Africa is one of the five continents of planet Earth and the third in order to the largest territorial extension that it has behind Asia and America which are the most extensive.
The word Africa in Latin means "without cold" and this is due to its high annual rate of insolation.
Africa has a total area of 30,272,922 km2, representing 22% of the earth's surface. Its population is around 910,844,133 inhabitants, organized in 54 countries, all of them members of the African Union, except for Morocco.
History of africa
For history, the African continent, more precisely the southeast of it, was the cradle of the human species, since from there come the hominids and anthropoids - among them, the Homo sapiens sapiens 190,000 years ago - that would later evolve into the current human being and that over the years were expanding to the rest of the continents.
According to the investigations carried out by the historian Herodotus, it would have been a expedition of the Phoenicians, carried out by Emperor Necao II, in the year 616 B.C. the first to sail the coasts of the African continent.
Meanwhile, it would be in the heyday of the Roman empire that the trade with Africa, being the main pieces of exchange: slaves, gold, ivory and exotic animals that were used at the request of the Roman circuses
Territory
Africa is the owner of a rich and imposing geography that has the Sahara Desert, the Savannah, the Great Lakes, the Maghreb, Cape Verde, the Canary Islands, the Nile River (considered the second longest in the world, after the Amazon) , the Congo River (the second largest, also after the Amazon), the Comoros Islands and countries such as Senegal, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Libya, Madagascar, Egypt, Algeria, Sudan and many others. The continent can be defined as a solid continental shelf, elevated between 600 and 800 meters above sea level and crossed by large rivers. Regarding the climate, Africa includes the Mediterranean, the desert, the subtropical and the rainy intertropical of savanna and jungle.
For the most part, Africa is a huge and ancient solid and compact continental shelf, elevated between 600 and 800 meters above sea level, crossed by large rivers (although few) and scarce in peninsulas. It stands out for its orographic regularity and considerable average altitude.
Meanwhile, the continent is subdivided into five regions: North Africa, South Africa, East Africa, West Africa and Central Africa.
Economy and main resources
As a consequence that a large part of the African states have at some point been European colonies is that today they maintain a close commercial relationship precisely with their neighboring continent Europe. It should be noted that yesterday as today the most precious and exploited resources in Africa are the same: textile fibers, gold, ivory and wood and to a lesser extent, because they are only found in some countries, diamonds and oil.
The The United States, because of oil, the European Union, because of its proximity and in third place China they are the most important trading partners in Africa. The Asian giant has invested in construction, exploitation of minerals and hydrocarbons
A continent with many deficiencies
The African continent is, today, a victim of great social, economic and political crises. According to figures published after surveys, more than 50% of Africans live only on less than a dollar a day.
A large part of its population lives in poverty and hunger and suffers from endemic or epidemic diseases such as the HIV virus. In turn, the civil wars produced by authoritarian and dictatorial governments and violent military groups have decimated and continue to harm large populations in different African countries.
Due to this situation, international social organizations and agencies permanently locate the continent as a recipient of donations and humanitarian aid programs.
African union
The African Union (AU) is a continental union, a type of supranationality that is made up of states that belong to the same continent, whereas the AU is the international body that brings together the countries of Africa. It was created on May 26, 2001 and a year later it was already in full office in South Africa.
As with these continental unions, the main function is to unite politically all the countries that make up the continent, to move as a bloc to obtain benefits. Meanwhile, it has an organ, such as the Assembly of the African Union, which is the most important and in which the most transcendental common decisions are made for the member countries. The heads of state of each nation meet annually and there are presented different topics that do the common good and the development of the region.
