what trade kingdoms arose west africa

A succession of three great kingdoms came to power as their people, gained control of valuable trade routes in West Africa

. Ghana​ was the first of these empires, followed by the kingdoms of ​Mali​ and ​Songhai

Songhai Empire

The Songhai Empire was a state that dominated the western Sahel in the 15th and 16th century. At its peak, it was one of the largest states in African history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its leading ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai. Sonni Ali established Ga…

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​. Historians think the first people in Ghana were farmers along the ​Niger River​.

Full Answer

Where are the major kingdoms in Africa located?

Several of the most famous kingdoms and empires of western Africa were located in the Sudan, a region that lies between the Sahara to the north and the rainforests to the south. Ancient Ghana was a powerful trading empire in what are now Mali and Mauritania.

What is the history of the gold trade in West Africa?

The trade of gold in West Africa goes back to antiquity with one of the earliest examples being the voyage of the Carthaginian explorer Hanno in the 5th century BCE.

What was the most powerful state in West Africa?

The Mali Empire's successor as the most powerful state in West Africa was the Songhai Empire (c. 1460 - c. 1591 CE). The Songhai, continuing the tried-and-tested wealth accumulation method of trading sub-Saharan commodities and extracting tribute from conquered tribes, established the largest and richest empire yet seen in West Africa.

What was the role of African kingdoms in the colonies?

Their rulers presided over magnificent courts where art, music, and dance flourished. Their merchants traded in gold, salt, and other goods with faraway countries. The last of the powerful African kingdoms came to an end during the colonial era.

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What were the kingdoms of West Africa?

Kingdoms in West Africa through timeBetween 700 and 1600 there were three great empires in the centre of West Africa: Ancient Ghana, Mali and Songhai. They all grew immensely rich by trading in gold.One of the last great kingdoms was Asante. It was founded around 1700.

What did the West African Kingdom trade?

The main items traded were gold and salt. The gold mines of West Africa provided great wealth to West African Empires such as Ghana and Mali. Other items that were commonly traded included ivory, kola nuts, cloth, slaves, metal goods, and beads.

What is the first trade empire in West Africa?

GhanaGhana, first of the great medieval trading empires of western Africa (fl. 7th–13th century). It was situated between the Sahara and the headwaters of the Sénégal and Niger rivers, in an area that now comprises southeastern Mauritania and part of Mali.

What were the major trade routes in West Africa?

In Western Africa the major trade centers were Timbuktu, Gao, Agadez, and Djenne. Seaport cities developed along the coast of North Africa, such as Marrakesh, Tunis, and Cairo. Major trade routes crossed the Sahara Desert between Western/Central Africa and the port trade centers along the Mediterranean Sea.

What were the 3 West African trading kingdoms?

A succession of three great kingdoms came to power as their people, gained control of valuable trade routes in West Africa. Ghana​ was the first of these empires, followed by the kingdoms of ​Mali​ and ​Songhai​.

What did Songhai trade?

Songhai encouraged trading with Muslims, such as the Berbers of the north. Great market places thrived in major cities where kola nuts, gold, ivory, slaves, spices, palm oil and precious woods were traded in exchange for salt, cloth, arms, horses and copper.

When did trade begin in West Africa?

The Portuguese journeys around the West African coast opened up new avenues for trade between Europe and West Africa. By the early 16th century, European trading bases, the factories established on the coast since 1445, and trade with Europeans became of prime importance to West Africa.

Who controlled trade in West Africa?

Over time, Ghana took control of trade from merchants. Merchants from the north and south then met to exchange goods in Ghana. By 800 Ghana was firmly in control of West Africa's trade routes. Nearly all trade between northern and southern Africa passed through Ghana.

What was the largest West African trade empire?

At its peak, Mali was the largest empire in West Africa, widely influencing the culture of the region through the spread of its language, laws and customs.

What were the 3 major trade routes?

Important Trade Routes in HistorySilk Road. The Silk Road is the world's most famous trade route, starting from China, passing through Anatolia and Asia and reaching Europe. ... Spice Route. ... Royal Road. ... Incense Route. ... The Tea Horse Road. ... The Salt Route.

Which of the three West African kingdoms was the largest?

The Songhai controlled the trade on the Niger river at the time of the Mali Empire. Through endless campaigns for expansion, Songhai became the largest of the three great empires of Western Africa –– and larger than all of continental Europe.

What was the African trade route called?

This trade (called the trans-Saharan trade because it crossed the Sahara desert) also included slaves. The slaves, usually captured as prisoners of war, were sold by the West Africans to the Muslim traders who came from North Africa. North Africa and parts of southern Europe were part of the Muslim 'Moorish' empire.

What products did West African trade?

The West Africans exchanged their local products like gold, ivory, salt and cloth, for North African goods such as horses, books, swords and chain mail. This trade (called the trans-Saharan trade because it crossed the Sahara desert) also included slaves.

What did West Africa trade that made them so wealthy?

West Africa was one of the world's greatest producers of gold in the Middle Ages. Trade in the metal went back to antiquity but when the camel caravans of the Sahara linked North Africa to the savannah interior, the trade really took off.

What were some of the common trade items of the West African empires?

Each of these empires gained their wealth through trade across the region, as well as that carried into North Africa (i.e., the Trans-Saharan trade) and that reaching deeper south into the rainforest. The most traded items were gold, salt, cola nuts, copper, clothing, jewelry, and slaves.

What was the rise of the West African kingdoms?

Around the 8th century (the year 700 CE), the West African savanna witnessed the rise of a series of powerful kingdoms based on military strength and control of trade routes. For the next thousand years, these kingdoms dominated West Africa, leading to an exchange of ideas, the rise of cities, and increased wealth.

What did merchants do in the Sahara?

Merchants crossed the Sahara for gold and other riches they could obtain from trade with West Africa. At the same time, West Africans lacked salt. Merchants, moving in caravans across the desert, picked up blocks of salt from desert salt beds along the way to exchange for gold.

What is the desert in North Africa?

Geographic Setting. For at least 5,000 years, much of North Africa has been occupied by the Sahara Desert . Just south of this desert lies a wide band of grassland known as the savanna, stretching across Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. The savanna became home to large numbers of people herding cattle and sheep.

What did the Savanna do?

These people learned to smelt iron and grow crops, and developed complex communities with craftsmen, warriors, and traders. South of the savanna are the tropical rainforests of equatorial Africa.

What was the purpose of the African wars?

African wars, like wars anywhere else, were the consequence of rivalries for wealth and power between states. Whereas elsewhere the wealth and power of a monarchy might be measured in terms of the amount of territory it controlled, or in terms of the monetary value of its resources, the prime measure of both power and wealth in Africa was people. By and large land in Africa had very little economic value. There was almost invariably far more land available than there were people to cultivate it or to develop its mineral and other resources. The key to the strength of a kingdom thus lay in its ability to gain control of human energy, and an obvious way to do this was to take people away from its neighbours and rivals. This, indeed, was how western African kingdoms had come to be built up, by the natural rulers of particular small kinship groups securing for themselves and their units more clients and slaves than their neighbours, and by using them to extend their power over these neighbours and even farther afield.

Who bought slaves for sale?

For the most part, the European traders bought the slaves they needed from African merchants and rulers who had organized to offer slaves for sale. slavery: attempting to escape. Africans attempting to escape from English slave traders, 18th century. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

How many slaves were exported to the Gold Coast in the 1780s?

It can also be argued that, since some parts of the coast saw the export of many more slaves than did others, the regions adjacent to these coasts suffered much more severely than the overall figures for western Africa as a whole might suggest. In the peak period of the 1780s, the distribution of exports along the coast was approximately as follows: from the Senegambia and Sierra Leone, about 7,000 slaves a year (about 15 percent of the total from western Africa as a whole); from the Gold Coast, about 9,400 (20 percent); from the Slave Coast and the Benin region, about 16,000 (35 percent); and from the Niger delta and the Cameroons, about 13,400 (29 percent). The three last zones—Lower Guinea—today have populations as dense as any to be found in tropical Africa, and the available evidence suggests that their population was also relatively great in the 18th century—certainly by and large denser than that of most parts of Upper Guinea.

How did the slave trade affect the population?

When the slave trade was at its height during the 18th century, the export of slaves was averaging 45,000 a year. This loss would have been about equal to the assumed natural increase in population, so that the effect might have been to have checked population growth rather than to have actually diminished the population. In earlier centuries or in the 19th century, it would not even have had this effect: population would have been growing, albeit more slowly than with no export of slaves.

Why did Europeans go to war with slaves?

Europeans sometimes argued that African kings went to war often with the prime purpose of securing slaves for the slave trade. In the 19th century, when the Europeans themselves had outlawed the slave trade, this argument was used to justify the advance of European colonial rule. On the other hand, in the 18th century, some European slave traders claimed that the acquisition of slaves was simply a consequence of wars which were natural occurrences. From this they argued that they were actually doing a service to such captives and to humanity by buying them and selling them into hard labour on the American plantations. They claimed that they were rescuing the slaves from the danger of being executed or of becoming human sacrifices and that slavery under civilized Christian masters was preferable to slavery in primitive, pagan African society.

Where did the majority of the slaves come from?

Not all the slaves were taken from western Africa as defined in this article. Considerable numbers were always taken from Africa south of the equator, and in the 19th century the measures taken to stop the North Atlantic slave trade were quicker and more effective than those against the trade across the South Atlantic. It seems safe to suggest that, up to and including the 18th century, 60 percent of the slaves were taken from the western African coasts from the Sénégal River to the Cameroons and that in the 19th century the proportion dropped to about one-third. It is thus possible to arrive at the following estimates for the loss of population to western Africa.

Why did slaves never reach the other side of the Atlantic?

A fair proportion of these slaves never reached the other side of the Atlantic because of deaths from disease, maltreatment, or maritime disaster. Evidence from the 18th and 19th centuries, when the vast majority of the slaves were transported, suggests that on average the loss may have been about 15 percent; in earlier times losses are likely to have been higher, perhaps averaging 20 percent.

Why did people living in different zones have to trade?

people living in different zones had to trade to get items they could not provide for themselves

What did the Blacksmiths use to make iron?

they used enormous amounts of charcoal to fuel their iron-smelting furnaces and the red-hot iron was then hammered and bent into useful shapes by skilled workers called blacksmiths

Did cities exist in West Africa?

disproved the theory that cities did not exist in west africa until outsiders arrived and helped local people build them

What did the African kingdoms do before Europeans arrived?

Introduction. Long before Europeans arrived in Africa, great kingdoms and empires ruled over many parts of the continent. Their rulers presided over magnificent courts where art, music, and dance flourished. Their merchants traded in gold, salt, and other goods with faraway countries. The last of the powerful African kingdoms came to an end ...

Which empire controlled what is now southern Ghana?

Danita Delimont/Alamy. In the 1700s and 1800s the Ashanti Empire controlled what is now southern Ghana, and the Dahomey kingdom dominated what is now southern Benin. Both of these kingdoms grew rich through the slave trade.

How long did the Great Zimbabwe Empire last?

The Great Zimbabwe empire lasted from about 1100 to 1500. It grew wealthy from trading gold. After Great Zimbabwe declined, the Torwa kingdom arose to the southwest, and the Matapa empire developed in the north. The Torwa and Matapa rulers continued the gold trade.

What was the ancient Ghana?

Ancient Ghana was a powerful trading empire in what are now Mali and Mauritania. Led by the Soninke people, Ghana was at its strongest from the 600s to the 1200s. As Ghana collapsed, the Mali Empire grew. Mali was a trading state of the Malinke people.

What was the first civilization in Africa?

The earliest kingdom in Africa was ancient Egypt. It was also one of the first civilizations in all of human history. The kingdom developed about 3000 bc in the valley of the Nile River. The achievements of the ancient Egyptians are remarkable. They lived under an orderly government. They built great pyramids, temples, and other stone structures. And, most important of all, they invented a writing system.

Which country was ruled by the Solomonic dynasty?

The Solomonic dynasty ruled Ethiopia until 1974. Morocco, in western North Africa, is a modern-day kingdom. The country is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament.

Where is Kongo located?

The largest and most powerful of them was Kongo, located south of the Congo River and covering parts of what are now Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the Congo. The Portuguese reached Kongo in 1483 and established strong ties with the kingdom.