A variety of internal and external factors contribute to state formation, expansion, and decline. Governments maintain order through a variety of administrative institutions, policies, and procedures, and governments obtain, retain, and exercise power in different ways and for different purposes.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Explain how the expansion of empires influenced trade and communication over time.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

K.C.-3.1.I.E.ii.--The expansion of empires—including Mali in West Africa–facilitated Afro-Eurasian trade and communication as new people were drawn into the economies and trade networks.

Human adaptation and innovation have resulted in increased efficiency, comfort, and security, and technological advances have shaped human development and interactions with both intended and unintended consequences.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Explain the causes and effects of the growth of trans-Saharan trade.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

K.C.3.1.II.A.ii--The growth of interregional trade was encouraged by innovations in existing transportation technologies.

K.C.3.1.I.A.iv.--Improved transportation technologies and commercial practices led to an increased volume of trade and expanded the geographical range of existing trade routes, including the trans-Saharan trade network.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

Technologies encouraging inter-regional trade:

§ Camel saddle

§ Caravans

Ghana

• The principal state of west Africa at the time of the Muslims’ arrival there was the kingdom of Ghana (not related to the modern state of Ghana), situated between the Senegal and Niger rivers in a region straddling the border between the modern states of Mali and Mauritania.

• Ghana probably developed as a state during the fourth or fifth century C.E. when settled, agricultural peoples sought to protect their societies from the raids of camel-riding nomads who increasingly came out of the Sahara.

• When Muslim merchants arrived in west Africa, the kingdom of Ghana was a regional state much like others that were emerging or soon would appear elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa

• It became the most important commercial site in west Africa because it was the center for trade in gold

• Ghana itself did not produce gold, but the kings procured nuggets from lands to the south—probably from the region around the headwaters of the Niger, Gambia, and Senegal rivers, which enjoyed the world’s largest supply of gold available at the time

• Koumbi-Saleh -- Ghana's’s capital and principal trading site was a thriving commercial center with a population of some fifteen thousand to twenty thousand people when the kingdom was at its height, from the ninth to the twelfth century.

  • • Koumbi-Saleh’s wealth also supported a large number of qadis and Muslim scholars.

• Ghana maintained a large army to maintain order in the kingdom, keep allied and tributary states in line, and defend against nomadic incursions

• By about the tenth century, the kings of Ghana had converted to Islam.

  • • conversion brought them recognition and support from Muslim states in north Africa.

    • The kings of Ghana made no attempt to impose Islam forcibly on their society

    • Ghana's society observed traditional religious customs

      • • native religious specialists practiced magic and kept idols in the woods surrounding the royal palace at Koumbi-Saleh.

Mali

• The lion prince Sundiata (reigned 1230–1255) built the Mali empire during the first half of the thirteenth century

• By about 1235 he had consolidated his hold on the Mali empire, which embraced Ghana as well as other neighboring kingdoms in the regions surrounding the Senegal and Niger rivers.

• From the thirteenth until the late fifteenth century, Mali controlled and taxed almost all trade passing through west Africa.

• Like the later kings of Ghana, the rulers of Mali honored Islam and provided protection, lodging, and comforts for Muslim merchants from the north.

• they did not force Islam on their realm, they encouraged its spread on a voluntary basis.

• Mansa Musa

  • • ruled Mali from 1312 to 1337, during the high point of the empire

    • Mansa Musa observed Islamic tradition by making his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324–1325.

    • His party formed a gargantuan caravan that included thousands of soldiers, attendants, subjects, and slaves as well as a hundred camels carrying satchels of gold.

    • Mansa Musa bestowed lavish gifts on those who hosted him along the way, and during his three-month visit to Cairo, he distributed so much gold that the metal’s value declined by as much as 25 percent on local markets.

    • Upon return to Mali from Mecca, Mansa Musa took his religion even more seriously than before.

      • • He built mosques, particularly in the trading cities frequented by Muslim merchants

        • he sent promising students to study with distinguished Islamic scholars in north Africa.

        • He also established religious schools and brought in Arabian and north African teachers, including four descendants of Muhammad himself, to make Islam better known in Mali.

Songhay

• By the late fifteenth century, the Songhay empire had completely overcome Mali.

• Yet Mansa Musa and other Mali rulers had established a tradition of centralized government that the Songhay realm itself would continue

• Mali had ensured that Islam would have a prominent place in west African society over the long term.

Technologies encouraging inter-regional trade:

§ Camel saddle

• During the late centuries B.C.E., a special camel saddle, which took advantage of the animals’ distinctive physical structure, also made its way to north Africa.

§ Caravans

• Camels came to north Africa from Arabia, by way of Egypt and the Sudan, about the seventh century B.C.E.

• Because a caravan took seventy to ninety days to cross the Sahara and because camels could travel long distances before needing water, they proved to be useful beasts of burden in an arid region.

• After about 300 C.E. camels increasingly replaced horses and donkeys as the preferred transport animals throughout the Sahara as well as in the deserts of central Asia

• By the late eighth century, Islamic merchants had trekked across the desert and established commercial relations with societies in sub-Saharan west Africa.

• Gao, a terminus of caravan routes across the Sahara that offered access to the Niger River valley, which was a flourishing market for copper, ironware, cotton textiles, salt, grains, and carnelian beads

• Muslim merchants flocked to camel caravans traveling across the Sahara to Ghana in search of gold for consumers in the Mediterranean basin and elsewhere in the Islamic world

• Apart from gold, merchants from Ghana also provided ivory and slaves for traders from north Africa.

• In exchange, they received horses, cloth, small manufactured wares, and salt—a crucial commodity in the tropics, but one that local sources could not supply in large quantities.

• Mali (thirteenth until the late fifteenth century)

  • • Enormous caravans with as many as twenty-five thousand camels linked Mali to north Africa

    • market cities on the caravan routes such as Timbuktu, Gao, and Jenne became prosperous centers featuring buildings of brick and stone.