Mining and Trade in West Africa

Image of a coin made using west African gold.

West African Gold

Mining and trade has always been an important part of West African economies due to not necessarily having many other trade options other than salt and gold witch are in abundance in the earth of west Africa.

The Impact of West African Gold

The mining and trade of minerals especially salt and gold had a major impact on most west African civilizations due to it being the center of many places in west Africa's economy. A notable example of a place in western Africa that had the majority of its economy bult on gold at one point in time is Timbuktu which had one of the richest people in history Mansa Musa.

The Trade Routes

West Africa throughout history has been a major place of trade mainly north through the trans Saharan trade routs. The majority of the gold and salt being traded usually ended up going to places in Europe, parts of northern Africa and Asia minor. In Europe especially before the discovery of the Americas most of the gold was imported from Africa and that is where the majority of there wealth came from. Northern Africa especially Egypt also got a large portion of their gold from west Africa and many Egyptian artifacts were made using gold from west Africa. While not as much of the gold from Asia minor was from Africa a large part of their gold was still originally mined in western Africa even if the gold got cycled through other places in Europe first.

The Historical Effects of West African Gold

A major historical effect the trade of west African gold was that because most of Europe's gold was originally mined in west Africa a large part of the money Europe had for funding came from Africa and is one of the reasons Europe is so powerful today. The trade of gold is also a big part of Timbuktu becoming so large and a place of learning.

West-Africans Panning for Gold

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The image shows several West-African workers, panning for gold- a major export of the region.

Trans-Saharan Trade Routes

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The image shows many of the Trans-Saharan trade routes between West Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.

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