Our Core Concentration blog prompt for today is to explain how and why the discovery of iron helped the region of West Africa grow and develop as much as it did. This answer seems pretty simple, but it's actually kind of detailed and complex.
The answer is that iron helped Africa in lots of ways. It gave the people new material to make metal products such as weapons and farming tools. It helped certain empires more than others and made several of them rich and powerful. Iron was traded lots and when these trades got tough, it was used to make spears, arrows, etc. Iron helped locally to make tools for farming and irrigation, which helped the people of these empires and this region prosper enough to put it to use. Iron could even help in the long journeys that nomads took across the Sahara Desert and was used as a decoration like the relative discovery of gold. Like many other innovative discoveries, it worked and helped in a kind of cycle.
The first people to discover iron and use it were the Nok people of West Africa. They used it in secret for awhile, but soon other peoples wanted the secret. Nowadays iron is used all across the world. Also, it seems a bit weird that we're referring to an industry from hundreds to thousands of years ago "technology", but technology can actually refer to any kind of new product utilized usefully for things like communication, trade, and personal needs. Iron is one of the oldest kinds of technology and certainly one of the most famous. Just remember, anytime you see a product and identify it as iron, remember who discovered it.
The answer is that iron helped Africa in lots of ways. It gave the people new material to make metal products such as weapons and farming tools. It helped certain empires more than others and made several of them rich and powerful. Iron was traded lots and when these trades got tough, it was used to make spears, arrows, etc. Iron helped locally to make tools for farming and irrigation, which helped the people of these empires and this region prosper enough to put it to use. Iron could even help in the long journeys that nomads took across the Sahara Desert and was used as a decoration like the relative discovery of gold. Like many other innovative discoveries, it worked and helped in a kind of cycle.
The first people to discover iron and use it were the Nok people of West Africa. They used it in secret for awhile, but soon other peoples wanted the secret. Nowadays iron is used all across the world. Also, it seems a bit weird that we're referring to an industry from hundreds to thousands of years ago "technology", but technology can actually refer to any kind of new product utilized usefully for things like communication, trade, and personal needs. Iron is one of the oldest kinds of technology and certainly one of the most famous. Just remember, anytime you see a product and identify it as iron, remember who discovered it.
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