The Swahili are a people and culture found on the East coast of Africa, mainly the coastal regions and the islands of Kenya and Tanzania, and north Mozambique. The Swahili number is at around 1,328,000. The number of Swahili speakers, on the other hand, numbers at around 90 million people. The name "Swahili" comes from the Arabic word "Sawahil" and means "coastal dwellers". Swahili is official language only in Tanzania. Swahili speakers who live elsewhere in East Africa also have to use the official languages of their respective countries: English in Kenya, Portuguese in Mozambique, and French in Comoros. Only a small part of those who use Swahili are first language speakers and even fewer are ethnic Swahilis. This point is often obscured by the Swahili linguistic tradition in which those who speak the language are often called Swahili (Waswahili) regardless of their actual ethnic origins. In other words, the term 'Swahili' can mean 'those who speak Swahili' or it can mean 'ethnic Swahili people'.
The Swahili are unique Bantu inhabitants of the East African Coast mainly from Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique. They are mainly united by culture and under the mother tongue of Kiswahili, a Bantu language. There are Arab, Persian, and other migrants who reached the coast some believe as early as the 7th-8th c. CE, and mixed with the local people there, that are regarded as Swahili now. Because of this influence the Swahili language contains many loan words from Arabic and Persian. Archaeologist, Felix Chami thinks that Bantu settlements at the East African coast existed already at the beginning of the 1st millennium. From the 6th century onward they became more important as there was an increase in trade (mainly with Arab merchants), population growth, and further centralized urbanization. So the Swahili City-States developed.
Islam came to the East African coast around 1012 AD, when the traders from the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula continued to journey to these parts during monsoon seasons and to have contact with the local people through trade, marriage, and an exchange of ideas. Because of this interaction, most of the Swahili today are Muslim. The Swahili follow a very strict and orthodox form of Islam.
For centuries the Swahili depended greatly on trade from the Indian Ocean. The Swahili have played a vital role as middle man between east, central and South Africa, and the outside world. Trade contacts have been noted as early as 100 A.D. by early Roman writers who visited the East African coast in the first century. Trade routes extended across Tanzania into modern day Zaire. Along these goods were brought to the coasts and were sold to Arab, Indian, and Portuguese traders and even reached as far as China and India. Materials of this trade were also found at Great Zimbabwe. During the Middle Ages, ivory and slaves became a substantial source of income. Many slaves who were sold in Zanzibar ended up in Brazil, which was then a Portuguese colony. Swahili fishermen of today still rely on the ocean to supply their primary source of income. Fish is sold to their inland neighbors in exchange for products of the interior.
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This was the period when the Tudor dynasty ruled in England. Its first monarch was Henry VII (1457– 1509). The term is often used more broadly to include Elizabeth I's reign (1558– 1603), although this is often treated separately as the Elizabethan era.
Following the Black Death and the agricultural depression of the late 14th century, population grew bigger again. The export of woollen products to mainland Europe helped the economy rather much. Henry VII got favourable trading conditions in 1496.
The high wages and abundance of available land seen in the late 14th century and early 15th century were replaced with low wages and a land shortage. Various inflationary pressures, perhaps due to influx of New World gold and rising population, meant that the gap between the rich and poor widened. This was a period of significant change for the majority of the rural population, because enclosure started.
Impact of Dissolution
The Tudor Government raised a huge amount of revenue from the dissolution of the monasteries. The clerical income from First Fruits and Tenths, which previously went to the Pope, now went to the King.
Partly because of the new revenue raised from the dissolution of monasteries, Cromwell created revenue courts to allot the royal income properly to various departments. These were the six courts or departments of state, each fully organised with its own specialised officials, with seals and habitat, and responsible for a particular kind of revenue.
The Role of Winchester
The growing number of departments meant that the number of officials involved increased, which made the management of revenue troublesome and expensive. There were further financial and administrative difficulties of the years 1540-58.
Impact of War
Henry’s war with France and Somerset’s war with France and Scotland cost England huge sums of money. The royal Mint was used to generate revenue by producing coins with less quality.
In 1487 Henry VII's enemies from the House of York had crowned a pretender and landed a small army off the coast of Cumbria with the intention of stealing the crown. Henry VII defeated them at East Stoke. This was perhaps the last battle in the Wars of the Roses.
This was perhaps the most significant series of events which took place during the Tudor period. It began as a result of Henry VIII's quarrel with Pope Clement VII regarding his refusal to grant a divorce.
Beginning in 1549, this was to be the largest popular uprising during the Tudor period. It was at first intended as a demonstration against enclosures of common land. The leader, Robert Kett, was hanged for treason.
About a third of the population lived in poverty with the wealthy expected to give alms to assist the impotent poor. Tudor law was harsh on those unable to find work. Those who left their parishes in order to find work were called vagabonds and could be punished by whipping.
The idea of the workhouse was first suggested in 1576.
Average life span was 35. This was because of the poor amount of medicines and doctors at the time. High rates of childhood mortality saw only 33-50% of the population reaching the age of 16.
Although home to only a small part of the population the Tudor municipalities were overcrowded and unhygenic. Most municipalities were unpaved although this differed in larger towns and cities.
There were no sewers or drains and rubbish was simply abandoned in the street. Animals such as rats thrived in these conditions. In larger towns and cities, such as London, common diseases arising from lack of sanitation included smallpox, measles, malaria, typhus, diphtheria, Scarlet fever, and chickenpox.
Outbreaks of the Black Death pandemic occurred in 1498, 1535, 1543, 1563, 1589 and 1603. The reason for the speedy spread of the disease was the increase of rats infected by fleas carrying the disease.
The food consumed by the dinvery rich in this period consisted largely of venison, and often of blackbirds and larks. Fruits and vegetables were only eaten by Tudors when it was in season. However, potatoes had not reached the table to any great extent, because farmers had only just begun growing them, although explorers such as Sir Walter Raleigh had brought them to Britain.
The majority of the population lived in small villages. Their homes comprised, as in earlier centuries, of thatched huts with one or two rooms. Furniture was basic with stools being commonplace rather than chairs.
Mansions had many chimneys for the many fireplaces required to keep the vast rooms warm. These fires were also the only way of cooking food. The very large houses were often, designed in symmetrical shapes such as 'E' and 'H'.