Great Zimbabwe and Ethiopia History Quiz

Great Zimbabwe

• Great Zimbabwe was a city in southeastern Zimbabwe, the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe.
• It thrived due to trade in gold and ivory.
• Construction began in the 11th century and continued until abandonment in the 15th century.
• Archaeological evidence shows it was a center for copper trade, connecting to the Swahili coast and possibly as far as China.
• The decline, around 1450, was likely due to factors including decreased trade compared to northern sites, depletion of gold mines, political instability, and climate-related famine and water shortages.

Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa

• The Zagwe dynasty ruled parts of modern Ethiopia and Eritrea from the 12th to the late 13th century.
• They were succeeded by the Solomonic dynasty in 1270.
• The Solomonic dynasty ruled Ethiopia until 1636, maintaining a largely Christian empire with a significant Muslim minority.
• The kingdom had mythological status in medieval Europe as an isolated Christian kingdom.
• In the early 15th century, Ethiopia interacted with European kingdoms.
• Portugal helped the Ethiopian emperor, defeating the neighboring Adal Sultanate, maintaining the kingdom's Christian identity.

Hausa Kingdoms

• The Hausa kingdoms, formed by the Hausa people between the Niger River and Lake Chad, were mainly city-states.
• The kingdoms benefited from trade routes connected to Ghana, Mali, and the Songhai Dynasty.
• Hausaland developed as a political and cultural region in the first millennium CE due to Hausa peoples' westward expansion.
• Kano became a prominent city-state by the 14th century, serving as a center for trans-Saharan trade in salt, cloth, leather, grain, and slaves.
• The Hausa states experienced internal and external conflicts throughout the 15th to 18th centuries.
• They were eventually conquered by a West African Sunni Caliphate in the 19th century.