Chapter 7
Meroe
The central city to the Kingdom of Meroe that was governed by a powerful and sacred monarch. It housed people of many different specialties and flourished from 300 B.C.E to 100 C.E.
Axum
An empire that laid on the Horn of Africa. Around 50 C.E a sustainable state appeared and participated in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea trade. Later Axum started to expand and invade areas around it from 300 C.E to 500 C.E and steadily declined during the next several centuries due to environmental factors and the change in trade routes which made Axum lose income further increasing the decline in the Axum Empire.
Niger Valley Civilization
A civilization that emerged along the Niger Valley due to a dry period in the southern Sahara. Over the next few centuries, the people of the Niger Valley created a distinctive city based civilization that had no state structure such as in China, Axum, or the Roman Empire. The cities each had economic specialties but due to the areas lack of resources, they had to participate in long distance trade. Later Islam can into the region and submerged but didn't destroy the Niger Valley civilization.
Bantu Expansion
The Bantu were a collection of agrarian people that occupied the forest of Africa mainly around the equator. They migrated a little at a time, probably family by family rapidly into southern and eastern Africa.
Maya Civilization
A civilization that lived in Mesoamerica and made most of their cultural achievements from 250 C.E to 900 C.E. They developed a mathematical system and predicted and traced solar eclipses and lunar eclipses as well as the path that planets follow. They also developed a writing system that outdid other languages and were really good at engineering landscapes to build there cities on top of. The Maya had a political system were each city was its own state but by 840 C.E, a drought caused warfare and famine to topple the Mayan Civilization in 909 C.E
Teotihuacan
A large city that flourished around the same time as the Maya's did. It laid north of the Mayan civilization and had a large area of influence and took over some cities and areas. It mysteriously collapsed in 650 C.E. Little is still known about the city.
Chavin
A village located in the Andes that became the focus of a religious movement that spread throughout the coastal and highlands of Peru.
Moche
A civilization that flourished from 100 C.E to 800 C.E. It was an agrarian civilization that was governed by warrior-priest that lived on the top of huge pyramids. They had people that were skilled at lots of crafts. The civilizations achievements all rested on the fragile ground that the civilization was on that was set for many natural disasters an heavy rain falls that messed up the civilization a lot and by 700 C.E disappeared into history.
Chaco Phenomenon
A period of time when the Chaco civilization flourished, creating more cities and having a population growth between 860 and 1130 C.E.
Mound Builders/Cahokia
A civilization that emerged in eastern North America, especially around the Mississippi River. They built big mounds of dirt that was shaped into many different objects giving them the nickname Mound Builders. They had their own Agricultural Revolution around 2000 B.C.E and flourished about the same time as the Chaco civilization.