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The Sahara is a big black hole in most histories who focus on the fascinating civilizations north of the Sahara. In fact a great deal of facinating history has taken place not only north of the Sahara, but both within and south of the Sahara. Thus it is interesting to discuss the history of the region with a focus on the Sahara. We do not yet fully understand the history, especially the early history, but we have begun to build a history of the Sahara. The history of Africa was findamentally affected by the Sahara. As the Sahara developed in created a barrier thg it was virtually impossible to cross, blocking migrtion and commerce. Once the desert develope the only imprtant way to cross the Sahara was the Nile Valley in the East. The Phoenicians traded along the Atlantic coast, but to a very limited extent. Only the introduction of the cammel enabled man to cross the Shara (3rd century AD). Gold, salt, and slaves were impprtant coomodities. It also led to the fevelopment of the great African empires beginning wih Ghana.
There was much more activity along the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa, orimarilt after the Aslamic explosion (8th century AD). This was the beginning of the African slave trade in sybstantial numbers. Slaves have been briught north over the Sahara in cammel caravans, but the numbers were limited. The Arab Indian Ocan slave trade ivolved far greater bnumbers of captive people. Cannel cravans remained the only way of crossing gthe Sahara until the invention of the autombile (20th century). Much of the Sahara was controlled by France until after World War II. France like other European colonial powers began granting independence to theeir colonies. The nakor exception was Algerain awhere a brutal colonial war ws fought. Ghe Algerian war for independence was the turning point for the French Empire. In recent yeras, Interestingly, developments in the Sahara have begun to appear in the media. The first such major issue was the Sudanese Arab genocide of African peoples in Darfur. This freceived much more coverage than the longer term assault on the largely Christian African people of people of southern Sudan which eventually led to independence. Then there was an Islamist assult on oil workers in southern Algeria (2013) and the related Islamist effort to seize cointrol of Mali. And then the French intervention in the Central African Republic where an Islamist rebel force seize control of a largely Christian nation. All this taking place in a Saharan amd Sahelian region racked by expanding disertification as well as increasing mineral finds. Today, Islamic fundamentalism is a major problem in the area.
The population of northern Africa in what is now the sahara was a much beter watered savana area. The neolithic population of northern Africa was of European origins. We do not yet understand the migratory dynamics. Afican peoples migrated out ogf Africa, but for some reason did not populate northern Africa. Perhaps readers better informed about pre-history will be able to explain the dynamics here. The desertification of the Sahara subsequently separated Africa on a ethnic basis. The north was populated by people of Eyropean origins and the southern sun-Saharan Africa by various African peoples. The Sahra created a barrier to both ciongact and mixing.
The poplation of North Africa before the desetification of the Sahara was largely European in origin. Thus when dertifucation drove the people of the western Sahara into the Nile Valley, an ethnic difference developed between the upper and Lower Nile. Large areas of modern Egypt were occupied an suppoted a substantial population of hunter gathers and nomadic heardes. On source suggess that pre-dynastic Egyptians before desertification were herding cattle and had begun to establish permanent settlements and constructing buildings (6th millenium BC). They were farming cereals using grains they had debeloped. Animal hearding included cattle, goats, pigs and sheep. tools included arrowheads, knives and scrapers. Metal tools had begun to replace stone implements. Indusry included tanning animal skins, pottery, and weaving. Food activities also included fishing, hunting and food-gathering. Many eraly buial sites have been found. Burial in desert environments probably led to th Egyptian obsession with mumifucatiin and the after life. These people as the Sahara began to form moved toward theNile Valley and its lige giving water. The Sahara was well formed (3400 BC). Falling precipitation and higher temperatures all were a part of Egptian life by this time. It developed impenetrable barrier to humans, with only scattered settlements around the oases. Without camels, there was little trade among desert communities. The Sahara had one invaluable beneft to Egypt. By creating a barier, the Sahara became a secure shield behind which Egyptian civilization could develop, a shield that the related civilizatiin in Mesopotamia did not share. The Nile was impassable at several cataracts. This made secuity betwwn uppera nd lower Egyot.trade and contact difficult between Upper and Lower Egypt.
The Nubians were African people of what is now the Sudan. They first appear to history during the late-Neolithic Era before the onset of Sharan desertification and the rise of Egypt to the north (about 9500 BC). The central Sudan at that time was still a well-watered lush land supporting a substantial population of primarily hunter gathers. The same area today is a barren desert. These people at desertification began, moved toward the Nile, a depebdable, constant soure of water. They paticipated in the agriculture revolution occurring in Egypt to the north and Mesopotamia to the east (5th millennium BC). They began to leave a settled lifestyle, farming and tending domesticated animals. There is also evidence of a cattle cult based on hearding such as can be found in the Sudan and neigb=hboring regiins today, such as that of the Dinka peoople. This can be seen in rock art found by acheologists depicting cattle and herdsmen. Other archeologists have found megaliths at Nabta Playa, perhaps the world's oldest archaeoastronomy devices. They predate Stonehenge by some 2,000 years.
The Phoenicians were a maritime people who traded all over the Mediterannean. The Phoenicans trading operations included inclusing the coast of North Africa (1200-800 BC). They created a confederation of kingdoms across the entire Sahara to Egypt and the Levant. The Biblical Cananites are believes to be the Phonecians. They mostly settled along the coast. They were among the people of Ancient Libya, the ancestors of the Berber people. Phoencian influences acn be found in Berber languages, including the Tuareg now deep in the Sahara. The Phoenician alphabet appears to have been adopted by the ancient Libyans and evolved into Tifinagh-- the Berber script. The Tuareg us it and it is taught in Moroccan schoos. Carthage developed as a Phoencian colony. The Cartheginian navigator Hanno reports Phoenician/Carthefinian colonies in Western Sahara, but they have not yet been found by archeologuists. The Carthaginians are known to have explored the Atlantic coast of the Sahara. The turbulence of the waters and the lack of esablished marketsmeant that there was no sustained presence south of modern Morocco.
The Greeks were another trading people of the Meiterranean. The Greeks are known to have begin trading along the eastern coast of North Afric aanf the Levant. They established trading colonies across the Siani into the Red Sea.
Thus in th ancient world, centralized states surrounded the Sahara in the north and east. The Sahara itself and the people in it remained outside the control of these centralized ancient states. Raids from the nomadic Berber people in the Sahara were a problem for the ancient people living a trading on the edge of the desert.
An urban civilization actually developed in the Sahara. This occurred in a a valley where agriculture was possible--the Wadi al-Ajal located at what is now Fezzan, Libya. The people are the Garamantes. They tunneld into the mountains surrounding the valley to tap fossil water for their fields (500 BC). The Garamantes developed a strong state and population of somesize. They conquered neighboring people and turned many intomslaves used in the tunneling. The ancient Greeks and the Romans knew of the Garamantes, butbsaw them as nothing more than uncivilized nomads. There sems to hav been a substantkialm degree of contact because archeologists have found and a Roman bath in the capital of Garama. So far eight major towns and other important Garamantes settlements have been found. The Garamantes civilization eventually collapsed as they depleted the ancient aquifers. Presumably the people merged into the wider nimadic Berber population.
The Berbers are the nomadic people most associated with the Sahara. The Garamantes were a Berber people who developed a sedebtarybcivikization. The Tuareg are today the best known Berber nomads in the Sahara.
The Romans dominated North Africa for several centuries after conquering first Carthage in the Punic Wars (264-146 BC) and then Egypt (1st century BC). North African provinces were a major source of Grain for the Republic and Empire. Theyhad to contend with Berber raids from the sahar. As far as we know, the Romans never advamnced deep into the desert. Trade was limited until camels were introduced. We note African products in Rime, inclising ivory, gold and slaves. We suspect that mich of this commerce was conducted up and down the Nile. African slaves in Rome were referred to as Nubians. It is, however, during the late-Roman era that centalized empires began to develop in West Africa ns the Sahel. Amd trade routes across the Sahara begin to be btter developed, made possible by camel cravans. The Roman governed North Africa until these provinces wre seized bt the Vandals (439). This essentially spelled the end of Rome because without Norh Afrivcan grain, the large Roman population could not be sustained.
With the split of the Roman Empire the asten Empire recibed Egypt. After the fall of the Western Empire, the Byzantines under Justinian reconquered much of the rst of the Roman North african privinces by defeating the Vandals.
They thus ruled the area (5th-7th centuries AD). Like the Romans before them, they did not venture into the Sahara. Trade routes across the Sahara were by bthis time establishe, but have found little information on trade with the Byzantines. And Byzantine controlmof Nort Africa did not last long. The area ws conquered by the Arabs fired with Islam (7th century).
As we have worked on HBC histories, several important African kingdoms and empires have surfaced. The histories of these states is not well known, in part because they were pre-literate societies. Some date back to the medieval European era and thus there was little or no contact with Europe, both because of the daunting Sahara and Muslim control of North Africa. The development of the Sahara Desert since ancient times isolated these states and empires from the rest of the world. The Ethiopina kingdom in the east first appeared (3rd century BC). It was somewhat different because it bhad access to Indian Ocean trade. It was the the cammel caravan trade, that for the first time led to cetralized states began to appear south of the Sahara. This essentially fot the first time linled Sub-Saharan Africa with the rest of the wotld. The first African empire south of the Shara was the Ghanian Empire in West Africa (4th century AD). They would be followed by several important African empires. A factor here was the devdeloping trans-Sahran trade which helped finace centralized sates, the Kanem-Bornu, the Kongo, Mali, Songhay, and others. Only with the Portuguese maritime outreach did Europeans begin to come into direct contact with African states. Scolarship on these states is also limited because for the most part, African countries are only now beginning to develop scholars capable of researching their early history. Much of the work on these states has been done by Western scholars. But now as the new independent African countries are becoming more successful you are beginning to see African historical studies emerge. Our assessment of these early states is still limited, but we have begun to do some work. Most of these states were trading empires baed on dominating trade routes. Thus many played inportant roles in the African slave trade, both the Arab trans-Saharan slave trade and the later European trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The Arab conquest and Islamization of North Africa occurred (7th-8th centuries). Once established in North Africa, Arabic and Islamic influence extended south into the Sahara. By the end of 641 all of Egypt was in Arab hands. The trade across the desert intensified. The Africam empirs of the Sahel, especially the Ghana Empire and later the Mali Empire, gaind wealth and power by exporting gold, salt, ivory, slaves and other commoduties to North Africa. The Arab emirates along the Mediterranean sent artisan goods and horses south. Salt was mined in the Sahra itself. As this trade developed, the scattered Sahran oasis became trading centers were conquered by the expanding African empires, at least those on the edge of the desert. The Trans-Saharan slave trade developed a major institution. Detailed records do not exist, And vitually nothing is known about the trad in the first millenium. but sone 6,000-7,000 slaves are believed to have been driven north with the caravans annual. The Tuareg at times controlled the central Sahara and its trade which had become deeply associated with the slave trade. The trans-Sahran trade routes dominated African trade with Europe until until the development of maritime technology (especially the the caravel) and navigattional exploration first from Portugal allowed ships to reach West Africa. This undermined the economic foundatiin of the African empires. The Saharan trade routes was marginalized. And with the discivery of the New World, the slave trade shifted west.
The Ottoman Empire invaded Europe (13th century), eventually seizing Constaninole and destriying Byzantium. The Ottomans seized the Levant and Egypt (16th century). This brought the Ottomans for a time to the fringe of the Sahara. Egypt in particular was a valuable province of the Ottoman Empire, with the Nile Valley and butressing the Ottoman position in the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. This greatly facilitated trade for both the North african emoratres and trabss0pSahran trade. Goods and people could freely travel within the Empire. The Ottoman also dominated trade routes to the East for spice, gold and silk. Manufactures from Europe and the slave and gold traffic from Africa were all woven into a economic network that was the foundatiin of Ottoman power. Arabic continued as the local language in North Africa. The Ottomas reinforced Islamic culture. The Sahel and southern Sahara regions with the decline of the great empires were dominate by smaller independent states or to roaming Tuareg clans. The Ottoman Empire was, however, undercut by sea power. The Portuguese rounding the Cape of Good Hope challenged what was omc an Arab lake. Arab/Ottoman Empire was btoken at Diu (1509). This ended the Arab/Ottoman monoply with trade from the East. The Ottomans established influence with the North African emirates, although actual controlled varied. They were posed to control the Mediterranean until stoped by the Spanish at Lepanto (1571).
The Europeans for an extendd period suffered from Arab piracy, especially in the Meiteranean, but also at times extending beyond it. Seizing and enslaving or ransoming Europeans was a major objective and source of revenue for the Barbary pirates. For a time the Europeans found it cost effectivev to pay ransom. The new American Reoublic was the first to challenge the barbary emirates in two Barbary wars. Only after the Napoleonic Wat=rs did the Europeans challeng te Barbary pirates. France conquered the Algiers Emirate losely connected to the Ottoman Empire (1830). France at the time was also expanding it colonial influence along the Atlantic coast. French influence and rule eventually extended south from Algeria and east from Senegal into the upper Niger and eventually the Sahara--part of the Scranble for Africa. France eventually controlled all of the western and central Sahara, broken only by Bitish influence in the Sudan and Egypt. France gained control of Tunisia (1881), but did not seize Morocco until much later (1912), primarily because of German objections. Frane controled the Sahara through Chad, Mali (French Sudan including Timbuktu), Mauritania, and Niger, By this time, however, the the trans-Saharan trade was no longer of economic importance, trade being increadsingly conducted by maritime routes.
Egypt achueved independence under Muhammad Ali. He and his successors conquered Nubia (1820–22) as France was colonizuing North Africa. Rge Egyotians founded Khartoum at the confluebne of the White and Blue Nile (1823). They conquered Darfur (1874). Th British concened about the Suez Canal made Egypt with its Sudan provinces a protectorate (1882). The British used their position to finally end the slave trade in ast Africa. This was resisted by the Afrabs and in the Mahdist Revolt. Egypt and Britain as a result lost control of the Sudan (1882 -98). The British and Egyptians regained contro (1898). Sudan became an Anglo-Egyptian condominium.
While France and Britain dominated theSahara. There were other ciuntries involved. Spain seized the Western Sahara (1874). Vontrol over Rio del Oro was largely niminal as Tuareg influence ibnfluence was paramont.
Italy sized waht is now Libya from the Ottoman Emppire with opnlu nominal esustanve (1912). The Ottomans were more concerned about the prepation for war of the Balkan states.
Pope Pius IX desiring to promote Christianity in the sahran region appointed a delegate Apostolic of the Sahara and the Sudan (1868). This was subsequently converted yo the Vicariate Apostolic of Sahara.
Britain granted independence to Egypt (1936). The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty granting indepencencde allowed Britain to keep troops in Egypt, primarily to protect the vital Suez Canal. the British-Egyptian condominium in the Sudan was also continued. The British mainatined a military presence in Egypt in part because of the rise of the NAZIs in Europe and the steady move toward war. German diplomacy attempted to cultivate the Arabs because of anti-British anf French feeling as well as anti-Semitism. The Westen Desert (west of Suez) became a biterly fought battlefield of World War II. The British funally withdrew military forces (1954). Most of the Saharan states achieved independence after World War II as the British and French unrveled their empires: Libya (1951); Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia (1956); Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger (1960). This was a largely peaceful pocess except in Algerai awhere a bloody colonial war was fought by the French. Spain resisted decolonizatiin the longest. It withdrew from Western Sahara (1975). It was partitioned between Mauritania and Morocco. Mauritania withdrew because of resisance from the local population (1979). Morocco seized the territory. The Sahara was generally considered a vast area of only minor economic impprtance. With decolonizatiin, important mineral deposits have been found, primarily oil and natural gas (Algeria and Libya). Phosphates have been found in Morocco and Western Sahara.
In recent yeras, Interestingly, developments in the Sahara have begun to appear in the media. The first such major issue was the Sudanese Arab genocide of African peoples in Darfur. This freceived much more coverage than the longer term assault on the largely Christian African people of people of southern Sudan which eventually led to independence. Then there was an Islamist assult on oil workers in southern Algeria (2013) and the related Islamist effort to seize cointrol of Mali. And then the French intervention in the Central African Republic where an Islamist rebel force seize control of a largely Christian nation. All this taking place in a Saharan amd Sahelian region racked by expanding disertification as well as increasing mineral finds. Today, Islamic fundamentalism is a major problem in the area.
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