Africa has some of the greatest history, and physical geography. From jungles to desserts, and colonialism to urbanization. Not all events are good ones, especially with the rough terrain that African had to endure, but also the good that came out of it from raw materials, but also involved exploitation. There are positive and negatives in the geographies of Africa. Ultimately, Africa has a beautiful context of life and history behind its luscious trees. The main concepts that help round Africa are its physical geography, historical geography, farming life, and inner city life.
Africa is surrounded by the Mediterrnean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean, and is divided symmetrically by the equator. Africa’s Sahara desert makes up about, “25% of the continent”, it is covered with sand dunes which can be called Ergs. These ergs are found mostly in, “Algeria and Libya and parts of Mali and Nigeria”. This being the largest desert in west africa is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and has large gravel covered plains, with the highest point of the desert being Mount Koussi in Chad. The Great Rift Valley is located in the central pangea, where Africa is pushed by material that finds its way to the surface. However, if the rift were to become big and deep enough it could intrigue a new ocean. The main reasoning behind these rifts are due to Africa’s plate tectonics and continental drifts.
Many continents that were once connected to Pangea have been cracked into separate areas due to the continental drift that change the course of the plate tectonics creating the movement of these continents. Africa is enriched with its cataracs, and long rivers, but they are a lousy way for transportation. However, they are used plentiful for hydroelectric power production which powers the movement of water into energy, and is now used in states such as Idaho, Washington, and the US. Africa has fluctuating temperatures and in the equatorial congo there is found to be more dry season with less rainfall. There are many moving parts to Africa’s physical landmarks that makes it so unique and unmatched to other continents, but it is also flooded with history.
Africa uses its primary sectors to begin trade and business, and this is mostly found in West Africa. These types of businesses, such as the salt trade, begins a larger exchange market, and the beginnings of urban life. The salt trade was between the forest people and dry land people when salt would be traded for gold, and because salt was hard to obtain during the medieval period it made it much more valuable. Overall, the salt trade began trading routes, and brought an abundance of wealth to the states and cities that the routes lingered through. There was a high demand of salt due to the preservation of food and salt would secure meats into lasting longer until they were eaten at a later date. Although Africa was doing well with trading, they weren’t able to uphold against the Europeans.
Unfortunately, colonialism shift was to arise in their daily lives. In the fifteenth century, many European ships docked in Africa, but no one suspected the Slave Trade that were o occur in West Africa. Many trading businesses were located inland, but were to be shifted to the Atlantic due to the Europeans. These white men would capture the Africans bring them to European traders on the coast. Many slaves were bought by European slave traders and boarded on cargo ships and would then be transported from western Africa to the “new world”, the Americas, where many slave auctions happened. In 1884 there was an occurence of competition between the colonial powers, which began to lead into the Berlin Conference was the beginning of Africa’s downfall; however, even though there was still control by the Europeans about 80% of Africa was still under its traditional rules, but boundaries were marked off and divided culture groups arose. Africa was seen as important to the Europeans for its farming, and materials found within the land.