Ap Euro Chapter 9 Essay

Chapter Nine: Trading Towns of the East African Coast to the Sixteenth Century

Although historians initially believed that Islamic Arab immigrants were responsible for establishing trade on the east African coast, it was later discovered that the indigenous Africans originally developed early coastal trade and spreaded the Swahili culture (128). From ‘Anzania’ at the start of the Common Era to a violent Portuguese rule by 1600, coastal east Africa endured many revolutionary changes that shaped not only the trading patterns and wealth of the region, but also its culture and society. The Greeks and Romans identified the coast of east Africa as ‘Anzania’ (128). Anzanian ports exported mainly raw materials such as ivory, tortoise-shell, and coconut oil; however, the manufactured imports included iron tools, cotton, wheat, and wine from Arabia and the Red Sea (128). As Islam spread, the Indian Ocean’s wealth in trade increased. When Muslim Arab settlers arrived on the coast of east Africa, scholars identified the

The Swahili people were those that were Islamic in religion and African in language (134). From the year 970 to 1200, east African trading towns grew in prosperity because of the increasing demand for gold and ivory. Kilwa had become the wealthiest and most important of all Swahili trading towns (135). East African trade continued to prosper, unnoticed for centuries until the Portuguese sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa and north into the Indian Ocean along the east African coast in 1498 (137). The Portuguese had forcefully and violently seized control of wealthy eastern coastal African towns by 1505. They perpetuated their rule via continuous violent tactics, and in 1599 the Portuguese built Fort Jesus near center of Africa’s eastern coast. The fort remained standing for the next 100 years, symbolizing the violent manner in which the Portuguese seized the land of the Swahili people