In 1500 AD, most of the people in Africa worshipped traditional local gods. But local gods are appropriate for local chiefs; big empires tend to go with monotheistic religions. So as more [...]
Agadez mosque (Songhai, 1515, in Niger) Africa in 1500 AD Just before 1500 AD, Africa was suffering from a terrible drought probably caused by the Little Ice Age. All over [...]
Kilwa By 1500 AD, people in Tanzania were doing pretty well. They did a lot of trading with India and the Arabian Peninsula from their biggest port at Kilwa, and [...]
Ngazargamu In the 1500s AD, eastern Nigeria was part of the Islamic Bornu empire. The Bornu built their capital city at Ngazargamu. The Kanem-Bornu ruler Mai Idris Alawma ruled Ngazargamu [...]
Mauretania is mostly dry; a lot of it is desert. Where is Mauretania? Mauretania is on the Atlantic coast of West Africa. It's basically the western part of the Sahara [...]
Kingdom of Ndongo In 1500 AD, some of the people who lived in what is now Angola were Bantu and some were San. A Bantu man from Congo, Kiluanje, probably started the [...]
History of Botswana: Where is Botswana? Tswana people in the 1500s In 1500 AD, the Tswana people lived in what is now Botswana. That's in the middle of the southern part of [...]
Chapel of Our Lady of Baluarte - the oldest European building south of the Equator (Isla de Mozambique, 1522, thanks to Jason Inslee) In 1500 AD, the Bantu Chikuyo Chisamarengu [...]
Kenya history: Mombasa in the 1500s Portuguese conquer Mombasa In the early 1500s AD, Portuguese ships under the rule of Charles V managed to capture the important seaport of Mombasa [...]
History of Chad: Lake Chad Bornu Empire in Chad The Bornu empire - ruled by Muslims - controlled most of Chad at the end of the Middle Ages, with their [...]
