MC_A Concise History of Africa

North Africa

the Mediterranean, ensuring the safe progress of American commerce. In the initial line of the Marines’ hymn, “From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli,” Montezuma efers to the Battle of Chapultepec, during the Mexican- American War, while Tripoli refers to actions during the First Barbary War and the decisive Battle of Derna in 1805. The Barbary slave trade continued sporadically up until the dawn of the 20th century, eventually disappearing under French rule.

The Sahara Desert The Sahara divides the northern part of the continent into North and sub- Saharan Africa. The southern border of the Sahara is marked by a band of semi-arid savanna, known as the Sahel, while south of the Sahel lies sub-Saharan Africa’s lusher Sudan and the Congo river basin. About 5 million years ago, climate change turned the area into a desert. A further change in climate, around 5000 BC, made the area much wetter, and petroglyphs and fossils testify to human activity.

Desertification, however, set in around 3000 BC, and the area became much like it is today. and the scenery is far from monotonous. The Sahara comprises hamada (stony plateaux), gravel Deserts are always interesting BELOW: Bizarre sandstone cliffs in the Sahara Desert, Tassili N'Ajjer, Algeria. OPPOSITE: The Shali Fortress in Siwa Oasis is an oasis in Egypt, located between the Qattara Depression and the Egyptian Sand Sea in the Libyan Desert.

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