The use of iron ushered in an Iron Age in Africa, with the expansion of agriculture, industry, trade, and political power. In some African cultures, smelters and ironworkers are of low status because of the manual labor inherent in their work. In others, they are of high status because of the value of their wares.
What were the effects of the discovery of iron technology in African societies?
The use of iron tools made cultivation of the land easier/faster as they were more efficient. Iron tools were used to clear forests thereby enabling people to migrate/settle in new areas. Iron weapons were used to fight other communities thereby increasing warfare/conflicts.
What role did iron play in West Africa?
Iron smelting and forging technologies may have existed in West Africa among the Nok culture of Nigeria as early as the sixth century B.C. In the period from 1400 to 1600, iron technology appears to have been one of a series of fundamental social assets that facilitated the growth of significant centralized kingdoms in …
How important was iron metallurgy to the success of the Bantu migrations?
Their progress was not in mass migrations but rather incremental and intermittent spurts of migration. After 1000 B.C.E., iron metallurgy hastened the rate of migration because the Bantu had the increased technology to clear forests and prepare soil for agriculture.
How did the development of iron technology affect life in West Africa?
West Africans discovered they could heat certain kinds of rock to get a hard metal, iron, which they could heat to shape into useful tools and weapons. … useful iron farming tools, like the hoe, for digging. What were the most valuable goods traded across the Sahara? The most valuable goods traded were gold and salt.
How did iron working spread in Africa?
Although some nineteenth-century European scholars favored an indigenous invention of iron working in sub-Saharan Africa, archaeologists writing between 1945 and 1965 mostly favored diffusion of iron smelting technology from Carthage across the Sahara to West Africa and/or from Meroe on the upper Nile to central Africa …
Why was Iron important in Africa?
Iron played a central role in many societies of early Africa. It held both spiritual and material power. Physically, Africans used iron to create tools for agriculture, utensils for everyday life, and weapons for protection and conquest (Shillington, 2012, p. 45).
Where is iron found in Africa?
In Southern Africa most iron ore reserves lie in South Africa itself. The chief deposits are at Postmasburg, in the Bushveld Complex, at Thabazimbi, and in the vast low-grade deposits of Pretoria. There are also substantial reserves in Zimbabwe.
Why was the Iron Age so important?
The Iron Age helped many countries to become more technologically advanced. Metalwork made tasks like farming easier, as the iron tools were much better than what the people had before. During the Iron Age, farmers used an ‘ard’ (an iron plough) to turn over their fields.
Why did diverse cultures develop in Africa?
Why did diverse cultures develop in Africa? Because of trade, different beliefs and other advances in every civilization.
What were the causes and the effects of the migrations of Bantu speaking peoples?
Effects of migration
In central Africa, the spread of Bantu-speaking people had effects on the environment. … Agriculture improved the ability of Bantu-speakers to reproduce and expand more quickly. But, agriculture also had more noticeable impacts on the environment than hunting and gathering.
What were three effects of the Bantu migrations?
The effects of the Bantu Migration were the spread of the Bantu language, culture, agricultural practices, and metalworking skills all across…
What was probably the most valuable skill taught by the Bantu speaking people?
The main result of the Bantu Migrations was to spread Agriculture and herding to most parts of Africa. … By about 500 B.C.E, the Bantu speaking peoples had mastered Iron metallurgy, which let them make axes and hoes that served to further clear lands for agriculture.
Why did West Africans want to please nature spirits?
What is the most likely reason that early West Africans wanted to please nature spirits? to protect their ancestors from evil. to help them have success in battle. to increase their chances of becoming wealthy. to ensure their crops would get enough water.
Where did iron smelting originate?
The Iron Age in the Ancient Near East is believed to have begun with the discovery of iron smelting and smithing techniques in Anatolia or the Caucasus and Balkans in the late 2nd millennium BC ( c. 1300 BC). The earliest bloomery smelting of iron is found at Tell Hammeh, Jordan around 930 BC (14C dating).
Why was salt an important item of trade in Africa?
The people who lived in the desert of North Africa could easily mine salt, but not gold. … They craved the precious metal that would add so much to their personal splendor and prestige. These mutual needs led to the establishment of long-distance trade routes that connected very different cultures.