About Unit 3

💭 Essential Question: To what extent did African agency shape both the expansion and destabilization of African societies from 1400 to 1750?

This unit examines how African societies shaped, responded to, and resisted the global forces of trade, expansion, and enslavement from 1400 to 1750. The unit picks up where Unit 1 left off in regards to the growth of African kingdoms. It begins by exploring how African kingdoms such as the Swahili city-states and the Solomonic Dynasty gained and maintained power through trade networks, religious legitimacy, and regional diplomacy. Students then investigate the transatlantic slave trade, analyzing how limited public knowledge about its African context has shaped historical understanding of its global impact. Through primary sources and scholarly evidence, students evaluate how Africans demonstrated agency—not only by resisting enslavement but also by negotiating, adapting, and asserting power within expanding global systems. Next, the unit turns inward to examine how the slave trade destabilized African societies, altering social structures, weakening political institutions, and contributing to long-term fragmentation and demographic change. The unit ends with an Interactive Timeline Assessment, where students evaluate patterns of continuity and change over time across African societies from 1400 to 1750.