West Africa

Trading Empires By 200 A.D., West African empires thrived because of their location on trade routes across the Sahara Desert gold and salt were the main products traded

Trading Empires Before colonialism, West African form of government was stateless societies stateless society: society in which people rely on family ancestors to govern their clan not an elected government or a monarch oldest man was chief leaders not voted on members work through differences to cooperate and share power

Slavery West Africa was one of the busiest points for exporting slaves during the slave trade Starting in 1500, the Portuguese controlled trade along coastal Arica and sent African slaves to the Caribbean English, French, and Dutch established trading posts

Slavery European merchants built relationships with African rulers willing to trade slaves slavery was already widespread in African society, trading in slavery across the Sahara had been going on for years Africans and Europeans set up a system for enslaving Africans and shipping them from Africa to the Americas

Slavery Africans and Europeans had fairly equal role in slave trade

Slavery Africans gathered the slaves some were kidnapped in raids by African slavers others were made slaves by a legal judgement or to pay a debt most were taken captive in war Coastal West African states were the middlemen in the slave trade they established trade routes from interior states to the coast and handled the exchange with European traders

Triangle Trade

Slave ship deck plan

Rescued slaves: 1868

Economy of West Africa The economy of West Africa is based on the sale of its products to industrialized countries They need political stability in order to have economic success

Economy of West Africa For political stability, a country needs: education business leaders political experience all basic needs met health care

Example: Ghana (stable) vs Sierra Leone (unstable) exports gold, diamonds, cocoa one of the most stable nations in the region power changes hands relatively peacefully one of Africa’s fastest growing economies Sierra Leone emerged from a decade of civil war in 2002 poverty and unemployment still major challenges economic growth in recent years but remains at the bottom for human development

Liberia Liberia, along with Ethiopia, was one of only 2 African countries that were not colonized by Europeans 1820’s: settled by the American Colonization Society as a colony of freed African-American slaves 1847: Liberia declared its independence from the American Colonization Society

Ebola Ebola outbreak in West Africa reported in March, 2014 outbreak traced to a 2 year old who died in December, 2013 in Guinea Deadliest occurrence since discovered in 1976

Ebola This outbreak has killed more than all other outbreaks combine over 11,000 deaths in 6 countries including the US this is an underestimate because of difficulty collecting data Liberia has been the worst hit Outbreak was declared over in May, 2015 but reemerged 7 weeks later

Label Label the following countries on your map: Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia