When we think of great empires we usually think of the British Empire, Roman Empire or even the Ottoman empire. We never really hear about African Empires however Africa had many great Empires. This post is going to focus particularly on empires in west Africa.
Ghana Empire
The Ghana Empire (also known as Wagadugu) existed approximately between the 7th - 13th century. The name Ghana means "King". Its location is no where near modern day Ghana but lay between eastern Mauritania and Western Mali. Ghana was inhabited by the Soninke people. The leader of the empire was called Dinge Cisse. Ghana's wealth came from trading in Gold which it had in abundance hence being called "The land of Gold". The Soninke people had developed gold mining techniques and camels were used to transport goods to help trade. At the time the Ghana empire was the strongest state in west Africa.
Mali Empire
After the fall of the Ghana Empire the Mali Empire emerged, it existed roughly around the 13th - 16th century. At its time it was the second most powerful kingdom in the world. It continued to trade in gold and expanded its wealth by also trading in salt which was a valuable commodity. The rulers of this empire were Muslim. One of the greatest rulers was Mansa Musa (1280-1333) who is the richest man in history, his wealth in todays money would be equal to $400 billion. He became known by his famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 where he was accompanied by 60,000 people and carried a considerable amount of gold. On his journey he gave a way a lot of gold and in Egyp,t he gave away so much gold that the value of gold declined in Egypt and it took Egypt a decade to recover.
Mansa Musa helped to transform Timbuktu into a cultural trade centre. Mosques, libraries and the worlds first university (University of Sankore) were built. People from all over the world came to study at Timbuktu.
Songhai Empires
The Songhai empire grew as the Mali empire weakened due to issues of who should be the next successor to the throne. This empire existed between the mid 15th century until the 16th century. The capital city was Gao which was a market place to trade in salt, kola nut, slaves, ivory and other goods. Sunni Ali was one of the greatest rulers of this empire during 1462-1492. He was known as a strong military leader and wanted to expand the empire so he took over cities and villages. The Songhai became one of the largest African empires covering 1.4million km at its peak. The Songhai Empire declined when it was invaded by Moroccans who had more advanced weapons.
