Askum Trade Dbq

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As Swahili once said, “Wisdom is wealth.” The major trade routes of this time frame were mostly located right around Askum. Askum had a huge advantage on a lot of civilizations because they were perfectly placed on the Red Sea. Askum had reached their highest point at around 325 CE and 360 CE. Africa had a lot of already developed civilizations with a structured way of life. The African civilizations had made some great achievements in fields like trade, medicine, military, trade and their political system. The African society was quite advanced in a couple fields, some of the major fields were politics and trade. According to document 2, “The court of appeal is held in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses with gold embroidered …show more content…

Askum traded with Zeila, Adulis and many more civilizations. Askum was in one of the best spots because it allowed several trade routes in major water ports where ships could enter making it so that they could import and export goods a lot easier than if they were on a land route. It is very similar to how ports today run, though today it would be a lot easier to get something from the inland to a ship on the coast because we have mail and other means of travel, back then they didn't have the sophisticated technology we have today, so they would have to use horses and other animals to get their trade to a boat or ship on the coast to trade with a country over the major waterways or sea. The major waterway the Askum had was the Red Sea. The Red Sea was connected the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. This allowed for then to trade with Arabia as well. Furthermore, they were on the trade route that connected them to the Indian Ocean allowing for trade to happen with civilizations in India. A civilization called Kilwa was connected to an east African see route that led to the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and along the Indian Ocean. They traded animal skins gold and ivory all treated by land routes. Some of the land routes throughout African civilizations what are the routes between Zimbabwe and Mombasa, Kalwa and Zimbabwe, Askum to Zeila, and Mombasa to Safala. The African civilizations would trade things like gold, horses, different art, slaves, ivory and salt. These were very popular trading exports and some of the imports were weapons, cloths, ceramics, raw meats, iron and