment of patriarchs and bishops for the Christian kingdom began after the retirement of Bermudez. The appointees were selected from the society of Jesus or the Jesuits. But king john 3rd 0f Portugal thought that gelawdewos wanted to be converted to Catholicism. Therefore, the king and the pope, decided to send one patriaric and two bishops who were selected from the Jesuits. When gelawdewos heard about his conversion he wrote a letter of objection to the Portuguese governor of India. The governor sent a young Jesuit priest called Rodriguez to convince the king to accept the patriarch and became a catholic. However, Gelawdewos rejected the demand for his conversion and Rodriguez returned to goa.
The recruited patriarch and bishops decided to go to Christian kingdom and asked the governor opposed the idea of using force and instead sent again a bishop called André deOviedo to try to convince gelawdewos .the bishop arrived at the court of gelawdewos in 1557 and followed the king from one campaign to another trying to convince the king. Indeed the king wrote a book called confessions of gelawdewos, in which he defended the practices of the orthodox faith of his kingdom against the criticism of the catholic priests. As a result, Oviedo retaliated by isolating the Portuguese army from gelawdewos. Then gelawdewos faced the army of adal with out the help of Portuguese army who defeated and killed in 1559.
After the death of gelawdewos, Oviedo moved with the Portuguese army to the province of tigray where he joined bahre negash yeshaq, the leader of opposition forces against king minas. Oviedo assured yeshaq that Portuguese military assistance would came soon to depose minas and appoint a puppet king of their own choice. Yeshaq and his followers agreed to be converted when the said military assistance arrive.
But, Oviedo’s promise was not fulfilled and he himself died in 1597 without any success in his mission. After the death of Oviedo, two other bishops, Pedro paez and alfonso mendez were successively ordained for the Christian kingdom. paez was particularly successful in converting many influential dignatories of the kingdom including king susniyos.
Zadingil had already been suspected of being secretly converted, and consequentiy, he faced strong opposition from the Orthodox Church. In the civil war Zadingil was killed in 1604 and Ya’iqob was again put on the throne. Paez continued the same dealing but ya’iqob was killed in battle in 1607.
Ya’iqob was succeeded by susniyos just like his immediate predecessors; susniyos leaned towards Catholicism in order to get Portuguese military assistance to maintain a strong and peaceful monarchy. So the Jesuits got freedom to preach and recruit converts even in the court itself. But susniyos was not the first being converted to Catholicism. The first important convert was his brother the old powerful genral, siile kirstos who was robotized publicly in 1611. Susniyos himself was officially converted to Catholicism in public and made Catholicism the official state religion in 1622. So, both the peasantry and the clergy joined in rebellion against susniyos to defend their religion from falling to Catholicism.
Eventually, susniyos understand that his country lead in to a bloody civil war. so after so after his last battle of Denqez in 1632, he abdicated the throne in favour of his son, fasiledes, whose first measure was the restoration of the orthodox church to its traditional position.
In the reaction many catholic converts were killed. The first victim was si’ilekirstos who was publicly hanged. On the other hand the catholic missionaries were not harmed, b/c fasiledes feared Portuguese interference. Instead, fasilides ordered the expulsion of the Jesuit missionaries from the country and adopted close-door policy which isolated the kingdom from the Christian Europeans for about two centuries. During this long Europeans succeeded in reaching the Christian court named French physician Jacques poncet and the Scottish traveler, James Bruce who came to discover the source of Blue Nile.
9.3 The Gondar period (1636-1769)
After 1270 ad the Christian kings ruled the provinces from a mobile court. They did not have permanent capitals. But during the reign of fasiledes (1632-1667) the kingdom regained a permanent capital city at Gondar in 1636. Gondar became the political, economic and cultural center of the kingdom for almost two centuries. The period b/n 1636 and 1769 is commonly known as the Gondarine period.
Magnificent castles and palaces for kings, residences for the abun and echegge as well as churches were built. The arctectectural styles of the buildings contain many elements from the aksumite and the Zagwe periods.
Gonder also became the center of an active trade. One of the routes continued to reach massaula on the red sea and the other proceeded westward to Metema on the sudan border.
Gondar experienced a period of glory and splendor only during the reign of its first three kings. These were;
Fasilides (r.1632-67)
Yohannis I (r. 1667-82)
Iyasu I (r. 1682-1706)
Among the kings of the gondarine period, the most powerful king was the successor of yohannis I, Iyasu I also nick-named Iyasu the great. The nick-name was given to him b/c he;
Was the lost powerful Christian king before the kingdom fell into a period of political disorder
Since the establishment of Gondar, no Christian king across the abbay to regain the former provinces of the kingdom. But iyasu companied to shewa.
During his reign a traditional civil code, the fitha negest, was revised land laws were amended. Taxes and customs were also recognized and the king strengthened his r/n with Egypt.
The close-door policy w/c was introduced during the reign of fasiledes was also violated by iyasu I .as the king suffered from a skin disease, he invited a French physician, Jacques poncet who cured him.
In the face of a mounting opposition, iyasu had no alternatives but fled to an island in Lake Tana where he pursued by assassins who murdered him. Up on his death his son, Tekle Haimanot, took the throne.
The death of Iyasu I unshered in a period of political upheaval, murder and assassination of the kings became common. The reign of Bakafa 1721-30 was relatively peaceful than of his predecessors. During his reign, the kingdom enjoyed a short period of political stability. Bakafa was succeeded by his young son, Iyasu II “Iyasu” the little r1730-55. He was made king under the regency of his mother, Etege Mintiwab, who came from Quara and prominent woman in the politics of the Christian kingdom after Queen Eileni. She brought her brother Welde Leul to the court of Gondar and appointed him as Ras Bitwoded. Using his support and her kinsmen, they concentrated full power in her own hands and exercised a strong political power.
However, she faced strong opposition from the lords of other provinces particularly from Wollo Oromo.
Bakafa had good relations with the wollo Oromo chief called Amizo and Iyasu extended his relation by marring the dauther of amizo called Wabi who was baptized as Bersabeh. This event marked the active involvement of the wollo Oromo in the politics of the Christian kingdom.
The successor of iyasu ii was his son iyoas r 1755-1769, who was born from bersabeh. The growing threat from the amhara chiefs to his power forced the young king to depend more and more on the support of his Oromo cousins, two powerful brothers of bersabeh, I.e, Lubo and Birile who arrived to Gondar with 3000 cavalrymen. Thus, the influence of the wollo oromo in the politics of Gondar grew strong &for the first time Oromo language frequently spoken in the Christian court.
After the death of ras bitweded welde luel in 1767 a struggle for power b/n the relatives of mentwab and those of bersabeh grew tense.
Finally, to resolve the problem and to maintain her position Mentewab invited the powerful Tigrean lord, Ras Michael Sehul to become the guardian of the king. Rasmicheal arrived in Gondar in 1768 with large tigrean forces and suppressed the opposition. Unfortunately, in the intrigue that ras Michael murdered king iyoas in 1769 and put on the throne a seventy year old men, yohannis II. This event marked the beginning of the Zemene Mesafint.
9.4 The Zemene Mesafint
The Zemene Mesafint is a period in the history of Ethiopian which raghly started with the death of Eyoas in 1769 and lasted until 1855. It was a period characterized by the collapse of central authority of monarchy and the growth of the power of the regional lords. It was a period when Ethiopia was divided within itself in to several regions with no effective central authority.
The main aim of the struggle among the leading regional lords was to secure the title of Ras Bitwoded or Ras of the kingdom. Moreover, the struggle was further aggravated by religious doctrinal disputes within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The first regional lord who holds the position of rasbitwoded after the death of rasweldeleul was Ras Michael Sehul of Tigray. However, after his downfall the position was monopolized by the yejju Oromo who established the yejju or warasheh daynasty in 1786. The first yejju oromo lord who became rasbitwoded and founded the dynasty was Ali Gwangul also known as Ali the Great (Ali I) The Zemene Mesafint had far-reaching consequences in the country. It mainly affected the life of peasantry.
On the whole, the wars of Zemene Mesafint caused decline in agricultural production, stagnation of trade and the collapse of handicrafts which impoverished the region. This also seriously undermined nationalism. All this were responsible for the subsequent backwardness of the country.
The period of zemene mesafint came to an end in 1855 with the rise of Kasa Hailu. Dej.Kasa defeated the powerful regional lords in four major battles.
At the battle of Guramba in 1852 he defeated dej. Goshu zewde of gojjam.
Four vassals of Ras Ali II fell at the battle of Gorgora Bichen.
Ras Ali himself, the then Ras Bitwoded who was defeated at the battle of Ayshal in 1853.
The last powerful regional lord Dej. Wube of Tigray and Simen was defeated at the battle of Deresge in 1855.
Kassa was later crowned as king of kings by the name of Tewodros II (r 1855-1868). Thus, his rise to power marked the end of the Zemene mesafint.
UNIT TEN
10.1, China and Japan in the 16th and 17th
■ China
After the reunification of china under the Han dynasty (221 BC-206 AD) there was much continuity in Chinese history and civilization. The Chinese officials were educated and cultured men but very conservative in outlook. The Chinese considered those who lived outside their Empire as “barbarians.”
□ The Ming dynasty
Under the Ming dynasty Chinese culture in painting, pottery and poetry reached high levels. In the 15thc, from a mixture of political and other motives, the Ming government adopted grate voyages and exploration as for as East Africa. However these voyages were stopped due to the conservation Ming officials believe that there was no advantage of interest in pursuing contacts with other civilizations. The Ming Dynasty declined in the 16thc and overthrown in the 17thc by internal peasant revolt and external attack from the Manchu state in the North.
□ The ching dynasty
The ching dynasty was a foreign, non-Chinese dynasty from Manchuria. Manchuria is now part of china but in the past it was outside the Chinese Empire. The Manchu people were not ethnically Chinese and they had their own language.
In the 16thc a strong Manchu state appeared in Manchuria, copying Chinese method of administration. In 1644, the Manchus took the Chinese capital Beijing and the Manchu ruler become emperor of china in this way china and Manchuria were brought under the same rule.
■ Japan
Japan had an emperor but from the 12thc onwards government power was in the hands of the army commander called the Shogun.
Japan developed of a feudal society like that of medieval Europe. Around 1489 Japan entered a long period of civil war between feudal lords. The great feudal lords were called daimyos.
The feudal warriors were the samurai. The daimyos ruled their lands called Han. The daimyos taught against each other for power, with their own armies of samurai. The Tokugawa daimyo family was finally successful in the power struggle. The head of the Tokgaula family, leyasu defeated his rivals, made himself shogun in 1603 and pacified and reunited Japan. He established what is known as the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1863) b/c in this period each succeeding shogun was from the Tokugaula family.
At the top of Japan’s feudal society was the federal ruling class, the shogun himself, the daimyos and the Samurai. The common people were the merchants,, craftsmen and the great mass of the population, the peasants.
Following the “discoveries” Europeans reached Japan in the 15th c to make trade. Also catholic missionaries came to Japan and had much success in Japan. By 1615 half million Japanese converted.
The English Revolution
Background
In 1603, the lost ruler of the English Tudor dynasty, Queen Elizabeth I(r, 1558-1603), died unmarried. She was succeeded by her nearest relative, James VI king of Scotland, who became also James I king of England and Ireland and the first king of England of the Scottish Stuart dynasty.
Serious conflict b/n the king and parliament began in the reign of Charles I(r.1625-1649) and Co-operation b/n the king and the ruling class began to break down over the issue of foreign policy, then money and religion. Charles, like other European kings faced financial problems and he collected money without parliament’s approval, he did not call the parliament from 1629-1940. For about 11 years Charles ruled without parliament and continued to collect money in what people believed to be illegal ways. He was ruling like an absolute monarch.
Beginning of the Revolution
In 1637, without consulting the scots, Charles imposed the Churchof England prayer Book for church services in Scotland. Then the scots rebelled. Hoping to obtain money to suppress the rebellion in Scotland, Charles called a meeting of the English parliament. However, parliament refused to approve any taxation and the king quickly dissolved what was called the short parliament b/c its meeting was so brief.
The king could not avoid calling the English parliament again. It met in Nov. 1640 and became known as the long parliament b/c it met from 1640-1653.
Civil war became unavoidable when the king attempted to arrest five leading members of the parliamentary opposition. Then parliament town the war by raising a new centralized force called the new model Army under the command of two able generals, Thomas Fair fox and OliverCromwell.
Then, in 1648, came the second civil war. This was an invasion of England by a Scottish army. One political group of scots had reached an agreement with Charles and sent an army to support him. However, the new model army quickly defeated the scots and the English royalists. The member of the House of Commons who remained were called “ramp” and the army staged a show trial of the king and Charles I was publicly beheaded in 1649. England was declared a Republic, called the common wealth. It was not in any way a democratic state.
Cromwell himself now ruled England, Scotland and Ireland by conquest until his death in 1658. After the death of Cromwell the problem was what form of government should England have? Restoration of monarchy was more acceptable to more people than any other possible political solution. Then in 1660 Charles’s eldest son entered London and began to rule as Charles II.
This event is known as the Restoration. Charles had no legitimate children when he died his brother become king as James II (r.1685-1688). However, people began to suspect that James intended to undermine the Church of England and make England Catholic and he was trying to establish an absolute monarchy like Louis XIV’s in France, which was the absolute model for other European kings.
Then a small group of ruling class conspirators secretly invited William of Orange the protestant leader of the Dutch Republic and Mary’s (James’s protestant doughter) hasband to come to England with an army. James fled to France. William becomes king as William III (r.1688-1702). This was what becomes known as the “Glorious Revolution” because it preserved continuation and succeeded without bloodshed.
Parliamentary supremacy and the bill of rights
In 1689, when king William III and queen Mary become joint rulers of England, parliament presented to them a declaration that become known as the Bill Of Rights. It assured the people certain basic civil rights. It stands with Magana carta and the petition of rights at the legal guarantees of English liberty.
The Bill Of Rights also settled succession to the throne. It also made it illegal for the king to keep a standing army, to levy taxes without parliament’s approval, or to be a Roman Catholic.
10.3, the Enlightenment
The enlightenment was 18thc intellectual movement in Europe and colonial North America. The center of the enlightenment was France b/c France had become the intellectual and cultural center of Europe and even Latin had become the common language of upper class in France.
One of the most influential figures of enlightenment was John Locke (1632-1704) an English philosopher. Locke believed that progress was certain if men would use their minds and follow-up reason. According to his theory, men possessed certain natural rights like the right to life, liberty and property. This had been done by means of agreement which he called a social contract b/c the people the government. If a government did not protect their natural rights, Locke said, the people had the right to establish new government. Most of the enlightenment thought, were the French philosophy b/c they were journalist and propagandist as much as true philosophers. Such as
Montesquieu
Diderot
Rousseau and
Voltaire
Were some of the philosophers. The enlightenment thinkers had great confidence in the power of human reason to lead correct principles and conclusions in all fields. Reason simply means human intelligence properly and consistently used, without bias and prejudice. The enlightenment thinkers all condemned a religious persecution and intolerance.
10.4, The American war of independence
The 13 British plantation colonies in North America, which become the independent state of USA, extended from Canada in the North to Florida in the South and Atlantic Ocean inland to the Appalachian Mountains.
The 13 colonies were under the authority of British government and British parliament, which could impose laws on the colonies. However, various laws adopted by the British angered the colonists.
The king declared the land beyond the Appalachians including the great lakes region, close to the colonists.
The British parliament introduced and enforcesd laws that restricted trade b/n the colonists and other countries.
Parliament also approved a stamp act.
Parliaments passed a lot of provide housing for troops that were sent to defend the colonies.
In 1773, citizens of Boston dumped in to theBoston harbor the British cargoes of tea which they were expected to pay duty. This event is called as the Boston tea party. American merchants also agreed not to buy English goods.
In 1776 the 13 colonies adopted democratic document called the declaration of independency. By Thomas Jefferson. The declaration proclaimed that the 13 British colonies were now independent and become the United States of America (USA).
Britain did not accept the declaration and continued the war to end the “colonial rebillion.” From 1776-1783, the patriots waged a bitter struggle against British armies ad navy.
However, three factors contributed to the final success of the patriots.
Geographic advantage
The role of Washington
French aid
Finally, in 1787 a group of men satuered in Philadelphia for an important meeting. The result was the constitution of the United States.
10.5, the French Revolution
The period from the middle of the 17thc-1789 in France was called the Old Regime which was absolute monarchy with no constitution. Within the old regime Franc was still divided in to three estates meaning social groups.
The 1st estate was the catholic clergy
The 2nd estate was the nobility and
The 3rd estate constituted the bourgeois, petty bourgeois, wage workers and peasants.
The 1st and the 2nd estate had more privileged than the 3rd estate. In particular, the clergy and the nobility paid less tax than the 3rd estate. Within the 3rd estate, the peasants were the most oppressed of all.
The immediate Couse of the revolution was France’s participation in the American war of independence. The war led to revolution in two ways.
Officers who had served in America returned to France with full of ideas about liberty. France people also wondered why the France should help to liberate Americans, yet still live under despotism themselves.
The war was very expensive and resulted in financial crisis for the government of France.
Then, the gov’t was forced to announce a meeting of the state’s general. The state’s general was the national representative’s assembly of France. It consisted of representatives elected by the three estates.
The French economy had been in depression since 1770’s, by very bad harvest, caused by the bad weather. Food was scarce, price roce and there was high unemployment. Added to all this, king, Louis XVI (r.1774-1792), was week and incompetent and his wife, Marie Antoinette was very unpopular and criticized for her extravagant spending. She was disliked too, b/c she was a foreigner, Austrian princes.
The 3rd estate passed a resolution, which declared since they are represented 90%of French people; they alone were competent to make a constitution. They declared themselves a lone to be a national assembly of the French nation. The members of the national assembly then took an oath that they would not end the meeting of the national assembly until they had given France proper constitution. This event is called the Tennis court oath b/c the oath was made in indoor tennis court on June 20, 1789.
In 1789, the people captured the battle the royal prison, fortress and arsenal in the middle of pairs. The events of July and august 1789 ended the old regime in France. The national assembly took authority to create new social and political conditions in France. It did this by writing a constitution and decreeing a number of reforms.
The national assembly abolished special privileges i.e. payment of feudal dues by the peasant’s payment of church tithes, tax exemptions of the privileged class, all distinction, and guide restrictions on trade and manufacturing. To cope with the financial crisis, the national assembly nationalized all the land belonging to the catholic church and sold it to the members of the bourgeoisie, some nobles and rich peasants who had financial capacity to buy the land.
A mass demonstration in pairs in favor of a republic was suppressed by the bourgeoisie security force called the National Guard. In 1791 the new constitution had been completed. It made France a constitutional monarchy. However, the constitution contradicted the principles of the declaration of the right of man and the citizen declared in 1789.
The new constitution gave full political rights of voting and being elected only to “active citizen” who had enough property. Others were called“passive citizen” and did not have full political rights.
The national assembly arranged elections under the new constitution for a new legislative assembly in 1791.
The new constitution did not loot long as France soon entered war that made the revolution extreme. The monarchies of Europe disliked the revolution wanted to crush it. Thus legislative assembly dissolved itself for new assembly called the convention. The task of the convention was the right a new constitution the convention declared that France a republic .the ex-king Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoninette was executed inpublic by the guillotine in 1793.
The two rival political parties in the convention ware the Jacobins and the Jirondins. The Jacobins represented the middle and petty bourgeoisie whereas the girondins that of the big bourgeoisie. The real difference between the Jacobins and girondins was that the Jacobins were willing to go to more radical extremes to save France and the revolution. The chief Jacobin leaders and theorist was Maximillian Robespierre the Jacobin ruled France through a 12 man committee of public safety.
However the Jacobin also lost support among the people of paris by their suppression of popular democracy at the local level. Then in 1794 the convention voted the arrest of Robespierre and other Jacobin leaders and sent them to guillotine.
The convention voted a new constitution in 1795. This constitution restricted political rights even more than the 1791 constitution had done. The 1795 constitution established a regime called the Directory. However, the regime was corrupt, weak and unpopular. Finally, in 1799 the ambitions, popular and successful general over throw the directory in a military coup and took power. This general was Napoleon Bonaparte.
■ Significance of the French revolution
The French revolution brought about great changes in the society and government of France. It introduced democratic ideas to France and proclaimed individuals democratic rights in its slogan liberty, equality and fraternity. The Marseillaise, apatriotic song by Rouget de Lisle was adopted as the national anthem and July 14 the Bastille Day was proclaimed as a national holiday.
■ The Napoleonic Era (1799-1815) and its consequences
Napoleon was born on aug.15, 1769, in Ajaccio o the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea, from members of the noble Italian families. He had received his education in military school and had become a second lieutenant in the France army at the age of 16.
In 1799, Napoleon overthrew the directory and proclaimed a new constitution for France. Then Napoleon to be the first consul and two other consuls were to aid him as advisors. In 1804, Napoleon left his title of first consul of France and become Emperor of the French.
By 1810, the French Empire extended to include
Belgium
Holland
Poland
W.Germany
N.W Italy
Switzerland
Part of now Yugoslavia
Spain
Confederation of the Rhine
All were the French Emperors control. To help in the control of Europe, Napoleon had given throne to his relatives and favorite generals. But Great Britain remained undefeated. This was due to its island position and to its command of the seas.
In 1812, Napoleon made the mistake of invading Moscow. But he had failed to know about two things
The spirit of the Russian people and
The cold of the Russian winter
The Russians cut off supplies of food, destroyed road and bridges and captured strugglers. In 1813, in the battle of nations near Leipzig in Germany, Napoleon suffered a disastrous defeat. He was driven back to France and finally forced to surrender.
In 1814, the victories allies sent Napoleon into exile on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea. They restored the monarchy; put Louis XVIII brother of the guillotined king on the throne of France. However, Napoleon had escaped from Elba and ruled France again for 100 days. In 1815, Napoleon’s enemies united in a last campaign at Waterloo and defeated Napoleon.Then Napoleon exiled to the island of St.Helena in the S.Atlantic and he died a few years later at the age of 52.
The following are same achievements of Napoleon in France like
He set up a centralized efficient gov’t for France. Taxes were collected properly. Roads, canals and bridges were built which helped to unite France.
Napoleon appointed lawyers to organize French law in to a uniform code for all France later named the code of Napoleon.
Napoleon set up a whole system of public schools. Elementary up to universities all under the supervision of the central gov’t.
10.7, The Industrial revolution
Industrial revolution first appeared in England in the late 1750. Becouse England had
Fine sea ports that lay close to the harbors and market on Europe’s mainland
Great coal mines and ample supplies of iron ore.
The term Industrial revolution means the use of machines in place of work labor. Work previously done by hand with simple tools now done by machines.
The first engines were invented by Savry (1698) and Newcomer (c.1705-1711). James watt (1782-84) improved the steam engine and adapted for operating all kinds of machinery.
Steam power was applied to land transport in the form of Railways. George Stephenson and his son Robert did not invent the steam locomotive but they made big improvements to steam locomotive technology. The first Railways were the Stockton and Darlington (1825) and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (1830).
The Development of socialist thought and Action
During the early 19th c, several writers and reformers criticized industrialism as a source of great hardship and suffering among working people.
Karl Marx, a German economist and social philosopher, became the most influential socialist of the 19thand his first socialist idea expressed in the communist manifesto (1848) which he wrote with his friend Frederic Engels. Marx called his socialism scientific socialism. Mark thought that capitalism would be replaced by socialism.
He believed that all history is a series of struggles b/n the ruling and working classes. He predicted that the ruling class would be overthrown and the working class would set up a society based common ownership of the means of production, not on economic privilege.
Darwin’s theory of Evolution and its impact
Darwin was a British naturalist, published his theories in 1859 in the book called the origin of species. He believed all plants and animals had evolved from of few common ancestors through a process called natural selection.
Social Darwinism developed an important social theory during the 19th c, attempting to explain d/c in achievement and wealth among people. According to the theory, individuals or groups must compete with one another to survive.
Herbert spencer, a British philosopher, first proposed the theory and William Graham Sumner an American sociologist, helped make social Darwinism popular in the United States.
10.8. The Age of reaction (1815-1848) the congress of Vienna and its provisions
The congress of Vienna was a meeting held from sep.1814-june1815, to settle the issue of 25 years of war b/n France and the rest of Europa after the defeat French emperor Napoleon I.
The chief decisions were made by representatives of the victorious alliance Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia and France.
The congress put back in power many European princes who are removed from power by napoleon associated with the French revolution (1789-1799).
The congress of Vienna was bitterly criticized for many years b/c it ignored the strong democratic and nationalistic senitments of many Europeans. However, some his torians of the 1900's have praised the congress of Vienna for creating a balance of power in Europe and for not treating defeated France too harshly.
The Revolution of 1820-21 in Italy and Spain
In 1820, the Spanish soldier’s revolted ad forced Ferdinand VII to proclaim the old Spanish constitution adopted in 1812 in the time of Napoleon. Following this, the soldiers of Naples revolted and forced the king of the two sicilies (Naples &Sicily) to proclaim the same constitution.
In 1820 the great powers met in a conference at Troppan to consider what they another conference was assembled at Verona to deal with the revolution in Spain.
France was keen to suppress the revolution in Spain and Austria was also keen to suppress the revolution in Naples. However England was unwilling to take part in intervening in Naples and opposed any intervention at all in Spain.
The Naples revolution was suppressed by Austria with the consent of Russia and Prussia. The Spanish revolution was also suppressed by France with the consent of Russia, Prussia and Austria but in the face of strong protest by England.
The Latin American Revolution of 1810-1823
Many Latin Americans believed that it was time that they were granted a voice in their government. They had read what Lock, Voltaire, Rousseau and others had written about natural rights. They were stirred by the American Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.
Many of the patriots including
Francisco Miranda and Simon Bolivar of Venezuela
Bernardo O’Higgins of Chile
Jose ’de san plans for throwing of European rule
All laid plans for throwing of European rule.
The revolution of 1830-32 in France and Belgium
In 1830, the French people revolted against King Charles X when he tried to make France an absolute monarchy. Then the people revolted the middle class and the workers fighting behind barricades in the streets, took over the city in three days. Charles X abdicated the throne and fled to England the workers favored a republican form of government.
News of the successful revolt against Charles X of France encouraged the hopes of liberals elsewhere in Europe, especially in Belgium.
The congress of Vienna united Belgium with Holland inorder to build a stronger barrier against France. The Belgians were determined to rule themselves. In 1830, encouraged by the French example they drove out their Dutch rulers and set up a limited monarchy.
The 1848 Revolution in France, Austria, Italy and Germany
The government of Louis Philippe refused to consider any form of reforms, students and workers raise barricades resisted the police and shouted the slogan, “Down with Louis Philippe”. Louis Philippe became fled from Paris. The revolutions the proclaimed a republic and proceeded to set up a provisional government.
The news of the downfall of Louis Philippe spread rapidly through Europe and within a few weak people in Italy, Germany and Austria were open rebillion against autocratic government.
Consequence of the 1848 revolution
The revolution of 1848 quickly failed. Because
In France Louis napoleon Bonaparte, who had been elected as president declared himself emperor.
In Austria Empire, troops crushed the nationalist uprising and defeated the Italian rebels.
In Germany, monarchies become more firmly established in the major Germany states.
However, the major goal of the revolution was ending of the manorial system in Germany and Australia Empire and European rulers become more sensitive to the demands of nationalist and began experimenting with more liberal form of government.
UNIT 11
People and states in pre-colonial Africa
11.1 North Africa
■ Mamluk Egypt
Mamluks were a self preserving military autocracy ruled Egypt from 1250-1517 virtually and up to 1805 nominally.they originated from a white turkish slaves and come first to Egypt mercenaries in the 12 century.
Before the Mameluk's rise to power in 1250, Egypt was ruled by a dynasty called the Ayyaubid .The major couse for the rise of the mamluks was the prevalence of power struggle with in the ayyubid family.The Ayyubid sultan who employed the regiment of mamluk was al-Maliki-Salih. The immediate factor that enabled the mamluks to size power in Egypt was the mongol invasion of the Middle East.
An unruly armed bands moved to Syria and Palestine where they massacred the Christians of Jerusalem in 1244. This crime led to strong reaction among the W.Christian states. As a result army of the six crusades led by King Louis IX of France, invaded Egypt by landing near Alexandria.
At the time of the invasion, the ruling sultan, al-malik al-salih was dead. His successor, Turan shah was in a compaign on the Euphrates. There was no authority to organize the defense of Egypt. But the Mamluk confronted the crusaders defeated them and made Louis lx, prisoner.
Thus, they saved Egypt from possible destruction. Turan shah treacherously assassinated in 1250.
The end of the Mamluk rule in Egypt was coused by the revival of the Ottoman power at the beginning of the 16 century. At the time, Ottomans were engaged in arivalry with portugues for the control of Red sea and the Indian Ocean region. So the Ottomans invaded Egypt in 1561.
■ The funj sultanate
The funji sultanate emerged in 1504 in Nubia, the present day territory of Republic of Sudan. Befor the rise of the sultanate, two Christian kingdoms existed in Nubian. They were called Alwa and Makuria. Both were annexed by the Egyptian Mamlukes in 1275.
In Nubian, the funji soon adapted Islam. In 1504 they established the funji sultanate with its center at Sennar. The funji sultanate survived until the rise of Mohammed Ali in Egypt in 1805 and his conquest of the sultanate in 1821. It was subjected similar attackes from the neighouring states. The first was from susenyos in 1620. And the second was by king Iyasu in 1730 which ended up in defeat for Christian army and the funji succeeded in extending its hegemony over Kordofan and Darfur and remained in the state of Sudan until it was conquered by Egypt in 1821.
■ The Almoravids
The almoravid movements organized by sanhaja Berbers. At the beginning, the movement had religious character. The leader of the movement was called Abdallah ibn yasin, adevoted and strict muslims.Abdallah and his folowers become known as the hermitage al murabitun. This was later changed into Almoravids.
The Almoravids launched their jihad in two directions. One branch was leg by Abdallah hem self and captured city of sijilmasa in 1056. Morrocco and parts of Spain fell under the control of the almoravids in the second half of 11 century.
The second branch, led by Abu Bakr, headed south wards against the empire of ancient Ghana and captured the city of Audaghust in 1054 and its capital kumbi saleh in 1076. Finally,they were over thrown by arival movement led by the almohads in the middle of 12 century.
■ The Almohads
The Almohad movement also began as a religions reform movement. It was antagonistic to the Almoravids.
The movement was led by Ibn Tumart who was born in the present day Morocco in 1075, from a Masmuda Berber family.
Ibn Tumarts reforms were mainly related to morality and the logical dogma and low. He criticized the Almohads were belivers in one god. In Arabic, al-muwahhidun, which was later, changed to Almohads.
Ibn Tumart died in 1130, and along of crisis followed in the Almohad mov't. Ibn Tumart succeeded by one of his companions named Abd al-mumin(1133-1163). During this period that Almorovids were completely defeated and most of the megreb was conquered.
The Almohad Empire finally collapsed because of the following factors.
* The conquest of the vast territory made inefficient centralized administration.
* The constant wars also drainage the resources of the empire.
* The attempts of imposing heavy tax did not succeed because it led to popular dissatisfaction.
* The military weakness of the Almohad when they began to include haterogeneous groups such as Arabs and Christian mercenaries. Due to this, the army lost its original figting sprit.
The almohad army was defeated by the combined forces of the Spanish Christian kingdom. The last Almohad caliph, al-wathiq (r.1266-1269)was over thrown by arival family called marinid. With this the Almohad movement and empire came to an end.
11.2 Western Africa
■ Ghana
The kingdom got it's name from the tittle of the kings known as Ghana, meaning "war chiefs". Ghana was founded around 4 century, and reached the height of its power at about 1000 A.D kumbi salch was its capital. The main factor for the prosperity and greatness of Ghana was the Trans Saharan trade routes.
The income obtained from the trade enabled the rulers of Ghana to set up a strong central government, which helped the maintenance of peace and security in the kingdom, which in turn encouraged the growth of trades.
Ghanian craftsmen were skilled iron works. This gave them an upper hand over their neishbors who did not have. Thus the rulers of Ghana were able to build a vast empire which covered what are now Mali and Mauritania.
The decline and fall of Ghana was coused by the invasion of the Almorovids in the 11 century.
■ Mali
The kingdom of Mali founded before 1000A.D by the kangaba people one of the clans of mandinka people sumanguru was the first strong ruler and controlled the ancint capital of Ghana kumbi and trade routes of the region but he was unable to maintain peace and security for the kangaba merchants. There fore, they decided to fight under the leadership of sundiata who become the rulers of Mali. The name of the kingdom was initially kangaba, but later changed to Mali means "the kings resides".
Sundiata ruled Mali from 1230-55and succeeded by Mansa Musa 1255-1270 who continued the conquests began by sundiata. During the reign of these two rulers, Mali regained the control of the gold bearing lands of wangara and Bambak.
Mali attained greatness under mansa kankan musa, commonly known as mansa musa (r, 1312-37). During his reign Mali became one of the largest and powerful empires of the world.
Mansa musa was the first to be converted into Islam in Mali and in 1324 he made a magnifiant pilgrimage to Mecca.
The decline and fall of Mali was the result of limitless expansion of the territory of the empire that created difficulty in maintaining effective communication and organized defense system. However the rulers, of Mali exercised nominal power until 1550, when the empires come to an end.
■ Shanghai
Shanghai was a West African empire, centered on the largest bend of the Niger River, which reached its Zenith in the 15 and 16 century.
In the 13 century, power in Songhai consolidated in the Sunni which gradually gained in dependence from Mali.
Songhai expansion was advanced by Sunni Ali was incorporated the east part of Mali in to his empire,subjugating djenne in 1471 he was followed by Mohammed Ture of the Askia dynasty who future extended Songhai influence and made Tumbuxtu was a cultural center.
An assault by Moroccan forces equipped with firearms in 1591 was the final blow, from which the Songhai sate never recovers.
■ Kanem-Bornu Empire
It was an Africa state in the Lake Chad region from the 9-19 century founded by the Kanuri, a mixed. Negroid and Berber people living east of Lake Chad ruled by the sultans of the saifuwa dynasty from 850A.D and the capital city was called Njimi.
The economy of the state was based on trans saharan trade. The empire declined in 18 century by the Fulani people from west and an onslaught by usuman dan fodio the empire finally obsorbed by wadai in 1846.
■ The Hausa city states
Originally, Hausa people lived in a small region in the southern edge of the Sahara desert. However they expanded their territory as a result of continuous migrations and assimilation.
Differnt people with d/t identity were assimilated in to the hausa culture and language b/c of this, at present, the people of the region have no particular ethnic identity and they are simply know as the Hausa language speakers had no particular name. It was simply called"Kasar Hausa" in the Hausa language. B/c of this, the early Europeans also called the region Hausa land. Hausa land had never been politically united. But rather consisted of several small states.
The most important were:
- Kano - Zazu (Zaria)
- Kebi - Zamfora
- Katsina - Gobir and
- Rano
The Hausa city States were prosperous. Several factors were responsible for their prosperity.
1. Hawsa land had rich deposits of iron which are located close to wooded land where a large quantity of fire wood and charcoal could be obtaine.
2. The region was endowed with rich and fertile soil crops like millet, sorghum, rice and others were abundantly cultivated commerical crops like cotton and indigo were also grown.
However, the final blow to the Hausa city States comes from the rise of the Fulani jihad. By 1811 the fulahlni had become the masters of Hausa land as a whole.
11.3 Equatorial, Estern and South.estern Africa
Kngoo
The kingdom of Kongo was founded in the 14 century by a Bantu people called Bakongo and their king was called Manikongo and its capital was at Mbanzakongo the present San Salvador in N.Angola.
The bakongo peoples were clever Smiths. Agriculture and trade were the bases of economy in the kingdom.
The Portugues had came into contact with the king of Kongo since 1482, when novigator Diogo com visited the mouth of the Congo river and claimed the surrounding region as portugues territory.
In 1491 the portugues missionaries and crafts men visited the kingdom and soon manikongo together with his family and important chiefs converted to Christianity. But his attempts to impose the religion on his people provoked violent opposition and then his son Afonso succeeded him in 1507.
However the Kongo kingdom declined by the end of the 16 century inpart b/c of the invasion by the Jaga an eastern warrior people and after a century another European expedition come to the region.
■ Zimbabwe
It is belived that the Bantu people called the shona had built the civilization of Great Zimbabwe. One of the shrines named Dzimbad zemabwe which means house of stone was built on a hill called Mbanwa.
At its height of 14 century, the capital city of zimbabwe housed up to 11,000 residents.
The greatness of Zimbabwe came to an end to words the 15 century when the kingdom was used over exploitation of the environment. Finally, it was succeeded by a state known as mulene mutapa.
■ Mwene mutopa
Towards the end of the 15 century, mutota founded the state of mulene nutapa. Mutota was a rozwi clan of the shona people. Originally, mwene mutapa was a title of the rozwi Kings. The territory of mwene mutapa was expanded in the N.diraction by mutota's son, mutope. In 1490, political disorder resulted in secession of the S.part of the kingdom which becomes a powerful state under the changamire dynasty. Then mwene mutapa was limited between the Zambezi River and the Indian Ocean.
Mwene mutapa resisted portugues intrusion until the mid 17 century, when the empire was at last subjugated. In 1670, ashona molitary ruler called changmire (Rozwi) drove the portuges and established the Rozwi Empire (also called changamire)
11.4 Southern Africa
The S.part of Africa was occupied by three major ethnic and linguistic groups. The dominant people of the region were the Bantu.
The other two groups were the khoi-khoi and the San peoples.The European colonizers called these people Hottentos and Bushmen The languages of the two peoples are grouped under the language super family of Khoisan.
■ The khoi-khoi
The khoi khoi were a pastoral people who inhabited what is known as S and W.S Africa, when this region was colonized by European settlers in the 17 century.
Originally, the khoi khoi were hunters. They abandoned hunting and started cattle rearing. from 1300. The khoi khoi expanded from what is hed in southern Africa. However, the khoi khoi had been under strong pressure from the Dutch settlers and the Bantu people. Consequently, they became a minority group reduced to a settlement area in the Kalahari Desert.
■ The san
The san has lived in S.Africa for thousand of years. After their territory was consteracted by white settlers in 1700, the san lived as hunter and gatherers organized in small groups or bands of about ten families. Women gathered wild plant and fruits while men killed animal with light bows and poison tipped arrows.
The san spoke Khoisan language characterized by click Sounds.They have short height, yellow and copper skin colour and kinky hair.
■ The Bantus
The Bantu were linguistically related group of about 60m people living in equatorial and S.Africa, originated from what is now Cameroon and E.Nigeria migrated from where and donward in to s.Africa. The Couse of the movement were uncertain, but many anthropologists belived that it was coused by increas in population. The Bantu constituted five linguistic groups:
- Venda - Sotho
- Tsonga - Nguni and
- Inhambane
The southern Bantu continued a stable life until 1780, when the Dutch farmers (Boers) came to S.Africa who establised a small post for Dutch ships in 1652. The post becomes cape colony.
Subsequently, a century long years was conducted b/n Bantu and Boers. In response to this struggle, several Bantu states emerged in S.Africa one of them was the Zulu kingdom which attained dominions in the region during the region of Shaka Zulu (1818-1828). Shaka successfully defended the kingdom from the neigubouring Bantu clans as well as the Dutch farmers. However after his death, the kingdom was weakened and the British colonizers. Finally, in the middle of the 19 century, the regions come under the British control.
11.5 The Tran - Atlantic slave trade
The background to the beginning of Atlantic slave trade had been set up by the voyage of Christopher Columbus to the new continent, America in 1492. In America a very large plantation were established by the European.
Most of the American Indian (Red Indians) died from European disease and harsh tretment. As a result a sever shortage of free labour was created in the European plantation. First the Europeans transporting white slave from Europe. However the white slaves were unable to resist the hard ships there.Then, the idea of transporting slave from Africa was created at this point.
Portugal was the first European country that began the slave trade in Africa then Spain followed. In Africa the slave trade was conducted from over 300 years and passed through three distinct phases.
The first phase was commonly known as the piratic slave trade. In this phase trades were individual marchant adventures, navigators or sea robbers. European governments did not take part in the slave trade nor did give official support to their citizens. The first phase began in the 15 century the last quarter of the 16 century.
The second phase began in the1580's was known as the monopolistic slave trade. The trade was condacted by their respective government and assisted by regular aremed forces. The second phase is also known as the triangular trade b/c it connected three continents America, Europe and Africa.
The third phase which began in the 17 century was called free trade. In 1689, the British government took a legal action by instituting free trade. Several man joined the slave trade on an individual bases and there was afierce competion b/n the companies as well as individual traders.
The Horrors of the slave Trade
African slave suffered torture of various degrees at diffrent stages of the trades.
The first slaves were captured like beasts burden of ivory to the coastal ports from the origin. The African slaves underwent a bitter hardship in the voyage across the Atlantic.
The last stage of the horror was a life long hard ship began in the American plantation. They toiled daily from dawn to dusk often in chains. Owners provided only basic necessities to keep them alive and work. Death was preferable to living and working in the plantation.
The aboliation of the slave trade
With the growth abolitionist movement in Europe, the volume of the slave trade started to declined. Fromthe very beginning there had been movement’s againest the slave trade in Africa. But it was had read the accounts of travelers on the evil trades put pressure on their government. However the European governments ignored the pressure of the abolitionists.
As a mater of fact when the aboliation of the slave trade served their economic interest that the European governments began to take action against the slave trade one of the leading European nations to champion the aboliationist movement was Great Britain.
Consequence's of the slave trade
The slave trade had many consequences for Africa:
# More than 15 m young Africans were exported and as a resalt, Africa lost its most valuable human resource.
# with the industrialization of Europe and America the market of Africa were flooded with cheap industrial products that ruined the traditional crafts of the continents.
#African chiefs and kings acquired a larger amount of firearms which intensified war and coniflicts in Africa. This led in to sever divisions among the peoples of Africa and African could not put up a united resistance against the European !
0 Comments