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African History 3: Aksum Empire 66 Views


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Description:

Today we're going to tell you all about this Aksum—sorry we mean  awesome place called Aksum. At least, it was Aksum (and awesome) about 2000 years ago.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Everyone has growing pains. [Boy with growing pains in bedroom]

00:06

But…you think you’ve had it bad?

00:08

From 100 BCE to 300 CE, things got…a little tough on Egypt.

00:13

It was conquered by Rome, colonized, and used as a source of food for the vast Roman legions [Roman soldier conquers Egypt man]

00:18

and Roman public service.

00:20

Sounds humiliating.

00:21

Sort of the equivalent of getting shut into one’s locker. [Egypt man inside a locker and Roman soldier closes door]

00:25

By 300 CE, Egypt was a small player in the middle of the big bad Roman Empire.

00:31

But as Egypt growing old, the kingdom of Aksum was the new hotness in North Africa.

00:36

Located in what is now Ethiopia, Aksum wasn't the biggest kingdom in the world, but it had

00:41

a prime location.

00:42

It was situated on the Red Sea, which was a major trade route connecting East with West. [Ships docking on the Red Sea]

00:48

Stuff from India, the Middle East, Africa, and all over the Mediterranean had to pass

00:52

through here.

00:54

The Aksumites built up a powerful navy and dominated trade, making a ton of cashola in [Aksumite man with lots of goods]

01:00

the process.

01:01

Of course, with money comes power.

01:02

In the 4th century CE, an ancient Persian dude named Mani called Aksum one

01:07

of the five great powers of the ancient world, along with Rome, Persia, India, and China.

01:12

And if you can't trust Mani, who can you trust? [Girl falling and Mani preparing to catch her]

01:15

The other thing that made Aksum famous was being Christian.

01:19

The Aksumites were Christians long before Europe caught the Christianity bug, second

01:23

only to Thrace in the Balkans.

01:25

Aksum developed out of a prehistoric Jewish society and was converted to Christianity

01:30

by some Egyptian Orthodox missionaries.

01:33

So when Christianity became…cool, they claimed to be the center of the Christian faith.

01:38

The Aksum people even claimed to possess the most holy object in the Jewish and Christian [Aksum man stood outside a door]

01:43

faiths, the Ark of the Covenant.

01:46

AKA the box that supposedly held the Ten Commandments. [Ten commandments appear from the covenant]

01:50

AKA the box that melted all those Nazi faces in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

01:56

Another fun fact about early Ethiopian Christianity is that it had an unusually large number of

02:01

"fasting" days, or days when you're not allowed to eat meat.

02:05

Roughly half of all days are considered "fasting" days by the Church, causing a lot of vegetarian [Animals napping on hammocks]

02:10

cooking in Ethiopia throughout history.

02:12

Also, eating bacon or pork of any kind was banned no matter what day it was.

02:17

And no matter how amazing the bacon smelled.

02:20

So there you go.

02:21

Aksum was truly its own thing.

02:23

It was a hugely rich and powerful empire, right up there with Rome and Persia. [Aksum, Rome and Persia on a podium]

02:27

And it even came complete with a unique version of Christianity, an interesting culture, and

02:31

a Biblical WMD.

02:33

Also, the no-bacon thing made it a great place to be a pig… [Pig wearing a hat walking along a beach]

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