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The Soninke people were farmers. They were threatened by nomadic herders, who wanted to take the farmers' food and water to provide for their animals. The farmers banded together, which marked the beginning of the of Ghana empire. Dinga Cisse is considered the first ruler of the Ghana empire. He established a capital at Kumbi Saleh which sat along one of the emerging Trans-Saharan trade routes.
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introduction of the camel to the western Sahara in the 3rd century A.D.By the time of the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the 7th century the camel had changed the ancient, more irregular trade routes into a trade network running from Morocco to the Niger river. The Ghana Empire grew rich from this increased trans-Saharan trade in gold and salt, allowing for larger urban centres to develop. The traffic furthermore encouraged territorial expansion to gain control over the different trade-route
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Picture is of a Ancient Trans-Sahara Caravan Town in modern day Mauritania called oualata, which was even closer to the capital city Koumbi Saleh then Auodaghost.
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The kingdom’s golden age began around 800 CE and lasted for nearly 3 centuries.
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The empire of Ghana controlled the trade of all gold and salt in that part of the world, and most of the then newly discovered element iron, for several hundred years.
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Ghanaians allowed Muslims to live among them, which would be the beginning of the end of the empire as a group of Muslims to the north, the Almoravids decided to attack them and began the break up of Ghana. The first obvious sign of this was when the Almoravid,with their leader Ibn Yasin, marched south and captured one of the main trade cities in Ghana, the city of Aoudaghast.
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New gold mines began to be worked at Bure which was out of reach of the king of Ghana and broke his control on the trade. There were also long droughts that weakened the empire’s ability to sustain its farms and herds. New trade routes began to open up to the east. As the central authority began to weaken, tribes began to break away from the empire and claim their own lands.
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Almoravids conquered the capital city, Kumbi, in 1076 CE. Although Ghana was eventually able to expel the invaders after a decade, the damage was staggering.
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In 1203 CE, Kumbi was taken by one of their former subjects the Susu.
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In 1240 CE, the kingdom collapsed and the heart of Ghana, the capital ended up being controlled by the rising Empire of Mali, therefore absorbing the empire of Ghana into the Mali empire, and transforming the empire to Islam.
