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Sahelian kingdom

 

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Sahelian kingdom


 
 

The Sahelian kingdoms were a series of empires that had many similarities. They were centred on the sahelSahel

The Sahel is the boundary zone in Africa between the Sahara to the north and the more fertile region to the south, kno...
, the area of grasslands south of the SaharaSahara

The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert, and second largest desert at over 9,000,000 km, almost as large as the United...
. The wealth of the states came from controlling the trade routes across the desert. Their power came from having large pack animals like camelCamel

Camel refers to either of the two species of Camelid....
s and horseHorse

The horse is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus....
s that were fast enough to keep a large empire under central control and were also useful in battle.

All of these empires were also quite decentralized with member cities having a great deal of autonomy.

The Sahel states were limited from expanding south into the forest zoneForest zone

In West Africa, the forest zone refers to the southern part of the region once largely covered by tropical rainforest....
 of the AshantiFacts About Ashanti

Ashanti may mean:*Ashanti Confederacy, a powerful state of ancient West Africa...
 and Yoruba as mounted warriors were all but useless in the forests and the horses and camels could not survive the heat and diseases of the region.

List of the Sahel Kingdoms

  • The first major state to rise in this region was the Kingdom of Ghana. Centered in what is today SenegalSenegal

    Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sngal River in western Africa....
     and MauritaniaMauritania

    Mauritania , officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwest Africa....
    , it was the first to benefit from the introduction of pack animals by ArabArab Summary

    The Arabs are predominantly speakers of the Arabic language, rather than a pure ethnic group, mainly found throughout the ...
     traders. Ghana dominated the region between about 750 and 1078. Smaller states in the region at this time included TakrurTakrur

    Takrur was one of the minor Iron Age states of West Africa, which flourished roughly parallel to the Kingdom of Ghana....
     to the west, the MalinkeMalinké

    The Malink are an African Mand ethnic group....
     kingdom of Mali to the south, and the Songhai centred around GaoGao

    Gao is a city in Mali on the River Niger with a population of about 38,000 people....
     to the east.
  • When Ghana collapsed in the face of invasion from the AlmoravidsFacts About Almoravids

    Almoravides , was a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that flourished over a wide area of Africa and Europe during the 11th cen...
    , a series of brief kingdoms followed, notably that of the SossoSosso

    The Sosso are a people of West Africa, found particularly in Guinea....
    ; after 1235, the Mali EmpireMali Empire

    The Mali Empire was an empire of the Mandinka, a Mand people in West Africa, dating from the 13th to 16th centuries....
     rose to dominate the region. Located on the Niger RiverNiger River Summary

    The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending over 2500 miles ....
     to the west of Ghana in what is today NigerFacts About Niger

    Niger, officially the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked sub-Saharan country in Western Africa, named after the Niger ...
     and MaliFacts About Mali

    Mali, officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked nation in Western Africa....
    , it reached its peak in the 1350s, but had lost control of a number of vassal states by 1400.
  • The most powerful of these states was the Songhai EmpireSonghai Empire

    From the early 15th to the late 16th century, the Songhai Empire was one of the largest African empires in history....
    , which expanded rapidly beginning with king Sonni AliSonni Ali

    Sonni Ali, also known as Sunni Ali, who reigned from about 1464 to 1492, was the first great king of the Songhai Empir...
     in the 1460s. By 1500, it had risen to stretch from CameroonCameroon

    Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a unitary republic of central Africa....
     to the MaghrebMaghreb

    The Maghreb...
    , the largest state in African history. It too was quite short-lived and collapsed in 1591 as a result of MoroccanMorocco

    The Kingdom of Morocco is a country in North Africa....
     musketMusket Overview

    A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smoothbore long gun, which its user generally fires from the shoulder....
    ry.
  • Far to the east, on Lake ChadLake Chad

    Lake Chad is a large, shallow lake in Africa....
    , the state of Kanem-BornuBornu Empire

    The Bornu Empire was a medieval African state of Niger from 1389 to 1893....
    , founded as Kanem in the 800s, now rose to greater preeminence in the central Sahel region. To their west, the loosely united HausaHausa people

    The Hausa are a Sahelian people chiefly located in the West African regions of northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger....
     city-states became dominant. These two states coexisted uneasily, but were quite stable.
  • In 1810 the Fulani EmpireFulani Empire

    The Fulani Empire was one of the most powerful states in sub-Saharan Africa in the years prior to European colonization....
     rose and conquered the Hausa, creating a more centralized state. It and Kanem-Bornu would continue to exist until the arrival of Europeans, when both states would fall and the region would be divided between FranceFrance

    France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and whi...
     and Great BritainGreat Britain

    Great Britain is an island lying off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe and to the east of Ireland, comprising the ma...
    .