Page 161 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

Wagadu Empire
War and Peace—Overview
Warfare—Africa
Warfare—China

Warfare—Europe
Warfare—Islamic World
Warfare—Japan and Korea
Warfare—Post-Columbian Latin
America
Warfare—Post-Columbian North
America
Warfare—Pre-Columbian
Mesoamerica and North America Wagadu Empire
Warfare—Pre-Columbian South
America
ocated in the sahel, the transitional semiarid ecolog-
Warfare—South Asia
Lical zone between the Sahara to the north (a camel
Warfare—Southeast Asia
pastoralist milieu) and the savannah and Middle Niger
Warfare—Steppe Nomads River Valley to the south (a peasant cattle pastoralist
Warfare, Air milieu), the Wagadu, or Ghana empire was a dominant
Warfare, Comparative military and political state system in the first and early
second millennia CE. (Wagadu is the name of the empire
Warfare, Land
in the Soninke language. Ghana was one of its ruler’s
Warfare, Naval
titles, and medieval Muslim geographers named the
Warfare, Origins of
empire after this title.) It administered a vast area and
Warsaw Pact embraced a culturally and linguistically heterogeneous
Water population. Muslim accounts dating from the late eighth
Water Management century to the thirteenth century consistently described it
as a powerful polity that was particularly rich in gold.
Western Civilization
The core area of the empire, whose roots can be
Womens and Gender History
traced archaeologically to the first millennium BCE,was
Womens Emancipation Movements
the space of its ruling dynasty (the Soninke-speaking Sis-
Womens Reproductive Rights say), military and political functionaries, specialized
Movements
craft and service groups, and its army.The settlement of
Womens Suffrage Movements Soninke-speakers in the area can be dated to the early
World Cities in History—Overview second millennium BCE and the emergence of hierar-
World Maps, Chinese chically organized polities occurred between 1600 and
1200 BCE. One historically significant feature of the
World System Theory
core was its dynamic and expansive irrigated agricul-
World War I
tural system.The social organization associated with its
World War II
complex of intensive farming practices allowed the sys-
Writing Systems and Materials tem to take over cultivable but marginal desert lands
Writing World History and to assimilate other agricultural communities.
Another important feature of the core area was the role