First, view the videos related to the West African Empires of the early 13th-15th centuries. Use the information in the video and textbook to create a (2) two paragraph essay on the differences and destruction of the West African Empires.
Analyze the following questions in your essay. How important was the Niger River to the Ancient West African Empires?Explain the geographic regions of the Niger River?
Compare and contrast the three major empires of West Africa (Ghana, Mali, Songhai).
This blog will count as your first essay test and will be due Thursday, September 13, 2012 by 12:00a.m. The essay test will count as 100 points and will be graded according to content information and analyzation skills informational readings. I look forward to reading your blog post. should be
The West African empires were all the height of their century at one point. Ghana, Mali, and Songhai all shared a common export of gold, salt, and/or slaves and had a dominate religion; Islam. Ghana was the first know kingdom in the Western Sudan and was wealthy from getting gold in the Wanagara region and also through taxing everyone entering and living Ghana. Ghana traded through the Niger river and coastal regions of North Africa by the Asian camel. However, because of commercial and religious rivalries, Ghana was destroyed and the empire of Mali came to existence. Mali and Ghana had similarities, but due to Mali gaining direct control to the Wanagara, it became wealthier than Ghana. The most important city was Timbuktu because it was the center of trade and it was located beside the Niger River. After Mali’s famous rulers died, the empire fell and Songhai was the next empire of trade.
ReplyDeleteAddition to the control of Mali, one of Songhai’s greatest achievements was expansion. It was known as one of the largest empires of all time. The Songhai Empire was better socially because of the replacing of local chiefs with the ruler’s family members, substitute tax with tribute, and the people of the Empire regulating trade. Songhai was doing well until the Moroccan army took over and the Songhai Empire fell apart. Overall, each empire had all ended the same way, it was destroyed by others.
Today’s Africa is accepted by scientists as being the “cradle of the human species”
ReplyDeletehowever it is often forgotten that some of the world’s greatest civilisations such as the Ghana, Mali and Songhai empires flourished before the Europeans arrived in Africa. False and negative views about Africa were developed in Europe to justify the transatlantic slave trade which started with the Portuguese in 1471. Africa was portrayed as an uncivilised continent where tribal warfare was rife with no trace of leadership or culture, “Great African Empires” this is definitely not the case. The three Ancient Empires of West Africa were Ghana Mali & Songhai. The Ghana Empire also known as Wagadugu covered what are now Mauritania, Southeast Mali and Northern Senegal. It was about 500 miles northwest of today’s modern Ghana. The capital of the Ghana Empire was called Ghana which was around AD. 300. Trade was an essential element in the rise and fall of the West African empires. The main imports of the Ghana Empire were cloth, brocades, copper and salt and its main export was its very valuable gold which helped to build its importance in international trades.