Kingdoms Of West Africa Dbq

The histories of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai are not well documented. Much of what we know is a mixture of legend, stories and secondhand accounts. North Africa has small coastal areas, some savanna areas, but it is mostly made up of the sahara desert. It is a very dry and hot region. West Africa has some desert areas, wet and dry grasslands, small rainforest, and long rivers, like the Niger River. It has some vegetation areas, but it also has some dry and hot areas. According to legend, Ghana started when a foreigner named Dhinga had to kill a goblin, and marry the goblins pretty daughters. Their offspring became ancestors of the ruling Soninke clans. After he died, his son Dyabe defeated his brother and founded the empire of Ghana somewhere

How did the polity of Ancient Ghana arise? How did Ghana maintain its strength and what were some of the challenges? The Wagadou Empire was a monarchy, and the king was regarded by the people to be a semi-divine figure who kept order and justice. Ghana was not rich in natural resources as it was located along a major trade route between ivory and gold producing areas and salt miners in the Sahara. Merchants were lured into Ghana by the wealth of gold and prosperity helped the capital, Kumbi Saleh, to be a center of trade. The country will eventually become a prosperous entrepôt. Ancient Ghana derived power and wealth from gold and transportation of camels during the Sub-Saharan trade to increase the quantity of goods that were transported. The traditional Ghanan religions and Islam spread

People of the early African kingdoms were able to create successful trade routes with Europe and Asia, become very wealthy from conquering and gaining land, and were able to have a strong central government. All of this was done before the Europeans had reached Africa. Trade flourished on the East African coast, especially when trading was established with India and Arabia. African kingdoms were prosperous, because of their success with not only trading but also with their ability to conquer land. A governmental structure is key to allowing any kingdom to thrive, and the African people were able to achieve this.

The African societies (like those of the American Indians and the Europeans) were highly dependent on the environmental conditions and varied widely across the continent. Africa very much resembled America in its diversity of cultures across deserts, grasslands, and forests, its established networks of trade, and resource competition. The early use of iron implements raised productivity and subsequently increased the continent's population, which reached about 50 million by the fifteenth century. Much of that population was organized politically under large empires, like the Kingdom of Ghana. Ghana achieved architectural and artistic wealth principally through important trading contacts with the Middle and Far East. Other kingdoms also developed

Cosmopolitan Africa 1700-1875 was organized in Kingdoms, and there were more kingdoms than the number of states that are present in Africa right now. This is because the countries that are currently marked with the international boundaries had some Kingdoms. Some of the most renowned kingdoms included Buganda, Mali, Ashanti, Kingdom of Saloum, and the Kingdom of Zimbabwe. Some of the earliest civilizations in Africa include the Ancient Egypt, Nubia, Sahel, Maghreb and the Horn of Africa currently where Somalia lies (Worden, 2005).

Geography plays a colossal role not only in countries and continents today, but it was also a tremendous factor in the kingdoms of past history, specifically West Africa. Ghana, Mali, and Songhai are the three kingdoms that made up West Africa in the time period A.D. 500 to A.D. 1500. Songhai was the last of the three kingdoms to arise. However, it’s geography affected the society, culture, and trade of just effectively as the kingdoms of Ghana and Mali.

By the time Arab geographers began to write of West Africa in the 8th century A.D., the Empire of Ghana -- described as a "land of gold" -- was already in existence. This ancient state's origins, however, remain unclear. The Tarikh as-Sudan, a book of West African history written in Timbuktu around 1650 A.D., claims that the Empire of Ghana had 22 kings before the beginning of the Muslim era (622 A.D.), and 22 kings afterwards.

The Kingdom of Ghana was a kingdom that rose into power very quickly and lasted for a long 800 years. But the kingdom was then taken over by Mali when it came to its fall. But before any of these things happened, Ghana, accurately known as Wagadugu was created by a tribe called Soninke. This tribe was the main reason that this Kingdom rose into power because they would expand they land and take control of areas strategically, increasing in power over time. By the time that it was the year 1000 B.C.E they had control of a good amount of land in the upper part of Niger and Senegal Rivers which had a great amount of riches and gold, which will then lead to Ghana being one of the biggest kingdom in the trans-Saharan trade network. Main things Ghana

The histories of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai are not well documented much of what we know is a mixture of legend, stories, and 2nd hand accounts. According to Mr. Clifton's lecture notes, “Empires of Ancient West Africa”, Ghana started as the first empire to establish of the three empires and rose to power in the 1400’s. Ghana was located where several trade routes came together. The origin is unknown of how the empire began. According to legend, Odinga’s son had found the empire of Ghana. The empire had succeeded because Ghana’s people had possessed gold and salt mines, and controlling valuable trade routes. Once Ghana weakened, Mali conquered them.

The Empire of Ghana was the first trading empire of western Africa. This Empire is located between the Sahara Desert and the rivers of Sénégal and Niger. Otherwise known today as part of Mauritania and part of Mali. It thrived through the years of 700-1200 B.C. They are highly known for their production and trading of gold because they lived on top of a gold mine. They were also known for trading in salt and ivory. Some of Ghana’s achievements was how near and far their trading destinations were. Also their large amounts of gold and other resources. Because of their good amounts of gold it made Ghana have a more powerful and dominate kingdom compared to those around Ghana.

Politics and rulers sprouted into the African lifestyle at around 800 A.D. Ghana, known as The Land of Gold, was formed by the rulers of the Soninke people. The king controlled the salt trades that passed through Ghana. This king collected tolls from all goods entering or leaving his land. After Ghana’s downfall and the attacks in Niger, all but one son was left alive, Sundiata. This man was regarded as a sickly boy and was too weak to be a threat. However, he proved the rivals wrong as he crushed his enemies, gained control over trade routes, and founded the empire known as Mali. The greatest ruler of this kingdom went by

Medieval West Africa was a very diverse place but throughout the area, some things stayed the same, the way they ran their lives. Civics and government were one of the things that, for the most part, stayed the same.

Legendary ruler Sundiata led Malinke people in successfully revolting against previous rulers. Once an insignificant state, Mali now controlled internal trade routes under the rule of Keita dynasty. Pg 13 The rich mineral resources and the Islamic leadership of Mansa Musa further opened Mali’s diplomatic and economic exchange between great empires of middle east. The vast empire that extended from Atlantic to lake Chad was held together by excellent state of public finance, politically stability and religious ideology of Islam.

After much research, it is clear that many of what would become West African states began with the kingdom of Ghana. According to Roger Gocking, who wrote the book called The History of Ghana, the reason why states started here was because of evidence from the time when Ghana’s kingdom existed. He stated “archaeological evidence indicates that much of the early Iron Age activity was located in the Volta Basin of northern Ghana. The common occurrence of low-grade iron ore and wood for fuel stimulated iron-smelting industries in this region. As a result, it was not surprising that it was here that centralized states first developed.”

In West Africa, the three awesome medieval domains of Ghana, Mali, and the Songhay created in Sahel.