Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume IV
- The Cambridge World History
- A World with States, Empires, and Networks, 1200 bce–900 ce
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: the world from 1200 bce to 900 ce
- Part I Global histories
- Part II Trans-regional and regional perspectives
- 10 Western and Central Eurasia
- 11 Regional study: Baktria – the crossroads of ancient Eurasia
- 12 The Mediterranean
- 13 Regional study: Athens in the fifth century bce
- 14 Late antiquity in Europe c. 300–900 ce
- 15 East Asia
- 16 Regional study: Confucianism and the state
- 17 Regional study: exchanges within the Silk Roads world system
- 18 South Asia
- 19 Regional study: Pataliputra
- 20 The Americas
- 21 Regional study: Chaco Canyon and the US Southwest
- 22 Australasia and the Pacific
- 23 Africa: states, empires, and connections
- 24 Regional study: trans-Saharan trade
- Index
- References
23 - Africa: states, empires, and connections
from Part II - Trans-regional and regional perspectives
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume IV
- The Cambridge World History
- A World with States, Empires, and Networks, 1200 bce–900 ce
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: the world from 1200 bce to 900 ce
- Part I Global histories
- Part II Trans-regional and regional perspectives
- 10 Western and Central Eurasia
- 11 Regional study: Baktria – the crossroads of ancient Eurasia
- 12 The Mediterranean
- 13 Regional study: Athens in the fifth century bce
- 14 Late antiquity in Europe c. 300–900 ce
- 15 East Asia
- 16 Regional study: Confucianism and the state
- 17 Regional study: exchanges within the Silk Roads world system
- 18 South Asia
- 19 Regional study: Pataliputra
- 20 The Americas
- 21 Regional study: Chaco Canyon and the US Southwest
- 22 Australasia and the Pacific
- 23 Africa: states, empires, and connections
- 24 Regional study: trans-Saharan trade
- Index
- References
Summary
Ancient Africa occupies a peculiar place in the scholarship on world history. Raymond Mauny, the great French historian of Medieval Africa, entitled his history of ancient Africa Les siecles obscurs de l'Afrique, Africa, dark, of course, not because nothing important happened but because of the lack of written sources. The twelfth century BCE was marked by a true 'crisis of the old order' in western Asia and North Africa. The integration of North Africa into the Roman Empire coincided with a massive increase in demand for the products of the region to meet the needs of Rome with its huge population, perhaps a million strong, and the western Mediterranean provinces. The isolation of Sub-Saharan Africa from Eurasia that had begun in the third millennium BCE was gradually overcome. By the fourth century CE, the framework for the full reintegration of Sub-Saharan Africa into Eurasia as a whole was in place.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History , pp. 631 - 661Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
Further Reading
Aubet, Maria Eugenia, The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies, and Trade, 2nd edn., Cambridge University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Boardman, John, The Greeks Overseas: Their Early Colonies and Trade, 4th edn., London: Thames and Hudson, 1999.Google Scholar
Brett, Michael, and Fentress, Elizabeth, The Berbers, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1996.Google Scholar
Burstein, Stanley M., Graeco-Africana: Studies in the History of Greek Relations with Egypt and Nubia, New Rochelle, ny: Caratzas, 1995.Google Scholar
Burstein, Stanley M. (ed.), Ancient African Civilizations: Kush and Axum, 2nd edn., Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2009.Google Scholar
Cherry, David, Frontier and Society in Roman North Africa, Oxford University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connah, Graham, African Civilizations: An Archaeological Perspective, 2nd edn., Cambridge University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Desanges, Jehan, Recherches sur l’Activité des Méditerranéens aux Confins de l’Afrique, Paris: Diffusion de Boccard, 1978.Google Scholar
Ehret, Christopher, An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 bc to ad 400, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Ehret, Christopher, The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Fage, J. D. (ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa, Cambridge University Press, 1978, vol. ii.Google Scholar
Lancel, Serge, Carthage: A History, trans. Nevill, Antonia, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1992.Google Scholar
Leahy, Anthony (ed.), Libya and Egypt c. 1300–750 bce, London: SOAS Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, 1990.Google Scholar
Mattingly, David, Imperialism, Power, and Identity: Experiencing the Roman Empire, Princeton University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
McIntosh, Roderick J., Ancient Middle Niger: Urbanism and Self-Organizing Landscape, Cambridge University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Peter, African Connections: Archaeological Perspectives on Africa and the Wider World, Walnut Creek, ca: AltaMira Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Mokhtar, Gamal (ed.), General History of Africa, vol. ii: Ancient Civilizations of Africa, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Morkot, Robert, G., The Black Pharaohs: Egypt’s Nubian Rulers, London: The Rubicon Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Munro-Hay, Stuart, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity, Edinburgh University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Phillipson, David W., African Archaeology, 2nd edn., Cambridge University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Phillipson, David W., Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum & the Northern Horn: 1000 bc–ad 1300, Woodbridge: James Currey, 2012.Google Scholar
Roller, Duane W., Through the Pillars of Herakles: Greco-Roman Exploration of the Atlantic, New York: Routledge, 2006.Google Scholar
Török, László, The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization, Handbook of Oriental Studies, vol. 31, Leiden: Brill, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welsby, Derek A., The Kingdom of Kush: The Napatan and Meroitic Empires, London: British Museum Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Welsby, Derek A., The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia: Pagans, Christians and Muslims along the Middle Nile, London: British Museum Press, 2002.Google Scholar