Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVOLUME VI
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part One Global matrices
- Part Two Macro-regions
- 7 Eurasia after the Mongols
- 8 Continuity and change in the Indian Ocean basin
- 9 The Americas in the age of indigenous empires
- 10 Africa in world history, 1400 to 1800
- Part Three Large-scale political formations
- Part Four Crossroads regions
- Part Five Overview
- Index
- References
10 - Africa in world history, 1400 to 1800
from Part Two - Macro-regions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVOLUME VI
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part One Global matrices
- Part Two Macro-regions
- 7 Eurasia after the Mongols
- 8 Continuity and change in the Indian Ocean basin
- 9 The Americas in the age of indigenous empires
- 10 Africa in world history, 1400 to 1800
- Part Three Large-scale political formations
- Part Four Crossroads regions
- Part Five Overview
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter offers a synthesis of Africa's early modern history with particular reference to phases of historical change and social development and their intersections with the rest of the world as well as the local interplay of structure, culture and historically determined forms of social production. It divides Africa into two geo-regions: the greater Sahara, and greater Zambezia. The historical landscape of the greater Sahara in the early modern period was dominated by dense urban networks and city-oriented economies. Near the Limpopo River, the stratified community of Thulamela, dated between the thirteenth and late seventeenth centuries, had elites residing in a large dzimbabwe on the hilltop and the rest of the population of craftsmen, herders and peasants in the valley below. The stone fort and the palace became prominent landscape features in southern Zambezia from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries in the context of an expanding mercantile frontier, political de-centralization on a regional scale and militarism.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History , pp. 243 - 268Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
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