Study Questions

1) What were some early civilizations in East Africa?  Why were these civilizations important?
An early civilization was Askum. They were importnant because it emerged present day Ethiopia in the A.D. 100s. Its location on the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean made it an important trading center and contributed to its expansion and power.

2) What happened at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885?
The Berlin Conference was to prevent European wars over Africa. Nations that atteneded this conference decided that any European country could claim land in Africa by telling other nations and showing that they could control the land. They also set boundaries that combined peoples who were traditional enimies and divided others who were not.

3) What African countries managed to remain free of European control?
Ethiopia and Lybria were the two countires that managed to remain free of European control.

4) How did colonialism cause conflicts in East Africa after independence?
 Eueropean colonial powers had not prepared East African nations for independence. Also, the ethnic boundaries created by the Europeans forced cultual divisions that hadnt existed before.

5) How did Ethiopia manage to defeat Italy in 1896?
Their leader Menelik II, skillfully protected his country from the italian invasion with weapons from France and Russia. They also had a greater knowledge of the area's geography than did the Italians.

6) What are some cash crops of East Africa?
Some cash crops of East Africa are coffee, tea, and sugar.

7) What is East Africa's most critical health-care problem.
East Africa's most critical health-care problem is AIDS and HIV.

8) Research the Rwanda massacre (genocide?) and briefly discuss what happened and why.
The Rwanda Massacre was a killing between the three different Rwanda ethnic groups, Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. In the 1990s Hutu extremists with in Rwanda' s political elite blambed the entire Tutsi population for the countrys increasing social, economic, and political pressures. They were also accused of supporting a Tutsi- dominated rebel group, the RPF(Rwrandan Patriotic Front). In 1994 a plane that was carrying President Habyarimana was shot down, violence began right after that.