MSCE History flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Primary source

Material created at the time of an event by a participant or eyewitness, such as letters, diaries, official records or photographs; historians use it as direct evidence.

Oral tradition

Testimony about the past passed by word of mouth across generations, including genealogies, songs and legends; historians test it by corroboration, consistency and comparison with other sources.

Radiocarbon dating

Scientific method that measures decay of carbon-14 in organic remains such as charcoal or bone to estimate age, usually up to about 50,000 years; used to date archaeological layers.

Bias in historical sources

A slant or distortion in a source caused by the author's interests, beliefs or audience; historians identify bias by asking who wrote it, why, and for whom.

Trans-Saharan trade

Long-distance exchange across the Sahara linking West African gold and salt producers with North Africa and the Mediterranean; camel caravans and Islamic merchants spread goods, ideas and religion.

Mali Empire

West African state from about 1235 to 1600, founded by Sundiata Keita; controlled trans-Saharan trade in gold and salt, with Timbuktu and Gao as commercial and scholarly centres.

Great Zimbabwe

Large dry-stone settlement in south-eastern Zimbabwe built between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries by Shona-speaking people; its gold and ivory trade with the Swahili coast supported a powerful state.

Swahili coast city-states

Trading towns such as Kilwa, Mombasa and Zanzibar that linked the East African interior to Indian Ocean commerce; Swahili language and Islamic culture flourished from about the tenth century.

Maravi Confederation

Loose alliance of Chewa-speaking clans in the region of modern Malawi and eastern Zambia, formed from about the fifteenth century and organised under the kalonga title, with power based on ivory and iron trade.

Kalonga

Title of the paramount ruler of the Maravi Confederation; the kalonga controlled trade routes, collected tribute and held religious authority, with a capital at Mankhamba in central Malawi.

Nyau society

Secret men's association among the Chewa that performs masked dances and rituals at funerals and initiations; it reinforced social hierarchy and preserved oral history and religious beliefs.

Yao slave trade

Nineteenth-century commerce in which Yao and Swahili traders from around Lake Malawi captured and sold people, along with ivory, to coastal markets at Kilwa and Mozambique, devastating local communities.

Nyasaland Protectorate

British colonial territory from 1907 to 1964, previously the British Central Africa Protectorate; administered by a governor and district commissioners, with an economy based on plantation agriculture and African labour.

Thangata

Forced labour system in colonial Nyasaland in which African tenants worked on European estates in return for the right to live on and cultivate land; it resembled serfdom and provoked protest.

Hut tax

Colonial tax introduced in Nyasaland in the 1890s, payable in cash by each adult male household; it forced Africans into wage labour and was a major cause of resistance.

Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland

Political union from 1953 to 1963 of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, dominated by white settlers; African opposition in Nyasaland helped bring about its dissolution.

Chilembwe Rising

1915 revolt led by Reverend John Chilembwe in Nyasaland against forced labour, conscription and colonial injustice; it was quickly crushed and Chilembwe was killed, but became a nationalist symbol.

Nyasaland African Congress

Nationalist party founded in 1944 by uniting Native Associations; it campaigned against federation and colonial rule, was banned in 1959, and was succeeded by the Malawi Congress Party.

Operation Sunrise

Colonial state of emergency declared in March 1959 in Nyasaland; mass arrests of nationalist leaders followed, but the crackdown increased support for independence and led to the Devlin Commission.

Native Associations

Early twentieth-century African organisations such as the North Nyasa Native Association that petitioned the colonial government on land, labour and education; they were precursors of mass nationalism.

Hastings Kamuzu Banda

Malawi's nationalist leader and first president; returned in 1958 to lead the Malawi Congress Party, became prime minister in 1963 and ruled as a one-party president until 1994.

Devlin Commission

British commission of inquiry set up after the 1959 emergency in Nyasaland; it criticised the colonial administration's conduct and found that Nyasaland was a police state, strengthening nationalist claims.

Cabinet Crisis 1964

Dispute soon after independence when several ministers challenged Banda's autocratic style and economic policy; Banda dismissed them, and the purge helped entrench his one-party rule.

Malawi independence 1964

Nyasaland became the independent state of Malawi on 6 July 1964, with Banda as prime minister; it became a republic in 1966 and remained under one-party rule until 1994.

Bakili Muluzi

Malawi's president from 1994 to 2004 and leader of the United Democratic Front; he won the first multi-party elections after the 1993 referendum and served two terms.

1993 referendum

National vote in Malawi in which about two-thirds of voters chose to end one-party rule and adopt multi-party democracy; it led to the 1994 elections that defeated Banda.

Structural adjustment

IMF and World Bank programmes from the 1980s requiring Malawi to liberalise markets, cut subsidies and privatise state firms in return for loans; they often increased hardship for the poor.

Tonse Alliance

Coalition of Malawian opposition parties led by Lazarus Chakwera that won the court-ordered 2020 presidential rerun, defeating Peter Mutharika after the 2019 election was annulled.

Berlin Conference

Meeting of European powers in 1884-85 that set rules for the partition of Africa, including effective occupation; no African representatives attended, and colonial boundaries were drawn arbitrarily.

Cold War

Global rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union from about 1947 to 1991, fought through alliances, arms races, propaganda and proxy wars; it shaped decolonisation and African politics.

Bandung Conference

Meeting of Asian and African states in Indonesia in 1955 that condemned colonialism and racism and promoted non-alignment; it inspired later Afro-Asian solidarity and the Non-Aligned Movement.

Year of Africa

1960, when seventeen African countries gained independence from European rule, including Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria and the Congo; it accelerated decolonisation across the continent.