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Comparison And Contrast Of Songhai's Geography And Silk Road Geography

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The Comparison and Contrasting of The Silk Road and Songhai

Songhai was connected to the silk road by their, geography, history, trade, and lasting impact on both of their civilizations. They had very clear differences and similarities on each topic.
Songhai’s geography and the silk roads geography were alike and different in many ways. The Songhai Empire was centered around the Niger river, with huge deserts all around because of this, the Songhai Empire had no mountains and it was all flat land. The Sahara desert surrounding Songhai was very dry and very big. With the Niger river, it made larger harvests than the Nile river. Due to this, agriculture was highly organized. On the other hand, the Silk roads geography took place in China, …show more content…

Songhai played an important role in the development of trade and economic growth. Although they traded a variety of things like ivory and rubber. A huge thing they traded were slaves. Slaves were used for a lot of labor. They weren’t slaves you’d typically picture with whips on bare backs while they crawl on the floor. These slaves were treated nicely and trusted not to overthrow their ruler. Songhai traded these things, (and people) with the Portuguese, Kuba, Chokwe, and Lunda. The fairly treated slaves from Arabs served as craftspeople, potters, woodworkers, and sometimes musicians. These slaves weren’t just a bunch of poor people you find lying around in the streets. Anyone could be a slave. The slave catchers would just need to find someone and sell them to slave owners. The Portuguese bought the slaves from the kingdom near the Niger delta in Niger. They would have to pass to the Congo river to transport the newly bought slaves. Due to the fact that the Silk Road had many countries, they all traded many different items between each other. For example, China traded silk, fine dishware, tea, salt, sugar, and spices. India traded ivory, pearls, and spices. Rome traded glassware and gold. Egypt and Persia traded perfume, carpets, and many cosmetic related items. Last but not least, Africa traded slaves, gold, and salt. All of these commodities were traded amongst each other. Overall, Songhai traded lots of things, …show more content…

The people of Songhai settled in the city of Goa around the time AD 800. Even with that, they did not make Goa their capital city until the beginning of the 11th century during the reign of Dia. After Kouassi the next ruler that moved to power was Mali. He converted The Songhai people into the religion called Islam. The earliest civilizations developed In the time of the Dark Ages, after the fall of the western half of the Roman Empire, which was around 476 AD. The next ruler that move to power after Mali was Askia Muhammad. The silk road began around 200 BC and hasn’t ended yet. The Romans encountered silk for the first time when they were in battle. They spotted it on a flag. When merchants first noticed that the Romans wanted and would pay for the silk, the silk road was born. Silk, being a very desired material was kept secret by the Chinese for thousands of years, It was seen as a life or death

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