3.5 Review Questions

QuestionAnswer
Why was the camel important to trans-Saharan trade?
Its biological advantages made regular long-distance trade in the Sahara possible.
Its obstinate nature makes it hard for handlers to control.
It produces a fine wool that can be spun into luxurious textiles.
Its milk is used to produce cheese, an important source of protein.
How did the widespread adoption of Islam help facilitate trans-Saharan trade?
by giving Muslim merchants, traders, and caravanners a shared set of customs, laws, traditions, and language
by making the caravan trade the exclusive vocation of Tuareg Berber nomads
by opening the markets of the pilgrimage route between Niani and Kilwa
by causing conflict between dissident Muslim groups, thereby opening competing markets for new manufactured goods
In addition to gold and salt, what two other types of goods were regularly exported from Africa?
textiles and enslaved people
obsidian and cobalt
hides and cotton
ivory and sugar
In the mid-fifteenth century, who purchased enslaved people from Mali on the Senegambia coast?
Portuguese
French
British
Dutch
What were some of the key exports from Songhai?
kola nuts, salt, and gold
hides, jewels, and enslaved people
ceramics, cloth, and horses
enslaved people, pottery, and weapons
What were Timbuktu and Djenné renowned as?
centers of Islamic learning and religious scholarship, as well as trans-Saharan trade
centers of religious pilgrimage
river port cities at the confluence of the Senegal and Gambia Rivers
types of calligraphy used by Islamic clerics
What was the capital of the Songhai Empire?
Gao
Kano
Djenné
Taghaza
Why didn’t the trading ports of the Swahili coast extend along the full length of the coast of Africa?
The seas there were too rough for the dhows and the monsoon winds too weak.
Hostile tribes in the south kept merchants from establishing cities.
Tropical diseases in the south made it too dangerous for people to live there.
The southern part of the coast had been colonized by the French.
What trade item was produced in the Swahili city-states?
pottery
glassware
gold
silverware
What was the source of most of the enslaved people who were traded on the Swahili coast?
the interior of the African continent
Eastern Europe
the Arabian Peninsula
the Swahili city-states
Which Swahili city-state came to dominate the southern part of the coast, trading in gold with Sofala?
Kilwa
Mogadishu
Mombasa
Zanzibar
The Kanem-Bornu Empire was able to maintain its control over the slave trade partly through military innovations, including weapons imported from _____.
North Africa
Portugal
the Slave Coast
the Songhai Empire
By the eighteenth century, what was the main slave trading center on the West African coast?
Whydah
Timbuktu
Bornu
Gao
Located in modern-day Ghana, ____ was a flourishing center of the ____ trade beginning in the sixteenth century.
Elmina, slave
Benin, sugar
Togo, salt
São Tomé, copper

The content of this course has been taken from the free World History, Volume 2: from 1400 textbook by Openstax

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