United States History Student Edition

Mansa Musa, led the kingdom at its height of power. He is considered one of the richest men who ever lived. Under Mansa Musa, a strong Muslim leader, the city of Timbuktu became a center for trade and Islamic study. He had Islamic schools, universities, and a great library built there. Following Mansa Musa’s death, however, weaker rulers and changing trade routes led to the kingdom’s decline in the late 1300s. The people of Songhai lived along the upper Niger River in the 800s. There, they controlled local trade. As Mali’s strength faded in the late 1300s, Songhai began to expand, capturing Timbuktu in the 1460s. Through the late 1400s, the Songhai empire grew to the north and the west, gaining control of the region’s trade. The empire’s strongest leader, Askiya Muhammad, improved the kingdom’s government. As a devout Muslim, Askiya Muhammad again made Timbuktu an important center for Islamic studies. He set up schools across the kingdom and invited Muslim scholars to teach in Songhai. Following Askiya Muhammad’s death in 1528, the empire experienced a period of peace and successful commerce. In the late 1500s, invaders from North Africa armed with guns and cannons conquered Songhai. Far from their home, the invaders found it impossible to control the area and gold trade. After the invaders left the area, West Africa would never again be under the control of a strong African empire. To the south of the great states in West Africa, several other smaller states and kingdoms developed. Here, the landscape was rain forest rather than the open savanna found to the north. Farming was good and the people traded surplus food. The kingdom of Benin arose in the 1200s. Its capital city was surrounded by enormous walls. Artisans made impressive items from

different materials—including wood, ivory, and brass—for trade. At the kingdom’s height during the 1400s, it controlled trade with the Portuguese and Europeans sailing along the region’s coast. By the 1700s, Benin was in decline as other Africans began to trade with the Europeans. Further south, in the area of Central Africa, the kingdom of Kongo emerged in the 1300s. In the late 1400s, the kingdom’s influence grew as Portuguese traders interacted with the people of Kongo. Portugal sent troops to protect its trade interests in the area. Those soldiers helped defeat Kongo’s invaders. Still, as other Africans traded with the Portuguese, Kongo lost the European power’s support, and the kingdom’s strength faded by the 1700s. Another kingdom, Ndongo, which the Portuguese called Angola, developed south of Kongo in the 1500s. It also grew strong and wealthy through direct trade with the Portuguese. In the 1600s, the Portuguese sought to take control of the region’s trade, and Ndongo’s forces attempted to expel the European invaders. For a number of years, Queen Njinga led the resistance to the Portuguese. A skilled military leader, Njinga dressed as a male warrior in battle. She insisted that her subjects refer to her as king. Following Njinga’s death, Ndongo resistance weakened, and the Portuguese soon gained control of the kingdom. Following the Portuguese explorations, a part of the trade that developed between West Africans and Europeans was in enslaved people. As in other places in the world, slavery existed in African society. Most enslaved people in Africa were those captured in war or criminals. Some of the enslaved people were absorbed into their new culture. Enslaved women often became wives, whose children were born with free status. Over time, as Muslim Arabs came to West Africa and the area adopted Islam, the system of slavery changed. Islamic law allowed non-Muslims to be enslaved. Islamic peoples began to trade goods for enslaved people. It was this form of slavery that was in place as European interest in acquiring enslaved people grew. The Portuguese, especially, grew wealthy from the slave trade on the west coast of Africa. At first, they worked with the rulers of the coastal kingdoms to acquire enslaved people. Some African rulers, such as Queen Njinga, however, began to object to the scope of the trade as the demand for enslaved people grew.

Mosque in Timbuktu

Ian Nellist/Alamy Stock Photo

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Exploration and Colonization