DBQ Essay Notes

DBQ Essay Europeans brought many new things when they arrived in Africa, but Africa already had many great achievement within the continent. Although Europeans got Africa to advance more and gave them lots of different new technologies; Africa already had great trade and trade routes with a variety of countries. They also had extremely safe cities due to the strong political system and wealthy individuals and cities. African cities like Aksum and Kilwa were nearby the Red Sea which was an important body of water that had tons of trade routes that brought many products over to Africa. During the time before the Europeans came, cities like Ghana and people like Mansa Musa had incredible wealth and were able to get things created like statues. African cities like Mali had a very safe society due to the political system that was used in it. African cities close to the Red Sea made trade through the sea very strong in Africa which is why it was an achievement for them. Places like Aksum, which have great ports and sea routes that made trading possible to countries in the Mediterranean (Doc 1).The author of the Aksum document was a very informative way to show the trade routes. People who traded, not only traded which products, but also traded in knowledge (Doc 5). This was told in a very opinionated way by a Moroccan traveler, Leo Africanus. Kilwa was also connected to different sea routes that gave them the products like gold and ivory possible from countries like India (Doc 8). Ibn Battuta was a man who visited Kilwa and described it as a very admirable city for overseas trading. They all show how trade was great for Africa in both economical and culture based. To investigate the topic of trade more, it would be important to have a document about the products Aksum imported and exported. This would have gave historians information about what the city needed and what they created for surplus. Wealth was something that cities and individuals had in Africa because of gold and other materialistic things. The city of Ghana can range from gold horse equipment to the shield of pages (Doc 2). The writer, Al-Bakri wrote this in 1067 which had a very proud tone to the document. The author of the fourth document really was impressed by the wealth of Mansa Musa, which was a man with impeccable wealth and the generosity to give lots of it away to charity (Doc 4). The bronze statues that were created in a very old tradition style was a way to show how statues were built for the wealthy (Doc 7), which had a very artistic and informative written document. These were all ways to show the wealth people or cities had in Africa. The lack of telling us how the government gave Ghana wealth gives us an unanswered question to how the government gave it wealth. Historians would want to know because it would tell exactly how they got the wealthy with the political system. African cities also emphasized safety and security through the political system they were in. Ghana had a very efficient government which also gave us control of the land that maintained peace for trading with a strong military. It made Ghana into a very secure city (Doc 3). The journalist for the newspaper really showed the Ghana lifestyle through an African’s eyes in a very admirable way. Ibn Battuta was impressed with the justice and security enjoyed by all the people of Mali (Doc 6), which was a journalistic type of description from Ibn Battuta. The political system was superb against any kind of crime and gave extremely harsh punishments without mercy which gave Mali a very peaceful city. It would be important to know how harsh the punishments were for the people of Mali because it would give the Historians a way to know if they were truly harsh or not. By the time Europeans arrived in Africa, they already had many achievements. One being the oversea routes in the Red Sea which gave trade a very strong power. Lots of products like gold, ivory, animal skins, and other luxuries were gained. They also had a very strong political systems that emphasized a lot on security and lots of wealthy cities and or individuals. Unlike the European advancements when they settled into Africa, they already had many achievements inside Africa that made it extremely strong.