Essay, Research Paper

The Fall of the West African Empires

Between 300 and 1600 AD three west African imperiums Ghana, Mali, and Sanghai came

into power. The wealth of these imperiums came from the trading of gold and salt. These

imperiums controlled at least at least two tierces of the universe gold trade and taxed the bargainers

to a great extent. Despite the luster and wealth of these imperiums each one finally lost power.

The first imperium to lift to power was Ghana. At the clip, the chief gold and salt trade

paths passed through Ghana and they taxed bargainers to a great extent. The monetary value of gold was kept

high by criminalizing anyone except the male monarch to have gold nuggets. By the twelvemonth 700 the

imperium of Ghana had grown really powerful.

Unfortunately for Ghana, in the twelvemonth 1076, its northern boundary lines were over run by Muslim

Berbers. Ghana finally drove out the Berbers but the gold and salt trade, which it

depended on, had been irrevocably damaged. Because bargainers no longer trusted Ghana s

trade paths and because supplies of gold near the seashore ran out, the trade routes moved

farther E were mineworkers had found new sedimentations of gold. By the twelvemonth 1200 Ghana had

lost control of it s cherished trade paths which were now controlled by the more eastern

imperium of Mali. Mali, like Ghana, taxed the bargainers and local heads to a great extent.

The Mali imperium was really short lived. By the late 1300s Mali was sing the same

gold deficits Ghana had. Again, new mines were discovered eastward and the Mali

trade paths were replaced by the Sanghai. On top of this, the laminitis of the Sanghai,

Sunni Ali, attacked and looted the Melain trade centres of Timbuktu and Jenne, and so

extended his regulation to the outlying savanna and rain wood.

Under the regulation of Sunni Ali s replacement, Askia Muhammad, Sanghai prospered. He

divided the immense imperium into states ruled by governors and setup an efficient revenue enhancement

system. The formerly Malian metropolis of Timbuktu did particularly good. A celebrated university

at that place attracted Moslems from all over.

Despite it s prosperity, merely as the imperiums of Ghana and Mali had fallen, so did Sanghai.

This clip nevertheless, it was for different grounds. Alternatively of falling victim to dwindling

resources, the Sanghai imperium was destroyed by a Maroc grand Turk by the name of El

Mansur who led 4000 work forces armed with cannons into Sanghai. Although three fourths of

them died traversing the Sahara, the Sanghai were devastated by the Moroccan s cannons.

With lone blades and lances, Sanghai s 27,000 individual ground forces was incapacitated. The

Moroccans destroyed the Sanghai imperium, therefore stoping the zenith of the West African

imperiums.