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This empire was established around in 600 A.D. The first people of the Ghana empire were farmers.
Did you know that the Ghana empire suffered a lot of droughts because much of their land was by or inside the Saharan desert? -
The people of the Ghana empire started to stop raising animals like cattle and sheep. Then they started to trade ivory, slaves, and gold with other Arabian empires that were in the north and east of them.
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In 1062 A.D. Tenkamenin became the ruler of Ghana. This king built prisons for enemies, temples, and good looking tombs for other important officals.This king ruled a very wealthy kingdom under his ruling.
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In 1076 A.D., Muslim invaders captured the capitcal of Ghana empire, which caused it to start crumbling.
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In 1203 A.D, Sumanguru, a king during that time,tried to return glory to Ghana and revive it's honor.
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In 1203 A.D, Sumanguru, king of Ghana tried to restore Ghana but a new kingdom, Mali, was rising and gaining power to the east of it.
In 1235 A.D. Mali defeated the last king of Ghana. -
When Ghana was crumbling, Mali took its place as the best kingdom in west Africa. In 1236 A.D, a magician and warrior,named Sundiata. became the king of Mali.
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In 1240 A.D, Sundiata destroyed the capital of Ghana and took over the gold and salt trade.Now Ghana was no more.
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In 1307 A.D, Mana Musa(Sundiata's grandnephew) became ruler of Mali.In 1324 A.D he visited the holy city Mecca . During his trip he brought thosands of slaves and hundreds of pounds of gold to show his wealth. This caused him to be very popular.
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In 1332 A.D Mansa Musa died. He left behind a empire that was governed by law and had a good econmy. During his time no European country had intense patriotsim, but the empire of Mali did. During the 15th century a bigger and greater power was rising; the Songhai empire.
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In 1464 A.D, Sunni Ali, a Muslim leader of Songhai, defeated the forces of Mali and became the ruler of the most powerful empire in the West Africa
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Askia Muhammad who was considered Songhai's most brilliant leader, took the throne. This ruler encouraged learning, trade, and increased power of the Songhai's army by forcing countries to provide extra soldiers.
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In 1497 A.D Askia made a pilgrimage to Mecca and returned with doctors, architects, scientists, and scholars to help build his flourishing empire.Songhai still grew and prospered becasue Askia opend inded polices. During his ruling banks, schools, mosques, and courts were made for the citizens of Songhai.
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The Songhai empire was the most powerful empire in West Africa until 1700 A.D when the invading forces of Morocco and Spain destroyed the last of the African empires.
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Did you know that the king of Ghana became a Muslim? He taxed goods passing through the kingdom and also created a huge army to collect payments(taxes) for protection from neighboring countries.