Africa Books
-
W. W. Norton & Company (01 April 1999)Price: $12.21 -
Michael Wiese Productions (01 August 2005)Price: $16.47 -
Penguin (Non-Classics) (28 January 2003)Price: $10.40 -
Berkley Trade (01 January 1999)Price: $10.20 -
Anchor (01 February 1996)Price: $10.20
Definition
The expanse of the Libyan Desert cut Egypt off from the rest of North Africa. Egyptian boats, while well suited to the Nile, were not usable in the open Mediterranean. Moreover the small Egyptian merchant had far more prosperous destinations on Crete, Cyprus and the Levant.
Greeks and Phoenicians settled along the coast of Northern Africa between 800-600 BC. Both societies drew their prosperity from the sea and from ocean-born trade. They found only limited trading opportunities with the native inhabitants, and instead turned to colonization. The Greek trade was based mainly in the Aegean, Adriatic, Black, and Red Seas and they only established major cities in Cyrenaica, directly to the south of Greece.
The Phoenicians developed an even larger presence in North Africa with colonies from Tripoli to the Atlantic. One of the most important Phoenician cities was Carthage, which grew into one of the greatest powers in the region. At the height of its power, Carthage controlled the Western Mediterranean and most of North Africa outside of Egypt.
At the end of the Punic wars in 146 BC, Rome defeated Carthage and destroyed the city. All Carthaginian possessions were annexed into the Roman empire. In 30 BC, Roman Emperor Octavian conquered Egypt, officially annexing it to the Empire and, for the first time, unifying the North African coast under a single ruler. When the Roman Empire began to collapse, North Africa was spared much of the disruption until the Vandal invasion of 429 AD. The Vandals ruled in North Africa until the territories were regained by Justinian of the Eastern Empire in the 6th century. Egypt was never invaded by the Vandals because there was a thousand mile buffer of desert.
Articles
-
The Land of Punt is best known for Queen Hatshepsut’s famous expedition in 1493 BCE in the 18th Dyanasty of Egypt, which brought back living trees to Egypt, marking the first known successful attempt at transplanting foreign fauna. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that the Egyptians were trading with the land of Punt as early as the reign of the pharaoh Khufu in the 4th Dynasty.
[Continue Reading...] -
Until 308 BC, Carthage was ruled, at least officially, by Monarchs. Find below a list of monarchs of Carthage between 814-308 BC.
[Continue Reading...]
Illustrations
