West African Empires

Western African Civilizations: Ghana, Mali, Songhai

Essential Questions/Ideas:

1. Describe the technologies that facilitated and improved trade along the Trans-Saharan trade routes.

2.Explain how the emergence and expansion of political states (Ghana, Mali, Songhai) along the Trans-Saharan trade routes developed.

3.How did trade routes lead to cultural diffusion?

General Trade info… Gold & Salt

■ The Sahel region lacks salt deposits, and so people there

had to trade for salt from the Sahara Desert

■ Several powerful empires developed around the trade of

gold and salt and would control much of Western Africa for
almost 1,000 years

​While the Almohads and Almoravids were building empires in North Africa, three powerful empires flourished in West Africa. These ancient empires arose in the Sahel-the savanna region just south of the Sahara. They grew strong through the controlling of trade on the

Trans-Saharan Trade Routes. They

are known as Ghana, Mali, and

Songhai (shown on next

slide).

Multiple Choice

 Look at the previous slide.

True or False: The people along the Trans-Saharan Trade Routes were connected to the Silk Road, Mediterranean Sea Complex, and the Indian Ocean Trade Routes.

• True

• False

​What was traded on the Trans-Saharan trade routes?

Multiple Choice

List two items that were traded on the Trans-Saharan Trade Routes.

(Look at the previous slide to help you answer this question.)

• Gold and Ivory

• Gold and Salt

• Salt and Ivory

• Gold and Diamonds

1. Watch the video about salt.

   https://edpuzzle.com/media/67bdba4c7e2434bac8c7a516

2. Answer the question on the next slide:

   
   

Multiple Choice

According to the video on the previous slide, one reason salt was NOT traded was:

• it determined if you were powerful

• it was a popular drink when dissolved in water

• it cured meat

• it was necessary for bodily functions

​-By 200 CE, trade across the Sahara had existed for centuries.

-However, trade was infrequent and irregular because of harsh desert conditions.

-Most pack animals-oxen, donkeys, and horses-could not travel very far in the hot, dry, Sahara without rest or water.

-Berbers started using the camel in the third century CE. 

-Camel can go 10 days without water and travel 60 miles a day.

-They have double rows of long eyelashes to keep the sand out during sand storms

-With the camel, nomads blazed new routes across the desert and trade increased.

Did you know…

-Camels can withstand dry arid temperatures during the day and don’t even sweat until it is at least 106 degrees, and they do well when temperatures get cold at night

Multiple Choice

Why did the camel increase trade along the Trans-Saharan Trade Routes?

(Use the previous slide to help you answer this question.)

• it was cute

• it could go 10 days without water and travel 60 miles

• it got along with other animals

• it had one row of eyelashes

Ghana Empire 700-1100 CE

Ghana on the Map

​Ghana emerged from the Soninke people in 700 CE. and grew rich by taxing the goods that traders carried through their territory.

Government: The king, assisted by his council of elders, headed the government. The kingdom was divided into districts. A district leader guided each district. Ghana's ruler acted as a religious leader, chief judge, and military commander.

Army: Ghana was a great military power. Legend says the king commanded 200,000 warriors and 40,000 more with bows and arrows.

Because Ghana's king controlled trade and commanded a large army, he could demand taxes and gifts from the chiefs of surrounding lands. As long as the chiefs made their payments, the king left them in peace to rule their own people.

Multiple Choice

Ghana's king left people alone to rule themselves in the surrounding lands as long as they did this: (Use the previous slide to help you with this question.

• fought in the army for him

• worked on building palaces for him

• paid taxes.

-Ghana grew rich by taxing the goods that traders carried through the territory

-Gold-Salt Trade (two most important trade items)

-Gold came from a forest region south of the savanna between the Niger and Senegal Rivers.

-They had so much gold that miners were

allowed to keep all the gold dust they found.

Only the king could own gold

nuggets → this limited the supply of gold and kept

its price from falling.

-Artists used gold to make beautiful statues

and jewelry, drinking glasses, plates, and

decorative objects.

-Until 1350, at least 2/3 of the world's supply of

gold came from Africa.

Multiple Choice

Everyone in Ghana was allowed to have gold nuggets because there was such an abundance of it. (Use the previous slide to help you with this question.)

• True

• False

.

-Salt came from the Sahara, which used to be fertile and green.

-Rich deposits of salt were found underground when the land dried up.

-Ghana had natural resources, but not salt, which was needed for survival.

-Arab and Berber traders crossed the desert with camel caravans loaded with salt and other products like cloth, weapons, and manufactured goods from ports on the Mediterranean

-Because traders did not speak the same language, they developed a system of silent barter. (they didn't

talk.)

Multiple Choice

In addition to salt, what other products did Arab and Berber traders bring to Ghana from Mediterranean ports?

(Use the previous slide to help you with this question.)

• Cloth, weapons, and manufactured goods.

• gun powder and silk

• dates and apricots

• slaves

. Islamic Influences

-Islam spread through North Africa by conquest,

south of the Sahara, Islam spread through trade.

-By the end of the 11th century, Muslim advisers

were helping the king run his government.

-Islam’s growth helped spread literacy. Converts

had to learn Arabic to read the Qur’an.

-Some Africans still clung to

animism→ belief that spirits living in animals,

plants, and natural forces play an important role in daily life.

-In 1076, the Muslim Almoravids of North Africa

completed their conquest of Ghana→ badly disrupted the gold-salt trade.

-Ghana never regained its power.

Islamic
Mosque
in Ghana

Multiple Choice

Use the previous slide to help you answer the questions on the next two slides:

Islam helped Ghana because

• it caused fights between animists and Muslims

• It increased literacy

Multiple Choice

What religion did many Africans cling on to:

• Animism

• Shinto

• Hinduism

• Judaism

​After watching the video on Ghana answer the questions on the next 3 slides.

Dropdown

The empire of Ghana settled around the ​

Select answer

River.

Dropdown

The empire of Ghana made tools of ​

Select answer

Dropdown

​

Select answer

made its way to Ghana on the trade routes.

Mali Empire-1230-1468

By 1235, the kingdom of Mali emerged.

-Mali means where the king lives.

-Like Ghana's wealth→ built on gold.

-Miners found new gold eastward→ trade routes shifted → people of Mali seized power.

-largest of the West African empires

-Sundiata → became Mali’s first great leader →

Mansa = emperor.

-Niani→ capital, center of commerce and trade.

​Sundiata

Multiple Choice

Mali means:

(Use the previous slide to help you with this question and the question on the next slide.)

• land of gold

• land of the rising sun

• where the king lives

Multiple Choice

Mansa means:

• priest

• rabbi

• emperor

• pharaoh

Mansa Musa (1312-1332)

-Sundiata died in 1255.

- Mansa Musa was a devout Muslim

-100,000 man army expanded Mali to twice

the size of Ghana.

-divided Mali into provinces and appointed

governors, who ruled fairly and efficiently

based on the laws of the Qur'an

-Mansa Musa went on a hajj (pilgrimage)

to Mecca from 1324-1325.

-Traveled with 12,000-60,000 people dressed in silk robes

and carrying gold bars that they gave to the poor.

-It was said that he had 80 camels each carrying 300 lbs of gold each.

-Rest of the world exposed to Mansa Musa’s wealth.

-led to inflation because he gave so much away.(high prices, money becomes devalued).

Multiple Choice

What is a false statement about Mansa Musa?​ ​ ​ ​

(Use the previous slide to help you with this question.)

• He expanded the size of Mali.

• He gave gold to the poor on his pilgrimage.

• He was Christian.

After watching the video on Mansa Musa answer the questions on the next two slides.

Multiple Choice

Mansa Musa made Islam the official religion in Mali.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

How did Mansa Musa's pilgrimage affect Cairo, Egypt?

• gold became commonplace and devalued because he gave so much away

• inflation decreased

• Mansa Musa conquered Cairo

Timbuktu

-Upon his return, he ordered the building of new mosques and universities at Timbuktu

-became one of the most important cities in the empire.

-attracted Muslim judges, doctors, religious leaders, and scholars from far and wide.

​ Travels of Ibn Battuta

-Traveled for 27 years visiting

countries in the Islamic world.

-Reached Mali at the age of 45.

-impressed by Mali's love for the Qur'an, but disappointed that women were not veiled and segregated from men.

-Impressed by Mali's justice

system and the city of Timbuktu

-Like Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta dictated

a report of his travels. He then served

as the qadi(judge) of a Moroccan town and

disappeared from history. The scribe who

wrote down Ibn Battuta's account of his

travels added these words: "It is plain to

any man of intelligence that this [learned man] is the traveler of the age."

After reading the previous slide and watching the video on Ibn Battuta answer the questions on the next 7 slides.

Dropdown

Ibn Battuta traveled for almost ​

Select answer

years and his journey was ​

Select answer

miles.​

Multiple Choice

How old was Ibn Battuta when he started on his journey?

• 18

• 21

• 31

• 41

Multiple Choice

What job did Ibn Battuta have in the sultan's court of Delhi?

• Doctor

• Teacher

• Judge

• Lawyer

Multiple Choice

Ibn Battuta enjoyed his stay in China.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

After returning home to Morocco, Battuta crossed the Sahara to visit this empire in West Africa.

• Mali

• Ghana

• Benin

• Songhai

Multiple Choice

Ibn Battuta was impressed about this in Mali.

• women and men were not segregated

• justice system

• farming techniques

• clothing of the king

Multiple Choice

Ibn Battuta is similar to this person for traveling and writing about other cultures he visited.

• Genghis Khan

• Kublai Khan

• Marco Polo

• Jesus

When Mansa Musa died there were no kings as powerful
as he was to follow. The great kingdom of Mali
weakened. Eventually, a group of people known as
Berbers came into the area and other people came up
from the south to claim territory that was once part of
the kingdom. Although Mali fell, another advanced
African kingdom took its place, the kingdom of Songhai.

http://www.uchicago.edu/docs/mp-site/plaisanceplan/graphics/berbers.jpg

The Berbers still
live in North
Africa. This
picture, taken in
1893, shows a
Berber group.

Songhai Empire 1464-1591

-Sunni Ali saw that the kingdom of Mali was weakening and took over Timbuktu and Djenne
- He began the kingdom of Songhai

-He set up a complex government to rule all the lands he had conquered.

-Askia Muhammed ruled after Sunni Ali's death

-efficient tax system and appointed able rulers

-Songhai failed to develop modern weapons

-Conquered by the Moroccans in 1591 who had gunpowder and canons vs. spears and swords

-collapse of Songhai ended a 1,000-year period in which powerful kingdoms and empires ruled the central region of West Africa.

Multiple Choice

Which group of people conquered Songhai because it had gunpowder?

(Use the previous slide to help you with this question.)

• Benin

• Moroccans

• Christians

• Yoruba

​Other Peoples of West Africa

Hausa City-States Compete

-Hausa emerged between 1000 and 1200 in the savanna region of modern Nigeria. 

-Thriving trade in salt, grain, leather goods, and cotton cloth.

-Zazzau traded slaves.

Yoruba Kings and Artists

-Yoruba kings considered divine. 

-Wood, ivory, terra cotta, and metal sculptures.

Kingdom of Benin

-Emerged in the 1200s like the Yoruba. Kings also claimed divinity. 

-Oba = ruler.

-In the 1480s, Portuguese trading ships sailed into Benin’s port and traded for pepper, leopard skins, ivory, and slaves.

**Beginning of several centuries of European interference in Africa, during which they enslaved Africans and seized African territories for colonies.

​Yoruba Mask

Dropdown

Which group traded leather​ ​

Select answer

(Use the previous slide to help you with this question and the question on the next page.)

Multiple Choice

Which European country traded with the kingdom of Benin in the 1480s, marking an era of European interference in Africa?

• British

• French

• Portuguese

• Spanish