Well, okay, now it's time to see how state building was going over in Africa from 1200 to 1450. And if I'm honest, it's pretty spicy. So if you're ready to get them brain cows milked, well, let's get to it. So let's begin in Sub-Saharan Africa, and that's the region that's sub or, you know, below the massive Saharan desert right here. And let me introduce you to the Swahili civilization, which emerged on Africa's east coast around the 8th century. Now this was a collection of independent city-states which rose to prominence because of their strategic location right here on the coast, which gave them access to the bustling Indian Ocean trade.
It turns out they found that merchants that arrived on the coast from Arabia and Persia and India, etc. were real interested in goods like gold and ivory and timber and, to a limited degree, enslaved people. And because these commercial city-states focused mostly on trade, they imported many of the goods that they sold from folks in the African interior who were farmers and pastoralists. Oh, and by the way, if you need some help getting an A in your class and a 5 on your exam in May, then check the link in the description to get your hands on my AP Whirl Heimler Review Guide which has got everything you need and nothing you don't in order to study fast for your exams.
So if that's something you're into, get your clicky finger out and have a look. Okay, now it's also important to know that Islam became a dominant belief system in the Swahili civilization. And that's not hard to understand, right? Like these cities thrived on trade, and which kind of merchants in the Indian Ocean were kind of the biggest deal?
Muslim merchants. And so conversion among the Swahili elite took place voluntarily, and that was great for them because it connected them to the wider economic world of Dar al-Islam. Additionally, the influence of Islam can be seen in the Swahili language itself, which was spoken across this civilization. It was kind of a hybrid between the Bantu family of languages, which were indigenous to the area, and Arabic, which came from the outside. Now each of these cities was ruled by its own king, and because the main source of wealth for them was international trade, there was pretty fierce competition between them.
And I can see it in your eyes, you're getting restless, and you're like, can we please come? compare the Swahili states with state structures that we considered in previous videos? And you know that's the kind of desire I cannot help. but Grant, so let's do it. And just for funsies, let's bring in our friends over in Song, China.
Now both of them to various degrees expanded their wealth by participating in trade beyond their borders. Both of them featured a hierarchical class structure that organized their societies. China did it with Confucian ideals while the Swahili states elevated the merchant elite above commoners. But there were important differences too. Whereas China's political structure was highly centralized with an emperor telling everyone what to do, there was no larger political structure that unified the Swahili states.
Anyway, let's move further south and consider the rise of another commercial African state. state, namely the Great Zimbabwe. Even though this state was further inland, they also got filthy rich by participating in the Indian Ocean trade, which they facilitated by controlling several ports on the coast.
Mainly they were exporting gold, although their economic bread and butter revolved around farming and cattle herding. Additionally, with the prodigious amounts of boom boom raked in, Zimbabwe rulers constructed this massive capital city, which after the pyramids in Egypt were the largest structures in all of Africa. It housed the members of the royal court and represented the seat of power for this state. But now let's head west and get acquainted with some states in West Africa.
West Africa, and over here we have a mixture of different state structures. Over the course of centuries, large centralized empires rose and fell, including Ghana and Mali and the Songhai, which we're going to talk a lot more about in Unit 2. But for now, let's focus on the Hausa Kingdoms, which are scattered throughout this region right here. Now these were a collection of city-states that were independent politically and gained power and wealth through trade across the Trans-Saharan Trade Network. Now what other network of commercialized city-states on the East Coast does that sound like?
What was that? Does anybody know? Oh, me?
Yeah, it's the Swahili civilization! Definitely. Yes, the Hausa kingdoms resembled the Swahili states in a lot of ways. Hausa states were urbanized and commercialized and acted as kind of middlemen for goods grown in the interior, which they integrated into trade patterns with other states across West and North Africa.
Additionally, each of these Hausa states was ruled by a king and imposed social hierarchies on their societies. And even more additionally, Hausa rulers eventually converted to Islam, which again further facilitated trade with Muslim merchants. Now it's fair to say that in general, more influential and powerful African states during this period adopted Islam to both organize their societies and facilitate trade with the larger network present in Dar al-Islam.
But generalizations are made to be broken, y'all, and so let me tell you about the big honking exception to this rule, namely Ethiopia. Now this African kingdom was Christian, and as such it fit in with the rest of the African states about as well as that kid who goes to high school dressed like this every day. And that was me. I was that kid.
Anyway, Christian rulers here commissioned the construction of massive stone churches which communicated to their subjects who was in charge. And then starting in the second half of the 13th century, this kingdom grew wealthy through trade, both in the Mediterranean Sea and in the larger Indian Ocean network, not least by trading one of their most valuable commodities, namely salt. Now, Ethiopia was also a centralized power, with a king sitting at the top and a stratified class hierarchy cascading below him. And in those ways, Ethiopia resembled a lot of other power and social structures across the world.
Okay, well click here to keep watching my other videos for Unit 1, and click here to grab my AP World Heimler Review Guide, which has everything you need to get an A in your class and a 5 on your exam in May. And I appreciate you hanging out, and I'll catch you on the flip-flop. Heimler out.