Axum: Before the 1500s
When choosing an interesting place in Africa before the 1500's, I was not sure where to start. It was not until I fell upon Axum, or Aksum if you are from Africa, that I knew what I was going to do. Axum had one of the most fascinating uprisings after conquering land that once belonged to the Kush. They were very well off in their trade system, and with help from the Red Sea and trade among the Nile River, they began with ease. Later, they saw how it could be tricky. I also can see how trade impacted the agriculture and then the reasons agriculture ended up failing. The Axum people were also the first capital of one of the biggest empires of Ethiopia, which led to a structure of religion, government and language.
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We notice that the good fortune of the Aksum began to decline from the 7th century A.D for two major reasons; First, it's agricultural and mercantile production hit a big decrease (Falola, 2014). “This has been suspected to be because the increase of environmental degradation caused by uncontrollable erosion, excessive land use and reckless deforestation” (Falola, …show more content…
Persia was then able to gain control of the Red Sea Trade from about A.D .600. The Persian's expelled Aksum from the Arabian Peninsula (Falola, 2014). “Losing most of its lucrative trade, the kingdom of Aksum lacked the resources to compete. By about A.D. 800, Aksum had moved its capital south into the interior of Ethiopia Highlands, and its kingdom had become very much reduced” (Falola, 2002). After the Ancient empire decline, we moved into what we consider now the modern city of Aksum/Axum. The archeology of the modern city of Aksum/Axum is a bit different from what we consider Ancient Aksum. “The modern city of Aksum is located in the northeastern portion of what is now Ethiopia, on the horn of Africa. It lies high on a plateau 7200 feet above sea level, and in its heyday, its region of influence included both sides of the Red Sea. Trade through Adulis connected eastward to India as well, providing Aksum and its rulers a profitable connection between Rome and the east” (Hirst,