Age Of Imperialism-The Prosperous Kingdoms Of Africa

The Prosperous Kingdoms of Africa Although many may think otherwise, but Africans are not barbarians. This stereotype was developed by Europeans during the Age of Imperialism. African kingdoms were some of the wealthiest empires known at their time. Most of these empires dominated gold and salt mines. Also, they relied heavily on trade with Arabs and Indians. The kingdoms of Mali, Ghana, and the Eastern city states, were some of the most powerful kingdoms during their reign. One could tell that the Ghana empire was full of riches because their king was called the King of the Gold. The Ghana kingdom was brought to power by the Soninke people in around the year 500 C.E. They were located on the open plains between the Niger and Senegal
In around the year of 1300, the Mali empire rose from the remnants of the Ghana empire. Mali’s most influential leader was Mansa Musa. Mansa Musa was a devout Muslim and an authoritative king who brought Mali wealth by controlling not only the gold, but the salt mines as well. He is said to be one of the wealthiest people in history. In a Crash Course about Mansa Musa, John Green said, “Most famously, when he reached Alexandria, he spent so much gold that he caused runaway inflation throughout the city that took years to recover from”. He also expanded his empire, and influenced Islam in his territory. He brought Muslim scholars and architects to Mali and built mosques and Timbuktu, the world’s center of learning at that time. He also spread Islam when he went on his famous hajj to Mecca. Along his way, he exploited his riches and generously gave gold to other cities. Mali fell in the late 1500’s because of less prominent and influential leaders that followed Mansa Musa and could not live up to his
City states are large towns with their own governments unlike empires, where multiple cities and regions are governed by one body. Some of the major city states were Malindi, Mombasa, Kilwa, and Sofala. The Eastern city states of Africa began to rise in ancient times and thrived along the eastern coast the countries of Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. They succeeded on the coast because their main source of income was trade ports. Trade ports shaped the cities by trading ivory, gold, cloth, and animal pelts with Western African, Muslim, and Indian merchants. Arab traders influenced their culture and Islam in the cities and eventually, different cultures became mixed, “On the East African coast, the contact among Arab and African peoples led to the use of Swahili”, (Ahmad, Brodsky, Crofts, and Ellis 84). In the 1500’s, the Portuguese took over the city states, and people migrated farther inland because they did not want to be under Portuguese rule. The Portuguese could not run the trade ports sufficiently so, once again, a wealthy dominant region fell to its