Timbuktu Research Paper

Cities in the early world were very important for establishing a kingdom’s dominance and educating the future leaders of the world. Education, scholarship, and strong financial and political leadership led to the creation and empowerment of great cities. Timbuktu was a very prosperous city. Founded on Trade and Scholarship, it was able to rise to its dominance. The main products traded along the routes of Timbuktu and ultimately the Songhai Empire were gold and salt. “The inhabitants of the city were very rich” (Evidence A). The citizens and inhabitants of the city being rich is only a benefit towards the city. The more affluent the citizens are the more the city can achieve. In the case of Timbuktu the knowledge and affluence of the inhabitants brought the city to great heights. Timbuktu received praise from other countries such as Spain for
Europeans basing their trade off of sea was very detrimental to the city of Timbuktu. It was geographically inland. Around the 1500’s the inland cities such as Venice and Timbuktu were prospering in population and economic values. “Venice Population in the year 1586 was 143637 people, post European exploration Venice population was 137240 in the year 1797” Venice was a commonly visited city for trade, it was booming before the European Exploration era, following the exploration Venice took a big toll on population as it was left out of trade due to its inland location. Trade routes going from Europe to other parts of the world rarely included Africa, at times when it was included it was only the coast that got a piece of the trading pie. “English, French, and Spanish trade routes all streamlined along the coast of Africa, but never made any inland stops.” The backbone of Timbuktu was its trade with Europe and other outlying provinces. If Timbuktu was not able to receive necessary resources, it surely would not be able to compete with threats and sustain its