In Africa there is a lot of Plantonuim, this Plantonuim is eighty percent of the worlds Plantonuim, the presented fact came off of Mr. Nizar Hadeli. This is a positive because the more that Africa has what the world needs the more money it brings. Africa has a lot of soil that other countries are not used to, this is a great positive because when the Europeans came they were fine at first in southern Africa but as they made their way up many people could grow crops because they did not understand the soil, so the Europeans could not plant above Capricorn. The following fact comes from the movie Guns, Germs, and Steal. Another beneficial thing about Africa is how they are in the
In contrast, the development of the Saharan Caravan trade route was quite different to the Silk Road’s development throughout time. The development mainly was dependent on the rise of the empire of Ghana. The Mediterranean economies where short of gold and so they could supply salt to other countries those were short of it. The Saharan Caravan trade route also developed because of the slave trade. This made a huge contribution to the development because a large number of Africans were sent to the north, to serve as slaves or domestic workers.
Access to commodities such as fabrics, spices, and gold motivated a European quest for a faster means to reach South Asia. It was this search that led the Portuguese down the coast of West Africa to Sierra Leone in 1460. Due to several technological and cultural advantages, Portugal dominated world trade for nearly 200 years, from the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries. While, in the fifteenth century, the rest of Europe was decimated by the Black Plague, Portugal was protected by its physical isolation. Additionally, Portugal had an unusually strong national identity, due to its natural geographic borders, allowing the pooling of the considerable economic resources necessary to fund these ambitious explorations.
Another thing was that Islam promoted more equalitarian social arrangements that were new and attractive to the Indians. West Africa, experienced both the cultural influence of Islam and its own internal state building, for example, it civilizations had new developments that produced, in some places, great artistic accomplishments. In Africa, the spread of Islam empowered many things. For one Islam provided new influences and contacts without uniting the African cultures The spread of Islam across much of the northern third of Africa produced intense effects on those who converted and those who were against the new faith. Islam also linked Africa more closely to the outside world through trade, religion, and politics.
The needs of British manufacturers certainly did contribute to the expansion of the slave trade from 1760 – 1800 as they needed all sorts of materials for making what they did, However, there were other factors that contributed as well such as consumer demand, the profitability of the slave trade, the need for a labour force on the plantations and the development of the triangular trading system. Consumer demand was high during the slave trade from all types of industry for example; coal, metal, and ship building materials needed to make the ships that would trade and transport slaves were high on the demand list. It wasn’t just the industries demanding, it was the British public who now had a taste for the Caribbean goods such as sugar, rum, tobacco, coffee and cotton for clothes. The introduction of tobacco had high demand as people would become literally addicted to it. So this was also a key factor in the expansion of the slave trade.
Fundamental factors like the growing powers all the governments, a new thrust and desire for foreign goods- especially Asian goods, and a desire to spread the Christian religion drew the Europeans to the exploration, conquest and settlement of the New World. The key players in exploration of the New World all became more powerful. The Portuguese set up trading posts along the coast of Africa which allowed money to flow through the country, giving them more power. The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile unified the kingdom of Spain, which increased its power. This increase in power made many countries and governments hungry for more power and would do anything to find it.
This enabled trade that region to occur faster than ever before. Another change in the Indian Ocean’s commerce came through new strains of cereals and maize found in the America’s, which became a new commodity for trade. Along with grains came another new commodity for trade: humans. During 1000-1750 AD, the Fatimid Dynasty, a Muslim government in Egypt, began to slowly take over surrounding regions in Africa. After permeating African society, Muslim merchants began capturing slaves and selling them to buyers in Arabia, where slaves were prized as status symbols.
Largely in response to big demand, more Mexican silver was produced in much greater quantities this time around during the eighteenth century than that had been produced by all of Spanish America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries combined. Another main point was that by the middle of the 18th century so much silver flooded into China that super-profits had been eliminated. Meanwhile the British gained control of a new, fast growing market – opium. The British would import Bengal opium into China in exchange for Chinese exports of tea. This market was also linked to American tobacco introduction, because opium would be mixed with tobacco leaves and smoked.
One factor that helped economical expansion was industrialization. During colonialism, Africa experienced a rise in its economical power due to new means of exploring natural resources, such as railways and new mining technology, brought in by the Europeans. Even though the colonists took away a large amount of the resources, it still had a massive impact on Africa’s economy as Leander Heldring and James A Robinson stated in their article “Colonialism and development in Africa”. Another factor that helped Africa to expand its economy was the introducing of the African goods on the international market. Education was another good effect of colonialism.
However, after its spread, its ideas were changed to fit the already present belief systems of the people living there. First, Islam, like many other religions, spread through trade. Trading was the first form of interactions between different civilizations and allowed not only goods to travel from place to place, but