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110-544: Over the past 1 billion years, East Antarctica has traveled from tropical (to subtropical) southerly latitudes to its current location with the entire East Antarctic Shield positioned south of the Antarctic Circle . Despite its relative lack of motion over the past 75 million years, the East Antarctic Shield has played a significant role in the arrangement and motion of its surrounding plates during

220-770: A confederation of seafaring peoples contributed to the New Kingdom 's collapse in 1069   BC, commencing the Third Intermediate Period . Egypt's collapse liberated the more Egyptianised Kingdom of Kush in Nubia, who manoeuvred into power in Upper Egypt and conquered Lower Egypt in 754   BC to form the Kushite Empire . The Kushites ruled for a century and oversaw a revival in pyramid building , until they were driven out of Egypt by

330-557: A principality into a major power on the trade route between Rome and India through conquering its unfortunately unknown neighbours, gaining a monopoly on Indian Ocean trade in the region. Aksum's rise had them rule over much of the regions from Lake Tana to the valley of the Nile , and they further conquered parts of the ailing Kingdom of Kush , led campaigns against the Noba and Beja peoples, and expanded into South Arabia . This led

440-616: A Berber tribe originally from Yafran (also known as Ifrane ) in northwestern Libya , as well as the city of Ifrane in Morocco . Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province then named Africa Proconsularis , following its defeat of the Carthaginians in the Third Punic War in 146 BC, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya . The Latin suffix -ica can sometimes be used to denote

550-710: A former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956, Tunisia and Morocco won their independence from France. Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957), becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be granted independence. Over the next decade, waves of decolonization took place across the continent, culminating in the 1960 Year of Africa and the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. Portugal's overseas presence in sub-Saharan Africa (most notably in Angola , Cape Verde, Mozambique , Guinea-Bissau , and São Tomé and Príncipe) lasted from

660-564: A land (e.g., in Celtica from Celtae , as used by Julius Caesar ). The later Muslim region of Ifriqiya , following its conquest of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire's Exarchatus Africae , also preserved a form of the name. According to the Romans, Africa lies to the west of Egypt, while "Asia" was used to refer to Anatolia and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between

770-698: A millennium. Towards the end of the ancient period, northern Ethiopia and Eritrea bore the Kingdom of D'mt beginning in 980   BC. In modern-day Somalia and Djibouti there was the Macrobian Kingdom , with archaeological discoveries indicating the possibility of other unknown sophisticated civilisations at this time. After D'mt's fall in the 5th century BC the Ethiopian Plateau came to be ruled by numerous smaller unknown kingdoms who experienced strong south Arabian influence , until

880-625: A monopoly on gold heading north and salt heading south, despite not controlling the gold fields themselves, located in the forest regions . It is probable that Wagadu's dominance on trade allowed for the gradual consolidation of many polities into a confederated state , whose composites stood in varying relations to the core, from fully administered to nominal tribute-paying parity. Based on large tumuli scattered across West Africa dating to this period, it has been stipulated that relative to Wagadu, there were further simultaneous and preceding kingdoms that have unfortunately been lost to time. At

990-586: A native Libyan tribe, an ancestor of modern Berbers ; see Terence for discussion. The name had usually been connected with the Phoenician word ʿafar meaning "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis has asserted that it stems from the Berber word ifri (plural ifran ) meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers. The same word may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania ,

1100-651: A small portion of this region lies within the Eastern Hemisphere , a fact that has suggested the name. The name has been in existence for more than 110 years (Balch, 1902; Nordenskjöld, 1904), but its greatest use followed the International Geophysical Year (1957–58) and explorations disclosing that the Transantarctic Mountains provide a useful regional separation of East Antarctica and West Antarctica . The name

1210-468: A transition from " informal imperialism " – military influence and economic dominance – to direct rule. Imperial rule by Europeans continued until after the conclusion of World War II , when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence. Independence movements in Africa gained momentum following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In 1951, Libya,

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1320-791: Is not always to be taken literally. Africa is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the Human species originating from the continent. During the mid-20th century, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as seven million years ago ( Before present , BP). Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have evolved into modern humans, such as Australopithecus afarensis radiometrically dated to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years BP, Paranthropus boisei (c. 2.3–1.4 million years BP) and Homo ergaster (c. 1.9 million–600,000 years BP) have been discovered. After

1430-470: Is not covered with ice . The small areas that remain free of ice ( Antarctic oasis ), including the McMurdo Dry Valleys inland, constitute a tundra-type biodiversity region known as Maudlandia Antarctic desert , after Queen Maud Land . There are no trees or shrubs, as only very limited plant life can survive here; the flora consists of lichens , moss , and algae that are adapted to

1540-825: Is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Arabian Plate and the Gulf of Aqaba to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos . It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states , eight cities and islands that are part of non-African states , and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition . This count does not include Malta and Sicily , which are geologically part of

1650-400: Is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia . At about 30.3 million km (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth 's land area and 6% of its total surface area. With nearly 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world's human population . Africa's population is the youngest among all

1760-727: Is well-documented in the East African Orogen and this is supported by the occurrence of ophiolite material in the Shackleton Range. Further evidence for ocean closure along the Lutzow Holm Belt is provided by the different ages of Grenville-age tectonism in the Maud and Rayner Provinces of either side of the inferred suture. The climax of activity in both the Lutzow Holm and Prydz Belts was at 530 Ma, but

1870-671: The 11th dynasty , based in Thebes , conquered the others to form the Middle Kingdom of Egypt , with the 12th dynasty expanding into Lower Nubia at the expense of Kerma . In 1700   BC, the Middle Kingdom fractured in two, ushering in the Second Intermediate Period . The Hyksos , a militaristic people from Palestine , invaded and conquered Lower Egypt, while Kerma coordinated invasions deep into Egypt to reach its greatest extent. In 1550   BC,

1980-646: The 18th dynasty expelled the Hyksos , and established the New Kingdom of Egypt . Using the advanced military technology the Hyksos had brought, the New Kingdom conquered the Levant from the Canaanites , Mittani , Amorites , and Hittites , and extinguished Kerma , incorporating Nubia into the empire, and sending the Egyptian empire into its golden age. Internal struggles, drought, famine, and invasions by

2090-685: The Benin Empire . Towards the end of the 3rd century AD, a wet period in the Sahel created areas for human habitation and exploitation that had not been habitable for the best part of a millennium, with the Kingdom of Wagadu , the local name of the Ghana Empire , rising out of the Tichitt culture , growing wealthy following the introduction of the camel to the western Sahel, revolutionising

2200-688: The Bunger Hills - Windmill Islands correspond closely to those in the Albany-Fraser Orogen of western Australia. This region of Grenville-age tectonism is interpreted as a suture between the Central Antarctic-South Australian craton (the Mawson continent ) and the marginal cratons that make up most of southern Africa , India and western Australia . This tectonism continued until 900 Ma and by 750 Ma,

2310-526: The Cold War , and neocolonialism . Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and a large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context. Africa has a large quantity of natural resources and food resources, including diamonds , sugar , salt , gold , iron , cobalt , uranium , copper , bauxite , silver , petroleum , natural gas , cocoa beans , and tropical fruit . The continent

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2420-904: The Congo Basin , the Empire of Kitara in the African Great Lakes , the Luba Empire in the Upemba Depression , the Kilwa Sultanate in the Swahili coast by crowding out Azania , with Rhapta being its last stronghold by the 1st century AD, and forming various city states constituting the Swahili civilisation . These migrations also prefaced the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in the Zambezi basin . After reaching

2530-746: The Ekoi civilisation rose circa 2nd century AD, and are most notable for constructing the Ikom monoliths and developing the Nsibidi script . Pre-colonial Africa possessed as many as 10,000 different states and polities. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the San people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the Bantu peoples of central, southern, and eastern Africa; heavily structured clan groups in

2640-617: The Fatimids , Almoravids , Almohads , Ayyubids , Mamluks , Kongo , Mwene Muji , Luba , Lunda , Kitara , Aksum , Ethiopia , Adal , Ajuran , Kilwa , Sakalava , Imerina , Maravi , Mutapa , Rozvi , Mthwakazi , and Zulu . Slave trades created various diasporas , especially in the Americas . From the late 19th century to early 20th century, driven by the Second Industrial Revolution , most of Africa

2750-631: The Horn of Africa ; the large Sahelian kingdoms ; and autonomous city-states and kingdoms, such as those of the Akan ; Edo , Yoruba , and Igbo people in West Africa; and the Swahili coastal trading towns of Southeast Africa. By the 9th century AD, a string of dynastic states, including the earliest Hausa states, stretched across the sub-Saharan savannah from the western regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were Ghana , Gao , and

2860-747: The Isthmus of Suez in Egypt. Other migrations of modern humans within the African continent have been dated to that time, with evidence of early human settlement found in Southern Africa, Southeast Africa, North Africa, and the Sahara . The size of the Sahara has historically been extremely variable, with its area rapidly fluctuating and at times disappearing depending on global climatic conditions. At

2970-696: The Kanem-Bornu Empire . Ghana declined in the eleventh century, but was succeeded by the Mali Empire , which consolidated much of western Sudan in the thirteenth century. Kanem accepted Islam in the eleventh century. In the forested regions of the West African coast, independent kingdoms grew with little influence from the Muslim north. The Kingdom of Nri , which was ruled by the Eze Nri ,

3080-530: The Kingdom of Dahomey , and the Oyo Empire ) adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil , cocoa , timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars. The Scramble for Africa was the conquest and colonisation of most of Africa by seven Western European powers driven by

3190-688: The Mauro-Roman Kingdom and its numerous successor polities in the Maghreb, namely the kingdoms of Ouarsenis , Aurès , and Altava . The Vandals ruled Ifriqiya for a century until Byzantine reconquest in the early 6th century AD. The Byzantines and the Berber kingdoms fought minor inconsequential conflicts, such as in the case of Garmul , however largely coexisted. Further inland to the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa were

3300-616: The Noba caused their disintegration into Makuria , Alodia , and Nobatia in the 5th century   AD. The Romans managed to hold on to Egypt for the rest of the ancient period. In the Horn of Africa , there was the Land of Punt , a kingdom on the Red Sea , likely located in modern-day Eritrea or northern Somaliland . The Ancient Egyptians initially traded via middle-men with Punt until in 2350   BC when they established direct relations. They would become close trading partners for over

3410-639: The Nok culture from 1500 BC in modern-day Nigeria , the Daima culture around Lake Chad from 550   BC, Djenné-Djenno from 250   BC in modern-day Mali , and the Serer civilisation in modern-day Senegal , which built the Senegambian stone circles from the 3rd century BC. There is also detailed record of Igodomigodo , a small kingdom founded presumably in 40   BC, which would later go on to form

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3520-565: The Ovambo kingdoms , most of which were later conquered. The 1884 Berlin Conference regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa, and is seen as emblematic of the "scramble". In the last quarter of the 19th century, there were considerable political rivalries between the European empires , which provided the impetus for the colonisation. The later years of the 19th century saw

3630-404: The Punic Wars against the expansionary Roman Republic , however momentum in these wars was not linear, with Carthage initially experiencing considerable success in the Second Punic War following Hannibal 's infamous crossing of the alps into northern Italy . Their defeat and subsequent collapse of their empire would produce two further polities in the Maghreb; Numidia , which had assisted

3740-447: The Romans in 30   BC. The Crisis of the Third Century in the Roman Empire freed the Levantine city state of Palmyra , which conquered Egypt ; their brief rule ended when they were reconquered by the Romans . In the midst of this, Kush regained independence from Egypt, and they would persist as a major regional power until, having been weakened from internal rebellion amid worsening climatic conditions, invasions by Aksum and

3850-494: The Sanhaja in modern-day Algeria , a broad grouping of three groupings of tribal confederations , one of which is the Masmuda grouping in modern-day Morocco , along with the nomadic Zenata ; their composite tribes would later go onto shape much of North African history . In the western Sahel the rise of settled communities occurred largely as a result of the domestication of millet and of sorghum . Archaeology points to sizable urban populations in West Africa beginning in

3960-488: The Sao civilisation flourished for over a millennium beginning in the 6th century BC, in territory that later became part of present-day Cameroon and Chad . Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze , copper , and iron , with finds including bronze sculptures, terracotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewellery, highly decorated pottery, and spears. Nearby, around Lake Ejagham in south-west Cameroon ,

4070-419: The Sassanid Empire and the Himyarite Kingdom in Arabia. The Maghreb and Ifriqiya were mostly cut off from the cradle of civilisation in Egypt by the Libyan desert , exacerbated by Egyptian boats being tailored to the Nile and not coping well in the open Mediterranean Sea . This caused its societies to develop contiguous to those of Southern Europe , until Phoenician settlements came to dominate

4180-417: The Second Industrial Revolution during the era of " New Imperialism " (1833–1914): Belgium , France , Germany , United Kingdom , Italy , Portugal and Spain . In 1870, 10% of the continent was formally under European control. By 1914, this figure had risen to almost 90%; the only states retaining sovereignty were Liberia , Ethiopia , Egba , Aussa , Senusiyya , Mbunda , the Dervish State , and

4290-404: The Zambezi , the Bantu continued southward, with eastern groups continuing to modern-day Mozambique and reaching Maputo in the 2nd century AD. Further to the south, settlements of Bantu peoples who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen were well established south of the Limpopo River by the 4th century AD, displacing and absorbing the Khoisan . By the Chari River south of Lake Chad

4400-419: The presidential system of rule. However, few of them have been able to sustain democratic governments on a permanent basis—per the criteria laid out by Lührmann et al. (2018), only Botswana and Mauritius have been consistently democratic for the entirety of their post-colonial history. Most African countries have experienced several coups or periods of military dictatorship . Between 1990 and 2018, though,

4510-399: The rifting of North America from the East Antarctic Shield, and were subsequently deformed and metamorphosed at a low- to medium-grade and intruded by syn- and post-tectonic granitoids . Plutonism and metamorphism commenced at about 550 Ma with peak metamorphism at 540-535 Ma. At this time, two more high-grade Cambrian mobile belts formed in East Antarctica , the Lutzow Holm Belt and

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4620-444: The supercontinent Rodinia had begun to break up. The rupture might have resulted from the opening of an equatorial ocean basin between West Laurentia and West Australia-East Antarctica. Then came Gondwana . The amalgamation of East and West Gondwana occurred by the closure of the Mozambique Ocean. This collision occurred between 700 and 500 Ma and resulted in the East African Orogeny . The protracted Pan-African tectonic period

4730-780: The trans-Saharan trade that linked their capital and Aoudaghost with Tahert and Sijilmasa in North Africa. Soninke traditions likely contain content from prehistory, mentioning four previous foundings of Wagadu , and holds that the final founding of Wagadu occurred after their first king did a deal with Bida , a serpent deity who was guarding a well, to sacrifice one maiden a year in exchange for assurance regarding plenty of rainfall and gold supply. Wagadu's core traversed modern-day southern Mauritania and western Mali , and Soninke tradition portrays early Ghana as warlike, with horse-mounted warriors key to increasing its territory and population, although details of their expansion are extremely scarce. Wagadu made its profits from maintaining

4840-410: The tropic of Cancer , in the northern temperate zone . In the other extreme of the continent, southern Namibia , southern Botswana , great parts of South Africa , the entire territories of Lesotho and Eswatini and the southern tips of Mozambique and Madagascar are located below the tropic of Capricorn , in the southern temperate zone . Africa is highly biodiverse ; it is the continent with

4950-424: The written word . During the colonial period , oral sources were deprecated by European historians, which gave them the impression Africa had no recorded history. African historiography became organized at the academic level in the mid-20th century, and saw a movement towards utilising oral sources in a multidisciplinary approach, culminating in the General History of Africa , edited by specialists from across

5060-459: The 16th and 19th centuries. In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World , increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860,

5170-420: The 16th century to 1975, after the Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a military coup in Lisbon . Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, under the white minority government of Ian Smith , but was not internationally recognized as an independent state (as Zimbabwe ) until 1980, when black nationalists gained power after a bitter guerrilla war . Although South Africa

5280-423: The 1st and 4th cataracts of the Nile . The 4th dynasty oversaw the height of the Old Kingdom , and constructed many great pyramids . Under the 6th dynasty power gradually decentralised to the nomarchs, culminating in the disintegration of the kingdom, exacerbated by drought and famine, thus commencing the First Intermediate Period in 2200   BC. This shattered state would last until 2055   BC when

5390-406: The 2nd century BC Mauretania fought alongside Numidia's Jugurtha in the Jugurthine War against the Romans after he had usurped the Numidian throne from a Roman ally. Together they inflicted heavy casualties that quaked the Roman Senate , with the war only ending inconclusively when Mauretania's Bocchus I sold out Jugurtha to the Romans. At the turn of the millennium, they both would face

5500-418: The 4th millennium BC the Congo Basin was inhabited by the Bambenga , Bayaka , Bakoya , and Babongo in the west, the Bambuti in the east , and the Batwa who were widely scattered and also present in the Great Lakes region ; together they are grouped as Pygmies . On the later-named Swahili coast there were Cushitic -speaking peoples, and the Khoisan (a neologism for the Khoekhoe and San ) in

5610-416: The 4th millennium BC, which had crucially developed iron metallurgy by 1200   BC, in both smelting and forging for tools and weapons. Extensive east-west belts of deserts , grasslands , and forests from north to south were crucial for the moulding of their respective societies and meant that prior to the accession of trans-Saharan trade routes , symbiotic trade relations developed in response to

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5720-405: The African continent. Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is its largest by population. African nations cooperate through the establishment of the African Union , which is headquartered in Addis Ababa . Africa straddles the equator and the prime meridian . It is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to the southern temperate zones. The majority of

5830-457: The Assyrians in 663   BC in reprisal for their expansion towards the Assyrian Empire . The Assyrians installed a puppet dynasty that later gained independence and once more unified Egypt , until they were conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in 525   BC. Egypt regained independence under the 28th dynasty in 404   BC but they were reconquered by the Achaemenids in 343   BC. The conquest of Achaemenid Egypt by Alexander

5940-422: The British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos ", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers. The largest powers of West Africa (the Asante Confederacy ,

6050-401: The East Antarctic Shield took place in two main zones; a broad region between the Shackleton Mountain Range , caused by the collision with South Africa , and India , and along the Transantarctic Mountains (Ross Orogeny). The Ross Orogen comprises a deformed sequence of Neoproterozoic to Cambrian sediments. These sediments were deposited at a passive margin that likely developed during

6160-421: The Great in 332   BC marked the beginning of Hellenistic rule and the installation of the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. The Ptolemaics lost their holdings outside of Africa to the Seleucids in the Syrian Wars , expanded into Cyrenaica and subjugated Kush in the 3rd century BC. In the 1st century BC, Ptolemaic Egypt became entangled in a Roman civil war , leading to its conquest by

6270-407: The Iberian peninsula during the eleventh century. The Banu Hilal and Banu Ma'qil were a collection of Arab Bedouin tribes from the Arabian Peninsula who migrated westwards via Egypt between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Their migration resulted in the fusion of the Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were Arabized , and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under

6380-463: The Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic . Pangea ruptured during the Jurassic , preceded by and associated with widespread magmatic activity, including the Karoo flood basalts and related dyke swarms in South Africa and the Ferrar Province in East Antarctica . In the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous , the East Antarctic Shield began to move southward at a faster rate than Africa and South America , resulting in seafloor spreading between

6490-442: The Persian prophet Mani to consider Aksum as one of the four great powers of the 3rd century AD alongside Persia , Rome , and China . In the 4th century AD Aksum's king converted to Christianity and Aksum's population, who had followed syncretic mixes of local beliefs , slowly followed. The end of the 5th century saw Aksum allied with the Byzantine Empire , who viewed themselves as defenders of Christendom , balanced against

6600-440: The Prydz Belt. Tectonism was relatively synchronous between the two from 550 to 515 Ma and both belts overprinted late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic , Grenville -age magmatic and metamorphosed rocks. The Lutzow Holm Belt separates the Grenville-age Maud and Rayner Provinces and is the southernmost segment of the East African Orogeny , which extended from East Africa to the Shackleton Range . Evidence for ocean closure

6710-400: The Romans in the Second Punic War, Mauretania , a Mauri tribal kingdom and home of the legendary King Atlas , and various tribes such as Garamantes , Musulamii , and Bavares . The Third Punic War would result in Carthage's total defeat in 146 BC and the Romans established the province of Africa , with Numidia assuming control of many of Carthage's African ports. Towards the end of

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6820-538: The Sahara region was becoming increasingly dry and hostile. Around 3500   BC, due to a tilt in the Earth's orbit , the Sahara experienced a period of rapid desertification. The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa . Since this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during

6930-467: The Saharan climate started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace. This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification . This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and encouraged migrations of farming communities to the more tropical climate of West Africa. During the first millennium BC, a reduction in wild grain populations related to changing climate conditions facilitated

7040-406: The amalgamation and separation of the supercontinents , Rodinia , Gondwana , and Pangea . Because the surface of the shield is covered by ice and therefore not directly accessible, the information about its tectonic history comes primarily from seismic and core-sample data. Geologists have used this data to define the rock types present, age the rocks using radioactive dating techniques , unveil

7150-452: The climate history from isotope ratios, and trace the shield's motion based on varying magnetic properties. Unfortunately, there are only a few places where data can be collected directly from the basement rock, and even at these locations, the exposed areas of the central craton can be misleading due to factors such as reworking during high-grade late Neoproterozoic to Cambrian deformation, variable overprinting by Cambrian tectonics, and

7260-436: The coast of the East Antarctic Shield. This Grenville -age belt is commonly called the Wegener-Mawson Mobile Belt, or the Circum East Antarctic Mobile Belt, and can be extended to formerly adjacent continents. The Maud Province correlates with the Namaqua-Natal Province of South Africa . Rocks in the Rayner Complex and northern Prince Charles Mountains are an extension of the Eastern Ghats of India. Lastly, relationships in

7370-713: The coast, East Antarctica is permanently covered by ice and it has relatively low biodiversity , with only a small number of species of terrestrial plants, animals, algae , and lichens . The coasts are the breeding ground for various seabirds and penguins, and the leopard seal , Weddell seal , elephant seal , crabeater seal and Ross seal breed on the surrounding pack ice in summer. Almost completely covered in thick, permanent ice, East Antarctica comprises Coats Land , Queen Maud Land , Enderby Land , Kemp Land , Mac. Robertson Land , Princess Elizabeth Land , Wilhelm II Land , Queen Mary Land , Wilkes Land , Adélie Land , George V Land , Oates Land and Victoria Land . All but

7480-459: The cold and wind, and cling to rocks. The coasts are home to seabirds , penguins , and seals ( Pinnipeds ), which feed in the surrounding ocean , including the emperor penguin , which famously breeds in the cold, dark Antarctic winter. Seabirds of the coast include southern fulmar ( Fulmarus glacialoides ) , the scavenging southern giant petrel ( Macronectes giganteus ) , Cape petrel ( Daption capense ) , snow petrel ( Pagodroma nivea ) ,

7590-410: The continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere , with a substantial portion and a number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere . Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of Western Sahara , Algeria , Libya and Egypt , the northern tip of Mauritania , and the entire territories of Morocco , Ceuta , Melilla , and Tunisia , which in turn are located above

7700-463: The continent as a whole has trended towards more democratic governance. Upon independence an overwhelming majority of Africans lived in extreme poverty . The continent suffered from the lack of infrastructural or industrial development under colonial rule, along with political instability. With limited financial resources or access to global markets, relatively stable countries such as Kenya still experienced only very slow economic development. Only

7810-424: The continent most vulnerable to climate change . The history of Africa is long, complex, and varied, and has often been under-appreciated by the global historical community . In African societies the oral word is revered, and they have generally recorded their history via oral tradition , which has led anthropologists to term them oral civilisations, contrasted with literate civilisations which pride

7920-461: The continent's south. The Bantu expansion constituted a major series of migrations of Bantu peoples from central Africa to eastern and southern Africa and was substantial in the settling of the continent. Commencing in the 2nd millennium BC, the Bantu began to migrate from Cameroon to central, eastern, and southern Africa, laying the foundations for future states such as the Kingdom of Kongo in

8030-478: The continent. Africa, particularly Eastern Africa , is widely accepted to be the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade , also known as the great apes . The earliest hominids and their ancestors have been dated to around 7 million years ago, and Homo sapiens (modern human) are believed to have originated in Africa 350,000 to 260,000 years ago. Africa is also considered by anthropologists to be

8140-419: The continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Based on 2024 projections, Africa's population will reach 3.8 billion people by 2099. Africa is the least wealthy inhabited continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, ahead of Oceania . Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography , climate , corruption , colonialism ,

8250-428: The earliest instances of agriculture in human history. Its cultivation would gradually spread across Africa, before spreading to India around 2000   BC. People around modern-day Mauritania started making pottery and built stone settlements (e.g., Tichitt , Oualata ). Fishing, using bone-tipped harpoons , became a major activity in the numerous streams and lakes formed from the increased rains. In West Africa,

8360-543: The end of the Ice ages , estimated to have been around 10,500   BC, the Sahara had again become a green fertile valley, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in sub-Saharan Africa , with rock art paintings depicting a fertile Sahara and large populations discovered in Tassili n'Ajjer dating back perhaps 10 millennia. However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5,000   BC,

8470-588: The evolution of Homo sapiens approximately 350,000 to 260,000 years BP in Africa, the continent was mainly populated by groups of hunter-gatherers . These first modern humans left Africa and populated the rest of the globe during the Out of Africa II migration dated to approximately 50,000 years BP, exiting the continent either across Bab-el-Mandeb over the Red Sea , the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco, or

8580-660: The expansion of farming communities and the rapid adoption of rice cultivation around the Niger River. By the first millennium BC, ironworking had been introduced in Northern Africa. Around that time it also became established in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, either through independent invention there or diffusion from the north and vanished under unknown circumstances around 500   AD, having lasted approximately 2,000 years, and by 500   BC, metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa. Ironworking

8690-506: The growth and expansion of Aksum in the 1st century BC. Along the Horn's coast there were many ancient Somali city-states that thrived off of the wider Red Sea trade and transported their cargo via beden , exporting myrrh , frankincense , spices , gum , incense , and ivory , with freedom from Roman interference causing Indians to give the cities a lucrative monopoly on cinnamon from ancient India . The Kingdom of Aksum grew from

8800-443: The historical process is largely a communal one, with eyewitness accounts, hearsay , reminiscences, and occasionally visions , dreams, and hallucinations, crafted into oral traditions . Time is sometimes mythical and social, and truth generally viewed as relativist . Oral tradition can be exoteric or esoteric . It speaks to people according to their understanding, unveiling itself in accordance with their aptitudes, and

8910-1143: The inception of rapid northward drift of the Australian plate caused rapid accretion of oceanic crust on the East Antarctic Shield. Relative extension between West Australia and East Antarctica commenced in the Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary , but oceanic crust between these two plates was formed only between 45 and 30 Ma in the Adare Trough of the Ross Sea. [REDACTED] Africa [REDACTED] Antarctica [REDACTED] Asia [REDACTED] Australia [REDACTED] Europe [REDACTED] North America [REDACTED] South America [REDACTED] Afro-Eurasia [REDACTED] Americas [REDACTED] Eurasia [REDACTED] Oceania East Antarctica 80°S 80°E  /  80°S 80°E  / -80; 80 East Antarctica , also called Greater Antarctica , constitutes

9020-572: The kingdoms of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt in northeast Africa . Around 3100   BC Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt to unify Egypt under the 1st dynasty , with the process of consolidation and assimilation completed by the time of the 3rd dynasty who formed the Old Kingdom of Egypt in 2686   BC. The Kingdom of Kerma emerged around this time to become the dominant force in Nubia , controlling territory as large as Egypt between

9130-513: The largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna . However, Africa also is heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues , including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity , and pollution . These entrenched environmental concerns are expected to worsen as climate change impacts Africa . The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Africa as

9240-616: The last 200 years, in Ethiopia . The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is speculated that by 6,000   BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa. In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals, including the donkey and a small screw-horned goat that was common from Algeria to Nubia . Between 10,000 and 9,000   BC, pottery

9350-611: The majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent , lying primarily in the Eastern Hemisphere south of the Indian Ocean , and separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains . It is generally greater in elevation than West Antarctica, and includes the Gamburtsev Mountain Range in the center. The geographic South Pole is located within East Antarctica. Apart from small areas of

9460-844: The mosses and lichens. The remote and extremely cold bulk of Antarctica remains almost entirely untouched by human intervention. The area is protected by the Antarctic Treaty System which bans industrial development, waste disposal and nuclear testing, while the Barwick Valley , one of the Dry Valleys, Mount Rittmann , and Cryptogam Ridge on Mount Melbourne are specially protected areas for their undisturbed plant life. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from "East Antarctica" . Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Africa Africa

9570-660: The most genetically diverse continent as a result of being the longest inhabited. In the 4th and 3rd millennia BC Ancient Egypt , Kerma , Punt , and the Tichitt Tradition emerged in North , East and West Africa , while from 4000 BC until 1000 AD the Bantu expansion was substantial in laying the foundations for societies and states in Central , East , and Southern Africa . Some African empires include Wagadu , Mali , Songhai , Sokoto , Ife , Benin , Asante ,

9680-399: The most lucrative trading locations in the Gulf of Tunis . Phoenician settlements subsequently grew into Ancient Carthage after gaining independence from Phoenicia in the 6th century BC, and they would build an extensive empire and a strict mercantile network, all secured by one of the largest and most powerful navies in the ancient Mediterranean . Carthage would meet its demise in

9790-439: The official religion, built mosques, and brought to Gao Muslim scholars, including al-Maghili (d.1504), the founder of an important tradition of Sudanic African Muslim scholarship. By the eleventh century, some Hausa states – such as Kano , Jigawa , Katsina , and Gobir – had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing caravans , and the manufacture of goods. Until the fifteenth century, these small states were on

9900-465: The opportunities afforded by north–south diversity in ecosystems. Various civilisations prospered in this period. From 4000   BC, the Tichitt culture in modern-day Mauritania and Mali was the oldest known complexly organised society in West Africa, with a four tiered hierarchical social structure. Other civilisations include the Kintampo culture from 2500   BC in modern-day Ghana ,

10010-534: The periphery of the major Sudanic empires of the era, paying tribute to Songhai to the west and Kanem-Borno to the east. Slavery had long been practiced in Africa. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World. In addition, more than 1 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa between

10120-541: The possibility of two-near-simultaneous collisions cannot be discounted and would mean that East Antarctica comprise three major crustal fragments that did not combine until the Cambrian. From 320 Ma onward, Gondwana, Laurussia , and intervening terranes merged to form the supercontinent Pangea . Pangea's main amalgamation occurred during the Carboniferous but continents continued to be added and rifted away in

10230-599: The predecessor to the African Union. The nascent countries decided to keep their colonial borders, with traditional power structures used in governance to varying degrees. Afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of what was then known as northern Africa , located west of the Nile river, and in its widest sense referring to all lands south of the Mediterranean , also known as Ancient Libya . This name seems to have originally referred to

10340-465: The presence of younger metasediments . However, it has been determined that the East Antarctic Shield has a Precambrian to Ordovician basement of igneous and sedimentary rocks that are deformed and metamorphosed to varying degrees, and intruded by syn- to post-tectonic granites . The basement is locally overlain by undeformed Devonian to Jurassic sediments, and intruded by Jurassic tholeiitic plutonic and volcanic rocks. This knowledge of

10450-480: The same fate as Carthage and be conquered by the Romans who established Mauretania and Numidia as provinces of their empire, while Musulamii , led by Tacfarinas , and Garamantes were eventually defeated in war in the 1st century AD however weren't conquered. In the 5th century AD the Vandals conquered north Africa precipitating the fall of Rome . Swathes of indigenous peoples would regain self-governance in

10560-461: The shield's structural features and compositions leads to the development of a tectonic history. The traditional models of East Antarctic Shield geology typically involve a three-stage tectonic history that includes: East Antarctica comprises Archean and Proterozoic - Cambrian terranes that amalgamated during Precambrian and Cambrian times. In the time of the supercontinent Rodinia , western Australia and East Antarctica were linked by

10670-607: The small Wilson's storm-petrel ( Oceanites oceanicus ) , the large south polar skua ( Catharacta maccormicki ) , and Antarctic petrel ( Thalassoica antarctica ) . The seals of the Antarctic Ocean include leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx) , Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) , the huge southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) , crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophagus) and Ross seal ( Ommatophoca rossii ). There are no large land animals but bacteria , nematodes , springtails , mites , and midges live on

10780-488: The two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85–165 CE), indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making the isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of "Africa" expanded with their knowledge. Other etymological hypotheses have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa": In African societies,

10890-597: The two sub-blocks of Gondwana in the Weddell Sea , Riiser-Larsen Sea , Mozambique and Somali basins. A long phase of extension and rifting took place in the southern Weddell Sea before the onset of seafloor spreading , dated around 147 Ma. During the mid- Cretaceous , seafloor spreading propagated eastward from the Riiser-Larsen Sea to the Enderby basin between East Antarctica and India . At 50 Ma,

11000-506: The two-stage Albany-Fraser-Wilkes orogen, which occurred between 1350 and 1260 Ma and 1210-1140 Ma, and also the older, Mawson craton. It is estimated that Rodinia formed between 1100 Ma and 1000 Ma. During this time, there was tectonism occurring from Coats Land to the Windmill Islands of East Antarctica . This was taken as evidence for a continuous, late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic mobile belt skirting across

11110-496: The unifying framework of Islam. Following the breakup of Mali, a local leader named Sonni Ali (1464–1492) founded the Songhai Empire in the region of middle Niger and the western Sudan and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Jenne in 1473, building his regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. His successor Askia Mohammad I (1493–1528) made Islam

11220-516: The wet phase ushered in an expanding rainforest and wooded savanna from Senegal to Cameroon . Between 9,000 and 5,000   BC, Niger–Congo speakers domesticated the oil palm and raffia palm . Black-eyed peas and voandzeia (African groundnuts), were domesticated, followed by okra and kola nuts . Since most of the plants grew in the forest, the Niger–Congo speakers invented polished stone axes for clearing forest. Around 4,000   BC,

11330-418: Was rapidly conquered and colonised by European nations , save for Ethiopia and Liberia . European rule had significant impacts on Africa's societies , and colonies were maintained for the purpose of economic exploitation and extraction of natural resources. Most present states emerged from a process of decolonisation following World War II , and established the Organisation of African Unity in 1963,

11440-786: Was approved in the United States by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in 1962. East Antarctica is generally higher than West Antarctica, and is considered the coldest place on Earth . The subglacial Gamburtsev Mountain Range , about the size of the European Alps, in the center of East Antarctica, are believed to have been the nucleation site for the East Antarctic Ice Sheet , just underneath Dome A . Very little of East Antarctica

11550-503: Was established around the ninth century, making it one of the oldest kingdoms in present-day Nigeri. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate bronzes , found at the town of Igbo-Ukwu . The Kingdom of Ife , historically the first of these Yoruba city-states or kingdoms, established government under a priestly oba ('king' or 'ruler' in the Yoruba language ), called the Ooni of Ife . Ife

11660-450: Was fully established by roughly 500   BC in many areas of East and West Africa, although other regions did not begin ironworking until the early centuries AD. Copper objects from Egypt , North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500   BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that Trans-Saharan trade networks had been established by this date. From 3500   BC, nomes (ruled by nomarchs ) coalesced to form

11770-609: Was independently invented in the region of Mali in the savannah of West Africa. In the steppes and savannahs of the Sahara and Sahel in Northern West Africa, people possibly ancestral to modern Nilo-Saharan and Mandé cultures started to collect wild millet , around 8,000 to 6,000   BC. Later, gourds , watermelons , castor beans , and cotton were also collected. Sorghum was first domesticated in Eastern Sudan around 4,000   BC, in one of

11880-558: Was noted as a major religious and cultural centre in West Africa and for its unique naturalistic tradition of bronze sculpture. The Ife model of government was adapted by the Oyo Empire , whose obas, called the Alaafins of Oyo , controlled many other Yoruba and non-Yoruba city-states and kingdoms including the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey . The Almoravids were a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that spread over northwestern Africa and

11990-514: Was one of the first African countries to gain independence, the state remained under the control of the country's white minority, initially through qualified voting rights and from 1956 by a system of racial segregation known as apartheid , until 1994. Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries. Since independence, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African states are republics that operate under some form of

12100-483: Was one of the most spectacular mountain building episodes in Earth's history. Gondwana incorporated all of Africa , Madagascar , Seychelles , Arabia , India and East Antarctica along with most of South America and Australia . In the late Cambrian , Gondwana stretched from polar (NW Africa) to subtropical southerly latitudes with East Antarctica around the equator . The Pan-African orogenies that stabilized

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