It is today believed that humanity originated in Africa and as soon as human societies formed so did economic activity. Earliest humans were hunter gatherers living in small family groupings. Even then there was considerable trade, that could cover long distances. Archeologists have found that trade in luxury items like precious metals and shells crossed the entirety of the continent. A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. ... Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ... A hunter-gatherer society is in anthropological terms one whose predominant method of subsistence involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, using foraging and hunting, without significant recourse to the domestication of either. ...

Origins of agriculture

The first agriculture in Africa is believed to have begun in the heart of the Sahara Desert, but which in 5200 BC was far more moist and densely populated. Several native species were domesticated, most importantly sorghum which spread through West Africa and the Sahel. The Sahara at this time was like the Sahel today. Its wide open fields made cultivation easy, but the poor soil and limited rain made intensive farming impossible. The local crops were also not ideal and produced fewer calories than those of other regions. These factors limited surpluses and kept populations sparse and unurbanized. The Sahara is the worlds second largest desert (second to Antarctica), over 9,000,000 km² (3,500,000 mi²), located in northern Africa and is 2. ... (7th millennium BC – 6th millennium BC – 5th millennium BC – other millennia) // Events c. ... Species About 30 species, see text Sorghum is a genus of about 20 species of grasses, native to tropical and subtropical regions of Eastern Africa, with one species native to Mexico. ...  Western Africa (UN subregion)  Maghreb West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. ... The location of Sahel in Africa The Sahel (from Arabic ساحل, sahil, shore, border or coast of the Sahara desert) is the boundary zone in Africa between the Sahara to the north and the more fertile region to the south, known as the Sudan (not to be confused with the country...

North Africa thus took a very different route from the southern regions. Climatically it is closely linked to the Middle East and the Fertile Crescent and the agricultural techniques of that region were adopted wholesale. This included a very different sets of crops, such as wheat, barley, and grapes. North Africa was also blessed by one of the richest agricultural regions in the world in the form of the Nile River valley. With the arrival of agriculture the Nile region quickly became one of the most densely populated in the world, and the Egyptians home to one of the first civilizations.  Northern Africa (UN subregion)  geographic, including above North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... The Fertile Crescent is a region in the Middle East incorporating present-day Israel, West Bank, and Lebanon and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq and south-eastern Turkey. ... Species T. boeoticum T. compactum T. dicoccoides T. dicoccon T. durum T. monococcum T. spelta T. sphaerococcum References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 Wheat (Triticum spp. ... Binomial name Hordeum vulgare L. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a major food and animal feed crop, a member of the grass family Poaceae. ... Species Vitis acerifolia Vitis aestivalis Vitis amurensis Vitis arizonica Vitis x bourquina Vitis californica Vitis x champinii Vitis cinerea Vitis x doaniana Vitis girdiana Vitis labrusca Vitis x labruscana Vitis monticola Vitis mustangensis Vitis x novae-angliae Vitis palmata Vitis riparia Vitis rotundifolia Vitis rupestris Vitis shuttleworthii Vitis tiliifolia Vitis... There is also Nile, a death metal band from South Carolina, USA. The Nile in Egypt Length 6 695 km Elevation of the source 1 134 m Average discharge 2 830 m³/s Area watershed 3 400 000 km² Origin Africa Mouth the Mediterranean Basin countries Uganda - Sudan - Egypt The...

The drying of the Sahara created a formidable barrier between the northern and southern portions of the continent. Two important exceptions were Nubia that was linked to Egypt by the Nile and Ethiopia that could trade with the northern regions over the Red Sea. Powerful states grew up in these regions such as Kush in Nubia and Axum in Ethiopia. From these regions ideas and technologies from the Middle East and Europe could travel to Sub-Saharan Africa. Today Nubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan, but in ancient times it was an independent kingdom. ... Location of the Red Sea Image:Red Seaimage. ... Aerial view of the pyramids at Meroë Kush or Cush was a civilization centered in the North African region of Nubia, located in what is today southern Egypt and northern Sudan. ... Axum, properly Aksum, is a city in Tigray, northern Ethiopia, located at 14°07. ...

One of these was iron working that arrived, presumably from Sudan around 1200 BC and quickly spread to West Africa and reached South Africa by the fifth century AD. Some historians believe that iron working may have been developed independently in Africa. Unlike other continents Africa did not have a period of copper and bronze working before the Iron Age. Copper is quite rare in Africa while iron is quite common. In Nubia and Ethiopia iron, trade, and agricultural surpluses lead to the establishment of cities and civilizations. General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Atomic mass 55. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic brown Atomic mass 63. ... Assorted ancient bronze castings found as part of a cache, probably intended for recycling. ... Iron Age Axe found on Gotland This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age, for the mythological Iron Age see Iron Age (mythology). ...

In the still more sparsely settled rest of the continent this same period sees the expansion of the Bantu speaking peoples. Much is still not known about the Bantu expansion, including its origin point. Some argue that the Bantu were refugees from the drying Sahara, most believe that they originated in modern day Nigeria. It is known that their expansion was extremely rapid and massive. Over the centuries the entire southern half of Africa was covered, excluding only the Kalahari dessert. It is believed that the Bantu expansion was fueled by iron tools and also cattle based pastoralism, and cattle based economies became central in many of the Bantu lands. Only those lands that were too dry for cattle would in time become Bantu. This expansion only ended relatively recently. In the year 1000 Arab traders show that the Bantu had not reached as far as Mozambique, and European settlers observed the Bantu expansion into South Africa under the Zulu and others. Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu (dull yellow) vs. ... The Kalahari Desert is a large, arid to semi-arid sandy area in southern Africa that covers about 500,000 km². It covers 70% of Botswana, and parts of Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle (called cows in vernacular usage, kine archaic, or ky as the Scots plural of coo) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... Pastoralism is a form of cultivation, such as Agriculture and Horticulture. ... The Zulu are an African ethnic group of about 11 million people who live mainly in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. ...

The importation Bantu pastoralism reshaped the continent's economy. Sometime in the first millennium and equally important change began as crops began to arrive from Southeast Asia. The Indian Ocean has always been far more open to trade than the turbulent Atlantic and Pacific. Traders could ride the monsoon winds west early in the year and return east on them later. It is guessed that these crops first arrived in Madagascar, which also adopted Southeast Asian languages, sometime between AD 300 and 800. From the island the crops crossed to East Africa. They included many crops, the most important being the banana. Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one_fifth of its surface. ... For other meanings of Pacific, see Pacific (disambiguation). ... Monsoon in the Vindhya, a mountain chain in central India A monsoon is a (wind) pattern that reverses direction on a seasonal basis. ... Species Hybrid origin; see text A banana plant is a herb, in the genus Musa, which because of its size and structure, is often mistaken for a tree. ...

The banana and other crops allowed for more intensive cultivation in the tropical regions of Africa, this was most notable in the Great Lakes region, and area with excellent soil, that saw many cities and states form, their populations being fed largely by bananas. The Great Lakes of Africa are a series of lakes in and around the Great Rift Valley. ...

Trade

While some trade had always occurred, the rise of cities and empires made trade far more central to the African economy. North Africa was central to the trade of the entire Mediterranean region. Other than Egypt this trade was mostly controlled by the Phoenicians who came to dominate North Africa, with Carthage becoming their most important city. The Greeks controlled much of the eastern trade, including that along the Red Sea with Ethiopia. In this region a number of Greek trading cities were established that acted as a conduit for their civilization and learning. The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ... Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plain of what is now Lebanon and Syria. ... A map of the central Mediterranean Sea, showing the location of Carthage (near modern Tunis). ...

The Egyptian (and later, Roman) port of Alexandria (founded by Alexander the Great in 334 BC) was one of the hubs for Mediterranean trade for many centuries. Well into the nineteenth century Egypt remained one of the most developed parts of the world outside Europe. For other senses of this name, see Roman Empire (disambiguation). ... This article needs to be updated. ... Alexander the Great (in Greek , transliterated Megas Alexandros) (July 356 BC – June 11, 323 BC), King of Macedon (336–323 BC), is considered one of the most successful military commanders in world history, conquering most of the world known to the ancient Greeks before his death. ... Events Alexander the Great crosses the Bosporus, invading Persia. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

For most of the first millennium AD, the Axumite Kingdom has created a prosperous trade empire on the East Coast (where today we can find the states of Ethiopia and Eritrea). Axum had a powerful navy and trading links reaching as far as the Byzantine Empire and India. The Axumite Kingdom, also known as the Aksum Kingdom, was an important trading nation in northeastern Africa, growing from circa the 5th century BC to become an important trading nation by the 1st century AD. It converted to Christianity in 325 or 328 (various sources). ... Byzantine Empire (Greek: ), is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ...

For the rest of Africa, trade was far more limited. Low population densities made profitable commerce difficult. The massive barrier of the Congo rainforests were as imposing as the Sahara blocking trade through the center of the continent.

It was the arrival of the Islamic armies that transformed the economies of much of Africa. Islam had comparatively little impact on North Africa where large cities, literacy, and centralized states had been the norm. The Arabs were far more effective a penetrating the Sahara than the Christians ever were, largely due to the camel, which had carried the Arab expansion and would soon carry large amounts of trade across the desert. Islam (Arabic: ; ( ) is a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the Quran. ... Species Camelus bactrianus Camelus dromedarius A camel is either of the two species of large even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus, the Dromedary (single hump) and the Bactrian Camel (double hump). ...

Thus a series of states developed in the Sahel on the southern edge of the Sahara that made immense profits from trading across the desert. The first of these was the Kingdom of Ghana, reaching it peak in the twelfth century. Soon others such as the Mali Empire and Kanem-Bornu also arose in this region. The main trade of these states was gold that was plentiful in Guinea. Also important was the trans-Saharan slave trade that shipped large numbers of slaves to North Africa. The location of Sahel in Africa The Sahel (from Arabic ساحل, sahil, shore, border or coast of the Sahara desert) is the boundary zone in Africa between the Sahara to the north and the more fertile region to the south, known as the Sudan (not to be confused with the country... The Ghana Empire (existed c. ... The Mali Empire, c. ... The Kanem-Bornu Empire existed in Africa, established around 1200 and lasting, in a changed form, until the 1840s. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ... The slave trade means a trade in human beings treated as objects of commerce. ...

An equally important trade was developing on the east coast of the continent as Swahili traders linked the region into an Indian Ocean trading network that brought imports of Chinese pottery and Indian fabrics in exchange for gold, ivory, and slaves. Swahili (also called Kiswahili; see Kiswahili for a discussion of the nomenclature) is an agglutinative Bantu language widely spoken in East Africa. ... An elaborately carved ivory decoration Ivory is a hard, white, opaque substance that is the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth, narwhal, etc. ...

European influence

The Atlantic Ocean had long been all but impenetrable to the galleys that plied the Mediterranean. That any ship needed to pass thousands of kilometers of waterless desert before reaching any populated regions also made trade impossible. These barriers were overcome by the development of the caravel in Europe. Previously trade with Sub-Saharan Africa could only be conducted through North African middlemen. Now Europeans could trade directly with the Africans themselves. A French galley and Dutch men-of-war off a port by Abraham Willaerts, painted 17th century. ... A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable, three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish for long voyages of exploration beginning in the 15th century. ...

The first to arrive were the Portuguese who began significant trading with West Africa in the fifteenth century. This trade was primarily for the same commodities the Arabs had bough, gold ivory and slaves. The Portuguese sold the Africans Indian cloth and European manufactured goods, but refused to sell them guns. Soon, however, other European powers such as France, Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain were developing their own trade with Africa, and they had fewer worries.

This valuable trade lead to rapid change in West Africa. The region had long been agriculturally productive and, especially in western Nigeria densely populated. The massive profits from trade and the arrival of guns lead to significant centralization and a number of states formed in the region such as the Ashanti Confederacy and Kingdom of Benin. These states became some of the wealthiest and most advanced in Africa. The wealthy merchants began to send their children to European universities and their well armed standing armies could challenge European forces. A shrunken Ashanti Confederacy near the end of its existence in 1896 The Ashanti Kingdom or Confederacy was a powerful state in West Africa in the years prior to European colonization. ... The Kingdom of Benin was a widespread empire, which flourished from the 14th to the 19th century. ...

The most important trade fueling this economic growth in West Africa was that of slavery. Early historians believed slavery had a strongly negative impact on the region, depriving it of population and fueling warfare. Modern historians believe the African slave trade had a far smaller effect on Africa that was earlier believed. While the Atlantic slave trade had a massive demographic effect on the Americas, the number of slaves exported annually were more than made up for by natural population growth. While those sold into slavery were condemned to repression, servitude and an early death, to those left behind the trade was quite profitable and beneficial. Slaves were not cheap, and annually hundreds of thousands of muskets arrived in West Africa, vast quantifies of clothing and other manufactured goods. All evidence points to standard of living for West Africans increasing steadily during this period. Slave transport in Africa, from a 19th century engraving The African slave trade dates back thousands of years to Biblical times and continues today unabated in most parts of Africa. ... The Atlantic slave trade was the purchase and transport of black Africans into bondage and servitude in the New World. ... The Standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people. ...

Colonialism

See also

• Economy of Africa
• History of Africa
• Colonization of Africa
• Economic history of Europe