West Africa, America, And Europe – Compare And Contrast Report Example

There were three complex societies that united in Norther America during the late 1400s, precisely during 1420s, when Christopher Columbus along with a few other Europeans discovered America. They were West Africa, America, and Europe. The American history is believed to have started with its ancient people and it is also believed to be as old as 22, 000 years. The earliest Americans were big-game hunters, and eventually became hunters of small animals and fish. While the hunters settled in the Norther part of America, a few of them lived in the south, precisely in places like Mexico and South America, and were involved in agriculture. With the passage of time, many groups from the Northern part of America introduced agricultural techniques in the Southwest deserts and between 300 B.C. and 1400 A.D., all these varied groups of people established their own individual culture (Mr.Locke.com, p.2).
Similar to North America, even West Africa was home to numerous ancient and complex societies during the 1400s. Many people from the coasts of West Africa were enslaved and transported to America during the course of the ensuing centuries. The native African cultures and traditions were believed to have greatly influenced the American history and culture. Benin, Songhai, and Kongo were three of the most renowned West African kingdoms, which were extremely powerful empires. The culture of the West Africans had its roots in small villages and greater interest was given to the family, community and their native traditions. The essential foundation of the West African culture has its roots in strong family bonds. West Africa, by the 1400s, was already connected to various global places through trade, with Timbuktu being the business hub that was a connecting point to various West African ports and North Africa, and from there to various places in Europe and Asia.
Europe was another powerful and ancient society, and one striking similarity between the European society and the other two societies discussed above was that even the Europeans lived in small villages and had strong family relationships, during the late 1400s. Social hierarchy was the primary basis of the European communities during this time period of history. While the top class of the society comprised of aristocrats and elite people, who were the most affluent class of the society and owned the maximum part of the land that was available, clergy was a class that comes next to the aristocrats, after which comes the peasants and agricultural laborers, the bottom-most class of the European society. One thing that shaped the European culture was religion and the same was dominated by Christianity and this is not the case with the other two cultures that were discussed above.
While there are striking similarities between the three difference societies discussed in this paper, they also differed in their own individual ways, thus becoming unique in their own way.
Works Cited