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There were many kingdoms and empires in all regions of the continent of Africa throughout history. A kingdom is a state with a king or queen as its head. [1] An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant centre and subordinate peripheries".
During the 200 year period between 1301 and 1500 (the 14th and 15th century) the main civilizations and kingdoms in Africa were the Mali Empire, Kingdom of Kongo, Ife Empire, Benin Kingdom, Songhai Empire, Hausa City-states, Wolof Empire, Great Zimbabwe, Kingdom of Makuria, Kanem Empire,Ethiopian Empire, Kilwa Sultanate, Kingdom of Mapungubwe, Kingdom of Mutapa, and the Ajuran Sultanate.
A map of Africa showing the continent's political systems: three monarchies (in red) and republics (in blue). Monarchy was the prevalent form of government in the history of Africa, where self-governing states, territories, or nations existed in which supreme power resided with an individual who was recognized as the head of state. [1]
The terms African civilizations, also classical African civilizations, or African empires are terms that generally refer to the various pre-colonial African kingdoms.The civilizations usually include Egypt, Carthage, Axum, [1] Numidia, and Nubia, [1] but may also be extended to the prehistoric Land of Punt and others: Kingdom of Dagbon, the Empire of Ashanti, Kingdom of Kongo, Empire of Mali ...
Map of the western Sahel and Sudan (northern West Africa) c. 1200. (Songhai is Gao) Kingdoms in this era were centred around cities and cores, with variations of influence radiating out from these points, borders here are estimates. The arrival of Islam in West Africa had seismic consequences for the history of the entire region.
Numerous Kharijite kingdoms came and fell during the 8th and 9th centuries, asserting their independence from Baghdad. In the early 10th century, Shi'ite groups from Syria, claiming descent from Muhammad's daughter Fatimah, founded the Fatimid dynasty in the Maghreb. By 950, they had conquered all of the Maghreb and by 969 all of Egypt.
Africa History Atlas Diachronic map showing pre-colonial cultures of Africa (spanning roughly 500 BCE to 1500 CE) This map is "an artistic interpretation" using multiple and disparate sources. Date: 1 May 2007: Source: Own work: Author: Jeff Israel : Other versions: Derivative works of this file: African-civilizations-map-imperial.png
The only part of Africa well known in antiquity was the coast of North Africa, described in Greek periplus from the 6th century BC. Hellenistic era geographers defined Ancient Egypt as part of Asia , taking the boundary of Asia and Egypt to lie at the Catabathmus Magnus (the escarpment of Akabah el-Kebir in western Egypt).