Classical Era Variations: Africa and the Americas 500 b.c.e.–1200 c.e. -- Big Picture Question #3
�What generated change in the histories of Africa and the Americas during the classical era?
What generated change in the histories of Africa
and the Americas during the classical era?
In Africa, driving forces of change included the migration of the Bantu peoples into Africa south of the equator, the emergence of Niger Valley urban centers, and the rise and fall of both Axum and Meroë.
The Bantu migrants did NOT set out with the expressed intention of conquering their neighbors. Instead this resulted in a cultural diffusion shown today by the various similar languages throughout southern Africa.
Bantu religious practitioners held that revelation was "continuous" & did not possess an advanced religious ideology
Linguists have teased out evidence of cultural change, especially from the many strands of Bantu (see Christopher Ehret, An African Classical Age).
YouTube: Jared Diamond Uncovers the Bantu Through Language
What generated change in the histories of Africa and
the Americas during the classical era?
Contact with the trade networks of Eurasia also generated change in Africa.
Through contact along these networks, Christianity arrived in northeastern Africa, including Axum. Axum derived its written script from South Arabia.
The Bantu-speaking peoples adopted new crops, including coconuts, sugarcane, and especially bananas, which Indonesian sailors and immigrants brought to East Africa early in the first millennium c.e.
What generated change in the histories of Africa and the
Americas during the classical era?
In the Americas, the emergence of the Maya and Teotihuacán civilizations pushed Mesoamerican civilization toward new levels of complexity.
Maya: The major classical civilization of Mesoamerica; flourished from 250 to 900 c.e.
Maya language and folkways still survive among about 6 million people.
The Maya: Writing and Warfare
Ceremonial centers developed as early as 2000 b.c.e. in present-day Guatemala & Yucatan
Classical Maya civilization: 250–900 c.e.
Maya economy
Political system of city-states & regional kingdoms was highly fragmented
Maya: rapid collapse in the century after long-term drought began in 840
Reasons Posited for the Collapse:
Drought and natural disaster may have resulted due to the factors above.
Some 88 different theories or variations of theories attempting to explain the Classic Maya Collapse have been identified.
From climate change to deforestation to lack of action by Mayan kings, there is no universally accepted collapse theory, although drought is gaining momentum as the leading explanation.
What generated change in the histories of Africa and the
Americas during the classical era?
The Chavín religious cult provided for the first time & for several centuries a measure of economic and cultural integration to much of the Peruvian Andes.
What generated change in the histories of Africa and the Americas during the classical era?
Additional challenging evidence is the critical arrival of maize from Mesoamerica into the Ancestral Pueblo & mound-building societies.
What generated change in the histories of Africa & Americas during the classical era?
The spread of maize into North America made it possible for the Ancestral Pueblo society to take shape and allowed Cahokia to achieve a higher degree of sophistication than did the mound-building societies that preceded it.