User:Kowal2701/sandbox

Northeast Africa

(sentence on pre-state) From 3500 BCE, nomes (ruled by nomarchs) coalesced to form the kingdoms of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt in northeast Africa. Around 3100 BCE Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt to unify Egypt under the 1st dynasty, with the process of consolidation and assimilation completed by the time of the 3rd dynasty who formed the Old Kingdom of Egypt in 2686 BCE.^{[27]: 62–63} The Kingdom of Kerma emerged around this time to become the dominant force in Nubia, controlling territory as large as Egypt between the 1st and 4th cataracts of the Nile.^[28][29] The height of the Old Kingdom saw the construction of many great pyramids, though under the 6th dynasty power gradually decentralised to the nomarchs, culminating in the disintegration of the kingdom, exacerbated by drought and famine. Around 2055 BCE, the 11th dynasty, based in Thebes, conquered the others to form the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, and the 12th dynasty expanded into Lower Nubia at the expense of Kerma.^{[27]: 68–71} Around 1700 BCE, the Middle Kingdom fractured in two, and the Hyksos (a militaristic people from Palestine) invaded and conquered Lower Egypt, while Kerma coordinated invasions deep into Egypt to reach its greatest extent.^[30] In 1550 BCE, the 18th dynasty expelled the Hyksos, and established the New Kingdom of Egypt. The New Kingdom conquered the Levant from the Canaanites, Mittani, Amorites, and Hittites, and extinguished Kerma, incorporating Nubia into the empire, and sending the Egyptian empire into its golden age.^[27]: 73 Internal struggles, drought, famine, and invasions by a confederation of seafaring peoples contributed to the New Kingdom's collapse in 1069 BCE.^{[27]: 76–77}

Egypt's collapse liberated the Kingdom of Kush in Nubia, which manoeuvred into power in Upper Egypt and conquered Lower Egypt in 754 BCE to form the Kushite Empire. The Kushites ruled for a century and oversaw a revival in pyramid building, until they were driven out of Egypt by the Assyrians in 663 BCE in reprisal for their expansion towards the Assyrian Empire.^[31] The Assyrians installed a puppet dynasty that later gained independence and once more unified Egypt, until they were conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in 525 BCE.^[27]: 77 Egypt briefly regained independence from the Achaemenids under the 28th dynasty from 404 to 343 BCE. The conquest of Achaemenid Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE marked the beginning of Hellenistic rule and the installation of the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.^[32]: 119 The Ptolemaics lost their holdings outside of Africa to the Seleucids in the Syrian Wars, expanded into Cyrenaica, and briefly occupied part of Kush in the 3rd century BCE.^{[33]: 384–93} In the 1st century BCE, Ptolemaic Egypt became entangled in a Roman civil war, leading to its conquest by the Romans in 30 BCE.^[34] Kush persisted as a major regional power until, having been weakened from internal rebellion amid worsening climatic conditions, it disintegrated amid invasions by Aksum and the Noba into Makuria, Alodia, and Nobatia around the 5th century CE.^[35]

Horn of Africa

In the Horn of Africa, there was the Land of Punt, a kingdom on the Red Sea which was a close trading partner of Ancient Egypt in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. Rodolfo Fattovich equated to the Gash Group in the Sudanese-Eritrean lowlands, and some scholars have hypothesised modern-day Somalia, though Kenneth Kitchen and Felix Chami locate it on Zanzibar Island.^{[36][37]: 680} In the Eritrean-Ethiopian Highlands, the kingdom of dʿmt rose c. 980 BCE as the region was incorporated into global trading networks,^[38] and it exhibited Sabaean influences which most scholars attribute to a small migration of Sabaeans and their assimilation.^[39] Several scholars consider there to have been other contemporaneous states,^{[40][41]: 39–40} and dʿmt's collapse in the mid-1st century BCE saw the region inhabited by small polities.^[42] Modern-day Somalia was inhabited by nomadic pastoralists, and along the Horn's coast there were many ancient Somali city-states that thrived off of the wider Red Sea trade, and enjoyed a lucrative monopoly on cinnamon from Ancient India due to their freedom from Roman interference.^{[43]: 24–5, 33} In the 1st century CE, the Kingdom of Aksum rose from a city-state to rule much of the northern Ethiopian-Eritrean Highlands and the Red Sea port of Adulis. Aksum was described as one of the four great powers by Persian prophet Mani in the 3rd century.^{[44][45]: 174} Aksum's king converted from traditional religion to Christianity in the 4th century, gradually followed by the population. In the 6th century, Aksum conquered South Arabia, though struggled to maintain control over it, and began to gradually lose its dominance over Red Sea trade to Persians and Arabians.^[44]

Northwest Africa

Northwest Africa (the Maghreb) was inhabited by Berber semi-nomadic pastoralists. In the 1st millennium BCE, Phoenician migration and settlement came in search for precious metals in the Gulf of Tunis.^[46]: 442 This grew into Ancient Carthage after gaining independence from Phoenicia in the 6th century BCE, and they built an extensive trading empire with a strict mercantile network.^[47] Carthage's collapse and conquest by Rome in the Punic Wars (3rd and 2nd centuries BCE) saw Numidia and Mauretania become major powers in the Maghreb. Towards the end of the 2nd century BCE Mauretania fought alongside Numidia's Jugurtha against the Romans in the Jugurthine War after he had usurped the Numidian throne from a Roman ally. Together they inflicted heavy casualties, with the war only ending inconclusively when Mauretania's Bocchus I sold out Jugurtha to the Romans. Around the turn of the millennium, both came under direct Roman rule.^{[46]: 460–2} While traditional religion predominated among Berbers, some people converted to Christianity. In the 5th century CE the Vandals conquered Roman Africa before the fall of Rome, though the province was reconquered by the Byzantines a century later. Large swathes of indigenous peoples regained self-governance in Masuna and its numerous successor polities in the Maghreb, including the kingdoms of Ouarsenis, Aurès, and Altava.^{[48]: 495–7, 500–8}

West Africa

In the western Sahel the rise of settled communities occurred largely as a result of the domestication of millet and of sorghum, and cattle pastoralism began c. 2500 BCE. Extensive east-west belts of deserts, grasslands, and forests from north to south were crucial for the moulding of their respective societies and meant that symbiotic trade relations developed in response the differing environments.^{[49][50]: 79–80} Beginning around 4000 BCE, the Tichitt culture in modern-day Mauritania and Mali was the oldest known complexly organised society in West Africa,^[51] while others included the Kintampo culture in modern-day Ghana, the Nok culture in modern-day Nigeria, and the Daima culture around Lake Chad.^{[52]: 603–12} Towards the end of the 3rd century CE, a wet period in the Sahel created areas for human habitation and exploitation that had not been habitable for the best part of a millennium. The Ghana Empire (also called Wagadu) rose out of the Tichitt culture, growing wealthy following the introduction of the camel to the western Sahel, revolutionising the trans-Saharan trade that linked their capital and Aoudaghost with Tahert and Sijilmasa in North Africa.^[53] Soninke tradition holds that the final founding of Wagadu occurred after Dinga did a deal with Bida [fr], a serpent deity who was guarding a well, to sacrifice one maiden a year in exchange for assurance regarding plenty of rainfall and gold supply.^[c][54] Based on large tumuli scattered across West Africa dating to this period, several scholars have speculated that there were further simultaneous and preceding states relative to Wagadu.^[55][51]

Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa

In the Grasslands of northwestern Cameroon, Bantu-speaking agriculturalists started to gradually migrate south sometime between 5000 and 3000 BCE. Despite intensive research, the cause of the migrations, and that of the directions taken, is still unclear,^[d] however there is consensus that there were multiple dispersal events. Around 1500 BCE, Bantu speakers reached central Cameroon. The 'Western Stream' likely followed the coast and the major rivers of the Congo system southwards to reach the southern fringe of the Congolian Rainforest around 500 BCE (some may have used the sea to circumvent the rainforest). Their arrival coincided with the spread of iron metallurgy through Central Africa. Meanwhile, the 'Eastern Stream' travelled either the northern fringe of the rainforest or the Ubangi River eastwards, and reached just west of Lake Victoria around 500 BCE. While there, Bantu speakers adopted iron metallurgy from Cushitic speakers (who had settled East Africa in the 3rd millennium BCE),^{[57]: 616–20} and coexisted with them.^{[58][56]: 23–5} Dispersal from the Great Lakes region occurred in two more streams. One went west to meet the Western Stream in the DR Congo and Angola, while the other went south and spread across Eastern and Southern Africa.^[56]: 26 Around the turn of the millennium, Bantu speakers reached central modern-day Tanzania and near Dar es Salaam, before rapidly moving southwards along the coast to reach modern-day Kwazulu Natal in South Africa around the 3rd century CE.^[58] Throughout this, Bantu speakers displaced, replaced, or intermarried with and absorbed hunter-gatherer and agriculturalist groups.^{[59][56]: 32 [60]: 636}

North Africa

In the 7th century, as part of the Arab conquests which sought to spread Islamic rule,^{[61]: 56–7} the Rashidun Caliphate scored crucial military victories against the Byzantine Empire, and expanded rapidly, conquering Egypt and the Exarchate from them in the 640s. After a brief civil war, the Rashiduns were supplanted by the Umayyads, who, after stiff resistance from Berber leaders such as Kusaila and Kahina, had conquered the Maghreb by the early-8th century.^{[62]: 47–9 [63]: 233–9} Though large numbers of Berber and Coptic people willingly converted to Islam, and followers of Abrahamic religions ('People of the Book') were protected,^{[61]: 56–63} followers of traditional Berber religion were violently oppressed and often given the ultimatum to convert to Islam or face captivity or enslavement.^[62]: 46 In the 8th century the Berber Revolt rocked the Caliphate and Berber dynasties took control over the Maghreb,^{[64]: 246–51} while the Tulunids briefly controlled Egypt.^{[65]: 172–7} In the 10th century, the Fatimids rose to power in modern-day Tunisia, established a rival caliphate, and conquered Egypt, before expanding into the Middle East. In the 11th century, the Fatimids started to collapse amidst Turkish and Crusader expansion,^[66] while the zealous Almoravids conquered the Maghreb and intervened in the Christian reconquest of Iberia.^[67]: 351 Saladin, a Fatimid vizier, usurped power in the 12th century and established the Ayyubid dynasty which restored Egyptian prestige,^{[66][68]: 372–3} while the Almohad revolution deposed the Almoravids to the east. After Christian gains in Iberia in the 13th century, the Almohads disintegrated into the Marinids, Zayyanids, and Hafsids in modern-day Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia respectively.^[69] In the face of Mongol expansion, Mamluk generals seized power in Egypt and expanded into the Middle East.^{[68]: 377–81} In the early-16th century, the Ottoman Empire rapidly conquered North Africa (save for Morocco, now under Saadi rule) to counter Spanish expansionism.^[e][72] In the following centuries, over a million Europeans are estimated to have been captured and enslaved by Barbary corsairs.^[73] The Ottoman regencies became more independent in the 18th century.^[72]

Western Sahel and Sudan

Wagadu was the most powerful of a constellation of states stretching from Takrur on the Senegal River Valley to Mema in the Niger Valley, all of whom were subservient to Wagadu at least some of the time.^[74] The Gao Empire was situated to the east of Wagadu, and controlled the salt trade.^[75] Islam had reached Gao and Takrur by the 11th century, during which the Almoravids (before their conquests north) captured Wagadu's royal seat of Aoudaghost, gaining the king's conversion, and several vassals broke free.^{[f][77][78]: 73, 98} Despite Wagadu regaining full independence and power throughout the 12th century, this could not counteract the worsening climate and shifts in trade south and east, leading to its conquest by its former vassal Sosso c. 1200, propelling Soninke migration.^[g][80] In the face of Sosso aggression, Sundiata Keita united the Mandinka clans and conquered Sosso and Gao, expanding across the western Sahel and Sudan to found the Mali Empire. Mali grew fabulously rich through controlling the trans-Saharan trade.^[81] During the 14th and 15th centuries Mali experienced political instability and lost control over the Jolof Empire in Senegambia, and Sahelian trading centres to the nomadic Tuareg.^{[h][83]: 174 [84]: 416} Under Sonni Ali, Gao swept through the crumbling empire, fending off the Mossi kingdom of Yatenga and forming the Songhai Empire.^{[85]: 191–3} Weakened by internal conflict, in 1591 Gao was conquered by Morocco, and the political vacuum came to be filled by the Segou Empire and several other states.^{[86]: 301–7} The once lucrative trans-Saharan trade gradually lost its prominence to the coastal Atlantic trade with Europeans, and the following centuries saw many droughts, famines, and epidemics.^{[86]: 316–9}

Central and Eastern Sahel and Sudan

Located around Lake Chad, the founding of the Kanem Empire is typically dated to c. 700,^{[87]: 39–40} and it greatly benefited from serving as a crossroad for east-west and north-south Saharan trade, growing to encompass several peoples. Facilitated by contact with Muslim traders or nomadic Tubu, in the 11th century the Duguwa dynasty converted to Ibadi Islam,^[i] before they were usurped by the Sunni and Kanembu Sayfawa dynasty. Under the Sayfawa, Kanem became a centre of Islamic scholarship, and extended its rule to the Kaouar and Fezzan oases, gaining even greater control over trans-Saharan trade.^[88] In Nubia, having converted to Christianity, Makuria annexed Nobatia, and halted Muslim expansion during the 7th century, with whom it signed a peace treaty. Over the following centuries Makuria defended the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria in Muslim-controlled Egypt, and entered into a dynastic or political union with Alodia during the 10th century.^{[89][90][91]: 194–6} A warm period in the 14th century caused Lake Chad to dry up, and Kanem became engrossed in conflict with the Tubu and Bilala; Kanem's capital was captured by the Bilala, forcing the leadership and other Kanembu to move to Bornu.^[88] Meanwhile Islam spread through Hausaland;^{[61]: 78–9} in the 15th century a deposed Bornu ruler fled to Kano, leading Bornu to vassalise several Hausa kingdoms.^{[j][92]: 279} Bornu also conquered Kotoko (which had grown out of the Sao civilisation), reaching the height of its power.^[93][88] In Hausaland the 16th century saw the rise of Kebbi which countered Bornu influence, while Amina's Zazzau expanded south.^{[94][92]: 277} In Nubia, following Mamluk aggression, the plague, and the migration of Bedouin tribes to the region, Makuria and Alodia gradually collapsed and disintegrated; the Funj Sultanate came to rule the Sudan, and halted Turco-Egyptian expansion south.^[89] To the east in modern-day Darfur and eastern Chad, after the successive Daju and Tunjur kingdoms, the 17th century saw the rise of the Bagirmi, Wadai, and Darfur sultanates,^[k] and frequent slave-raiding of populations to their south.^[96][97] Bornu entered into decline as it experienced droughts and lost control of trans-Saharan trade to the Tuareg and Ottomans.^[88]

Horn of Africa

Following the birth of Islam in the early-7th century, nomadic Somalis began to convert to Islam, and it spread through the eastern Horn via daʿwah.^[61]: 84 Though Muslim-Aksumite relations were initially friendly, they soon soured.^[98]: 560 Aksum lost control of the Red Sea, and its isolation from Christendom caused Ethiopian society to introspect and take inspiration from the Old Testament.^[99]: 108 Islamised Beja invaded the Ethiopian Highlands, forcing Aksum to migrate south, where, according to tradition, Aksum's expansion was met by a Jewish queen who destroyed the state c. 960.^{[98]: 563–6} From the 11th century, the growing Somalian population expanded across the eastern Horn.^[100]: 722 During the 13th century, hegemony in the Horn was contested by the Christian Zagwe, the Muslims of Shewa, and the traditionalist Damot,^{[101]: 431–2} while the Ajuran Sultanate ruled the southern Somali clans.^[102] In the late-13th century, the Solomonic dynasty overthrew the Zagwe to found the Ethiopian Empire, while Shewa was replaced by Ifat.^{[99]: 131, 143} Soon after, Ethiopia conquered Damot and the Muslim states, entering into a 'golden age'.^{[103]: 19–20} In the 16th century Muslims united behind Adal in jihad to reconquer the Muslim lands and occupy Ethiopia, until, with Portuguese assistance, its sovereignty was restored in a reduced state.^{[100]: 712–5} The 16th and 17th centuries also saw Oromo invasions into the Horn, weakening Ethiopia further and causing the collapse of Adal, while Ajuran also disintegrated.^{[102][104]: 539–44} (sentence on Zemene Mesafint)

West African forest regions

Western Congo Basin

In the western Congo Basin, a period of state and class formation began circa 700 with three centres: one in the west around Pool Malebo, one south around the highlands of Angola, and a third north-central around Lake Mai-Ndombe.^{[105]: 17–8} By the 13th century there were three main federations of states in the western Congo Basin around Pool Malebo: the Seven Kingdoms, Mpemba, and one led by Vungu. Kongo traditions detail the founding and rapid expansion of the Kingdom of Kongo in the late-14th and early-15th centuries by Lukeni lua Nimi,^[l] though it was checked by the Tio Kingdom to its north (which saw Mwene Muji around Lake Mai-Ndombe to its northeast).^{[105]: 24–30} In the late-15th century the Portuguese established relations with Kongo, whose ruler converted to Catholicism (eventually syncretising traditional beliefs).^{[105]: 37–8} Atlantic trade began, with slaves being the most lucrative export.^[m] In the 16th century, Afonso I's conquests produced many captives for Kongo's monopoly, and the slave trade rapidly grew to meet demand in the Americas.^{[106][105]: 52–3} By the mid-16th century, the Kingdom of Loango had formed north of the Congo River, and to the south Ndongo had broken free from Kongo and entered commercial relations with the Portuguese.^{[n][108][107]: 64–7} In the late-16th century, as a concession for helping to expel Yaka invasions (from Mwene Muji), Kongo allowed the Portuguese to establish a colony at Luanda, which expanded and became Portuguese Angola.^{[107]: 74–8} Over the course of the late-16th and 17th centuries, the Portuguese sought to conquer Ndongo (allied to Matamba) in the Angolan Wars (during which Imbangala mercenaries were enlisted by both sides);^[o] despite fierce resistance from Queen Nzinga, and brief occupation of Luanda by the Dutch (allied to Kongo), Portugal controlled most of Ndongo by the 1670s.^{[109]: 91–122 [110]: 150–9 [111]: 162–88} Kongo had endured numerous civil wars throughout its history, though the rise of its vassal Soyo prevented consolidation, and the late-17th century saw Kongo fragment between royal houses as several vassals broke away; by the time of Kongo's reunification in 1709, it had ceased being the dominant regional power.^{[111]: 199–213 [112]: 241–3} Also during the 17th century, in the textile-producing northeast, the Boma, Yaka, and possibly the Kuba and Pende kingdoms broke away from Mwene Muji.^[113]

Great Lakes

During the 1st millennium CE the Great Lakes region saw several internal migrations of Bantu-speaking people out of the Urewe culture west of Lake Victoria.^{[114]: 628-9} Simultaneously, symbiotic relations grew between pastoralists and agriculturalists, though there was likely also some competition over land use.^[115]: 69 Banana cultivation (derived from Southeast Asia) had spread widely by the end of the millennium.^[115]: 63 Periods of drought made farmers dependent on cattle-keepers, while periods of heavy rainfall produced rich harvests, shifting power relations.^[116]: 120 Polities are thought to have formed around the earthwork sites of Ntusi, Bigo, and Munsa among others.^{[117][118]: 850–4} Nyoro traditions detail the history of a 'Kitara Empire', ruled successively by the Tembuzi and Chwezi dynasties. Most scholars consider the Tembuzi to be mythical, and the Chwezi to have been historical figures, usually dated to the 14th and 15th centuries.^{[119][120][121]: 355} Though earlier scholars often interpreted Kitara as an expansive empire, most recent scholars are sceptical,^[p] and Peter Robertshaw considered the Chwezi to have been religious leaders who utilised networks of hill-top shrines^[q] to project authority.^{[118]: 849–50, 854–6} Around 1500, severe droughts and famine destabilised the region, occurring again during the early-17th and 18th centuries.^{[124]: 142–3} Luo-speaking peoples migrated from the Upper Nile basin into modern-day Uganda, and a Biito dynasty replaced the Chwezi in Bunyoro-Kitara.^[125] The Siita dynasties of Nkore, Karagwe, and Haya states were replaced by Hinda dynasties, who trace their origin to the last Chwezi king and his cattle-keeper Ruhinda.^{[126][127]: 511, 514} To the east, Buganda was founded sometime in the first half of the second millennium, traditionally by Kintu.^{[r][128]: 80} To the south, small states associated with clans saw increasing numbers of pastoralists who grew dominant and amalgamated them into the kingdom of Rwanda towards the end of the 15th century.^{[127]: 516–8} Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, Bunyoro raided states to the south such as Nkore and Rwanda. In the 18th century, Buganda rapidly expanded at the expense of Bunyoro to become the major power in the region, while Mpororo rose and fragmented.^{[124]: 147–56 [131]: 801–2}

Eastern Congo Basin

In the central Congo Basin, farmers, fishermen, and hunters (often Pygmies) had symbiotic relations,^[132]: 554 and the Balega organised into bwami (socio-political collective 'grades' within a hierarchy). Mongo peoples migrated throughout the northeastern Congolian Rainforest, eventually organising into polities called nkumu.^{[132]: 563–4} Some groups highly valued socio-political equality and clung to it.^[132]: 559 In the Upemba Depression, people traded with the Copperbelt, and graves dated to the 8th century contained objects associated with authority, such as anvils and ceremonial axes.^{[s][133]: 878–80} Jan Vansina wrote that in the southern savanna 'lords of the land' held priestly roles due to their special relationship with the spirits of the land, and held sway over multiple villages, effectively ruling embryonic kingdoms. Accordingly, as lineages grew, authority was opportunistically absorbed or incorporated by force.^{[132]: 557–8} The centre of the Luba Empire in is yet to undergo archaeological research, meaning knowledge about its rise is limited;^[134] its foundation is typically dated to the 14th/15th centuries,^[135]: 181 though scholarly estimates range from the 8th to 17th centuries.^{[136][137]: 59} Luba-Katanga traditions (likely telescoped^[t])^[135]: 182 detail the arrival of sacred kingship (bulopwecode: lub promoted to code: lu ) in the narrative about tyrannical-conqueror Nkongolo and the prodigy Kalala Ilunga, where it is brought by the noble hunter Mbidi.^{[137]: 23–40} Meanwhile, a Lunda state formed in the Nkalany Valley (estimates range from c. 1450 to c. 1700),^[138] and Lunda traditions detail how queen Lueji married Mbidi's grandson and hunter Chibinda, whose son was the first Mwata Yamvo.^[u][141] In the 18th century, Lunda rapidly expanded into an extensive commonwealth across the southern savana, using the institutions of perpetual kinship and positional succession to incorporate peoples.^[v][140] Lunda lost several rulers in a long conflict (eventually won) against Kanyok to the north, and conquered the Pende and Yaka kingdoms in the west.^{[142]: 225–8} The most important constituents in the east and south were Kazembe, Luvale, and Kanongesha.^{[w][144]: 33} Luba also expanded its number of tributaries, in some cases using its widely-acknowledged prestige to intervene in succession disputes and distribute ritually-powerful royal regalia related to bulopwecode: lub promoted to code: lu , in other cases using conquest.^{[140][145]: 108}

The East African coast and interior, and Madagascar

The East African coast and coastal archipelagos were dotted with proto-Swahili settlements, each with productive locally-developed industries.^[146] They participated in Indian Ocean trade, and converted to Islam from c. 800, enabling them to participate in Muslim trading networks.^[147] Trade boomed from the 10th century, and major city-states included Manda, Shanga, Mombasa, and Kilwa, the latter of which seized control of the Sofala gold trade from Mogadishu (according to the Kilwa Chronicle) and expanded its control along the coast.^{[146][148]: 371–2} The interior was inhabited by pastoralist Cushitic and Nilotic speakers, along with Bantu speakers who continued to expand and adapt to their lands while absorbing the former two.^{[149]: 481–94} The 17th century saw the the establishment of tributary systems that stabilised the region.^[150]: 829 Madagascar had been settled between the 4th and 6th centuries by Austronesians who had traversed the Indian Ocean.^{[x][citation needed]} The Antalaotra controlled trade on the northwest coast, while Malagasy societies organised and competed with one another over the island's estuaries and bridgeheads.^{[y][151]: 48, 52–53} In the 15th century, trade routes for Zimbabwean gold shifted north, weakening Kilwa.^[148]: 375 The Portuguese arrived at the coast soon after, and gained control over coastal city-states by exploiting divisions between them and utilising their powerful navy.^{[153]: 756–60} Meanwhile, southern Madagascar was integrated into global trade; the Sakalava Empire rose to dominate west-coastal trade, accompanied by numerous other states, and the island saw several failed European colonial ventures.^[154][155] In the 17th and 18th centuries, Lamu-Swahili cities rebelled against the Portuguese, and allied the Omani Empire which supplanted Portuguese rule.^{[153]: 767–70}

Southern Africa

By the late-1st millennium CE, Bantu-speaking farmers populated most of Southern Africa's cultivable savannas, reaching southwards to the Kei River; they traded goods such as livestock, grain, and metal tools between communities and with hunter-gatherers. Around the 11th century, more agriculturists—who likely brought with them ancestral Nguni and Sotho-Tswana languages—migrated across the Limpopo River and came to dominate the earlier farmers both politically and culturally, organising into loosely-defined chiefdoms that held dynamic alliance networks.^[156] Meanwhile, just south of the Limpopo, growing wealth and inequality at Bambandyanalo led the population to move to the foot of Mapungubwe Hill c. 1220,^[z] while the ruler settled its flat summit;^[aa] the Mapungubwe state grew to cover 30,000 km² (12,000 sq mi). Around 1300, amid unknown events and shifting trade routes north, the state collapsed, and Great Zimbabwe, with its monumental dry-stone walls, rose to become the region's main political and economic centre.^{[157]: 17–20 [158]: 30–55} Its mambo (king) controlled the gold trade exporting to the east coast, and the state was composed of over 150 smaller zimbabwes. In the 15th century a new trade route was founded along the Zambezi directly to the goldfields, contributing to the decline of Great Zimbabwe and the rise of Butua near the goldfields to its west and the Mutapa Empire on the northern Zimbabwean Plateau. (something about Maravi) During the early-16th century, the Portuguese gained greater control over Zambezian trade; in the early-17th century they vassalised Mutapa by intervening in a succession conflict; the influx of prazo-holders in Mutapa caused widespread lawlessness and insecurity, which exacerbated the devastation caused by drought, famine, and disease in the mid to late-17th century. The 1680s and '90s saw the rise of Changamire Dombo who conquered Butua to found the Rozvi Empire and expelled all Portuguese from the Plateau.

North Africa to c. 1880

West Africa to c. 1880

East Africa to c. 1880

Central Africa to c. 1880

Southern Africa to c. 1880

c. 1880–c. 1914: European partition and conquest

Colonial rule

c. 1935–c. 1960: The rise of nationalist movements, World War 2, and independence struggles

Imperial rule by Europeans continued until after the conclusion of World War II, when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence. Independence movements in Africa gained momentum following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In 1951, Libya, a former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956, Tunisia and Morocco won their independence from France.^[159] Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957),^[160] becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be granted independence. Over the next decade, waves of decolonisation took place across the continent, culminating in the 1960 Year of Africa and the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.^[161]

Portugal's overseas presence in sub-Saharan Africa (most notably in Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe) lasted from the 16th century to 1975, after the Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a military coup in Lisbon. Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, under the white minority government of Ian Smith, but was not internationally recognised as an independent state (as Zimbabwe) until 1980, when black nationalists gained power after a bitter guerrilla war. Although South Africa was one of the first African countries to gain independence, the state remained under the control of the country's white minority, initially through qualified voting rights and from 1956 by a system of racial segregation known as apartheid, until 1994.

c. 1960–present: Independence, Pan-Africanism, and the postcolony

As of 2025, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries.^[162] Since independence, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African states are republics that operate under some form of the presidential system of rule. However, few of them have been able to sustain democratic governments on a permanent basis—per the criteria laid out by Lührmann et al. (2018), only Botswana and Mauritius have been consistently democratic for the entirety of their post-colonial history. Most African countries have experienced several coups or periods of military dictatorship. Between 1990 and 2018, though, the continent as a whole has trended towards more democratic governance.^[163]

Upon independence an overwhelming majority of Africans lived in extreme poverty. The continent suffered from the lack of infrastructural or industrial development under colonial rule, along with political instability. With limited financial resources or access to global markets, relatively stable countries such as Kenya still experienced only very slow economic development. Only a handful of African countries succeeded in obtaining rapid economic growth prior to 1990. Exceptions include Libya and Equatorial Guinea, both of which possess large oil reserves.

Instability throughout the continent after decolonisation resulted primarily from marginalisation of ethnic groups, and corruption. In pursuit of personal political gain, many leaders deliberately promoted ethnic conflicts, some of which had originated during the colonial period, such as from the grouping of multiple unrelated ethnic groups into a single colony, the splitting of a distinct ethnic group between multiple colonies, or existing conflicts being exacerbated by colonial rule (for instance, the preferential treatment given to ethnic Hutus over Tutsis in Rwanda during German and Belgian rule).

Faced with increasingly frequent and severe violence, military rule was widely accepted by the population of many countries as means to maintain order, and during the 1970s and 1980s a majority of African countries were controlled by military dictatorships. Territorial disputes between nations and rebellions by groups seeking independence were also common in independent African states. The most devastating of these was the Nigerian Civil War, fought between government forces and an Igbo separatist republic, which resulted in a famine that killed 1–2 million people. Two civil wars in Sudan, the first lasting from 1955 to 1972 and the second from 1983 to 2005, collectively killed around 3 million. Both were fought primarily on ethnic and religious lines.

Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union also contributed to instability. Both the Soviet Union and the United States offered considerable incentives to African political and military leaders who aligned themselves with the superpowers' foreign policy. As an example, during the Angolan Civil War, the Soviet and Cuban aligned MPLA and the American aligned UNITA received the vast majority of their military and political support from these countries. Many African countries became highly dependent on foreign aid. The sudden loss of both Soviet and American aid at the end of the Cold War and fall of the USSR resulted in severe economic and political turmoil in the countries most dependent on foreign support.

There was a major famine in Ethiopia between 1983 and 1985, killing up to 1.2 million people, which most historians attribute primarily to the forced relocation of farmworkers and seizure of grain by the communist Derg government, further exacerbated by the civil war.^{[164][165][166][167]} In 1994 a genocide in Rwanda resulted in up to 800,000 deaths, added to a severe refugee crisis and fueled the rise of militia groups in neighbouring countries. This contributed to the outbreak of the first and second Congo Wars, which were the most devastating military conflicts in modern Africa, with up to 5.5 million deaths,^[168] making it by far the deadliest conflict in modern African history and one of the costliest wars in human history.^[169]

• 
  An animated map shows the order of independence of African nations, 1950–2011.
• 
  Africa's wars and conflicts, 1980–96

    Major wars/conflicts (>100,000 casualties)

    Minor wars/conflicts

    Other conflicts
• 
  Political map of Africa in 2021

Various conflicts between various insurgent groups and governments continue. Since 2003, there has been an ongoing conflict in Darfur (Sudan), which peaked in intensity from 2003 to 2005 with notable spikes in violence in 2007 and 2013–15, killing around 300,000 people total. The Boko Haram Insurgency primarily within Nigeria (with considerable fighting in Niger, Chad, and Cameroon as well) has killed around 350,000 people since 2009. Most African conflicts have been reduced to low-intensity conflicts as of 2022. However, the Tigray War from 2020 to 2022 killed an estimated 300,000–500,000 people, primarily due to famine.

Overall though, violence across Africa has greatly declined in the 21st century, with the end of civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, and Algeria in 2002, Liberia in 2003, and Sudan and Burundi in 2005. The Second Congo War, which involved 9 countries and several insurgent groups, ended in 2003. This decline in violence coincided with many countries abandoning communist-style command economies and opening up for market reforms, which over the course of the 1990s and 2000s promoted the establishment of permanent, peaceful trade between neighbouring countries (see Capitalist peace).

Improved stability and economic reforms have led to a great increase in foreign investment into many African nations, mainly from China,^[170] which further spurred economic growth. Between 2000 and 2014, annual GDP growth in sub-Saharan Africa averaged 5.02%, doubling its total GDP from $811 billion to $1.63 trillion (constant 2015 USD).^[171] North Africa experienced comparable growth rates.^[172] A significant part of this growth can also be attributed to the facilitated diffusion of information technologies and specifically the mobile telephone.^[173] While several individual countries have maintained high growth rates, since 2014 overall growth has considerably slowed, primarily as a result of falling commodity prices, continued lack of industrialisation, and epidemics of Ebola and COVID-19.^[174][175]