Africa:Past and Present Nora Meyer and Nick Schwarte
Land Use
The main way people use the land in Africa is subsistence farming. This could cause money problems because subsistence farming is just to farm to have food for your family, you don’t make any money doing this. There is also a difference between subsistence farming and commercial farming. Commercial farming is farming to make a profit, subsistence is just to feed your family for your own needs.
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Natural Reasources
There are two main "valuable" resources in Africa, they are diamonds and gold. Half of the worlds gold comes from Africa! There are many other resources found in Africa like the three T's, Tin, Tantalum, and Tungsten, and those are used to make electronics.
Democratic Republic of Congo
There are lots of problems in the Democratic Republic of Congo. One of those problems are that the three T's, Tin, Tantalum, and Tungsten, are going into making electronics, cell phones, gaming systems, computers, etc... Another problem in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the armed rebel groups take control of mines and forces people to work in them, basically slaves. These same armed rebel groups take control of the money in Africa and bribe the government to basically stay quite about what they are doing to Africa, that is why Africa is one of the poorest countries in the world.
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GDP Per Capita
The top 5 nations in Africa with the highest GDP Per Capita are, Mauritania-12,800, South Africa-11,100, Botswana-9,200, Seychelles-7,800,and Namibia-7,300. There are also 16 nations that have a lower GDP than 1,000. The reasons why the nations with the 5 highest GDP per capita have higher ones than the countries under $1,000 are because of they have more natural resources, they trade more, they have better education, better technology, more highly skilled workforce, better transportation, and better healthcare
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Life Expectancy
The life in Africa is not that long, normally around 20-40 years old.Out of the 31 lowest life expectancy 28 of them are from Sub- Saharan Africa. The main reason for this is HIV and AIDS. 23,460,000 out of 34,000,000 people in Africa have AIDS and HIV.
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Powerful Trading EMPIRE
The three West African kingdoms are The Kingdom of Ghana, The Kingdom of Mali, and The Kingdom of Songhai.The Kingdom of Ghana was in power in 800 - 1054 CE by Historians. The Kingdom of Mali was in power in 1200 - 1400 CE. The Kingdom of Songhai was in power in 1350 - 1600 CE. The three Kingdoms participated in the Trans-Saharan Trade Network. The two commodities that were traded were gold and salt, West Africa brought gold and North Africa brought salt.
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Slaves on the Trans-Saharan Network
Muslims traded for African slaves because Muslims cannot enslave other Muslims. Muslims and African slave traders primarily use slaves for prisoners of war and in military. The Muslim and African enslavement of Africans was different from European enslavement of Africans because they treated them much better, slaves had the ability to own property, serve as generals in armies, and it was easier to earn freedom.
Ibn Battuta: Explorer
Ibn Battuta began his travels when he was 21 years old, he set from the country “Morocco” and the city “Tangier”. He traveled 75000 miles over Africa and Asia, he didn't come back for 30 years. When his travels were over he settled down to dictate his memoir.
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King Mansa Musa and Timbuktu
King Mansa Musa was the king of Mali during 1280CE-1337CEKing. Mansa Musa was estimated to have a net worth 400 billion dollars. In the years 1324 CE & 1325 CE he went on a hajj to Mecca. He Brought: 60,000 people, 80 camels, 300 lbs of gold, 500 slaves each carrying a gold staff, his servant wife, and her 500 attendants, but he also brought back Muslim scholars and architects to build: cities, mosques, and schools in Timbuktu. Timbuktu became the center for trade and learning. They taught: religion, Mathematics, music, law, and literature.
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