Chapter 19 Section 1

East Africa

I) Continental Crossroads
a. A trading coast
  1. East Africa was a place where early civilizations developed.
  2. Aksum, an important civilization, which emerged in present day Ethiopia in the A.D. 100s.
  3. Aksum's location on the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean made it an important trading center.
  4. During the 6th Century, Aksum lost many trading partners.

II) Colonization Disrupts Africa
a. Scramble For Africa
  1. Europeans did not want to fight over Africa.
  2. Fourteen European nations convened the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885, to lay down rules for dividing Africa.
  3. Nations that attended the Berlin Conference decided that any European country could claim land in Africa by telling other nations of their claims and by showing they could control the area.
  4. Europe's division of Africa was one of the main causes of the political violence and ethnic conflicts in Africa in the 20th century.
b. Ethiopia Avoids Colonization
  1. Ethiopia is one country that escaped European colonization.
  2. Ethiopia's emperor, Menelik II, skillfully protected his country from the Italian invasion with weapons from France and Russia.
  3. Ethiopia defeated Italy in 1896.
c. Conflict In East Africa
  1. By the 1970's, most of East Africa had regained its independence from Europe.
  2. Some cultural divisions often caused internal conflicts among native groups.

III) Farming and Tourism Economies
a. Farming in East Africa
  1. East Africa is around 60 percent rural.
  2. Since European colonization in the 19th century, countries have relied more on cash crops.
  3. Relying on cash crops can be tricky because, the price if crops varies according to the world market.
b. Tourism Creates Wealth and Problems
  1. One of the main economic activities in East Africa is in fact, tourism.
  2. Some world famous countries in this region are: Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
  3. In 1938, Europeans created the game reserves because they were killing animals for sport at a high rate.

IV) Maintaining Tradition Cultures
a. Cultures of East Africa
  1. Two major ethnic groups in East Africa are, the Masai and the Kikuyu.
  2. The Kikuyu are the largest ethnic group in Kenya, there are around 9 million of them.

V) Health Care in Modern Africa
a. Health Care in Africa
  1. AIDS has become a pandemic and is having a devastating effect on the continent.
  2. A pandemic is an uncontrollable out-break of a disease affecting a large population over a wide geographic area.
  3. AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
  4. Some medical geographers predict that the populations of Africa's worst affected countries could decline by 10 to 20 percent.