Unit Plan 23 (Grade 7 Social Studies): African Kingdoms of Trade and Power
Explore how West and East African kingdoms like Ghana, Mali, Songhai, and the Swahili city-states rose through trade, resources, and leadership—revealing how geography, power, and culture shaped everyday life across Africa.
Focus: Examine how West and East African kingdoms grew through trade networks, resources, and leadership—and how power shaped daily life.
Grade Level: 7
Subject Area: Social Studies (World History • Geography • Economics • Inquiry)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
Students investigate West African empires (Ghana, Mali, Songhai) and East African city-states (Kilwa, Mombasa, Zanzibar) and related inland powers (e.g., Great Zimbabwe) to see how resources, routes, and rulers drove growth. Using maps, mini-sources, and visuals, learners connect trans-Saharan caravans and Indian Ocean monsoon trade to culture, religion, and governance.
Essential Questions
- How did natural, human, and capital resources fuel the rise of African kingdoms?
- In what ways did geography and trade routes connect West and East Africa to wider Afro-Eurasian exchange?
- How did leadership and policy choices affect prosperity, inclusion, and conflict for different groups?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Identify how gold, salt, ivory, iron, and agricultural surpluses—plus merchants, sailors, scholars, and infrastructure—shaped regional economies (Econ.5).
- Explain how routes, ports, and monsoon/camel technologies spread goods, ideas, beliefs, and languages (Geo.5).
- Describe diverse perspectives and experiences (court elites, scholars, artisans, miners, caravaners, sailors, enslaved persons, rural communities) across regions (Hist.3).
- Analyze how rulers (e.g., Sundiata, Mansa Musa, Askia Muhammad, coastal sultans) used taxation, justice, diplomacy, and patronage to build legitimacy.
- Construct a comparative claim about trade and power using corroborated maps, data, and images.
Standards Alignment — 7th Grade (C3-based custom)
- 7.C3.Econ.5 — Natural/human/capital resources and global exchange.
- 7.C3.Geo.5 — Global networks of exchange and diffusion.
- 7.C3.Hist.3 — Diverse perspectives/experiences across societies.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can trace resources to routes to revenue and explain who benefited and why.
- I can show how geography and technology (camels, dhows, monsoons) enabled long-distance exchange.
- I can compare experiences of at least two groups with evidence from maps/sources/images.