Question

Activity 1: African Trading Empires

Three great kingdoms emerged in western Africa between 700 and 1600. These were the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, and the Songhai Empire. Each of these had distinct characteristics. The one thing they had in common was that their wealth was based on trade. Answer the questions below as they relate to each empire to reinforce your knowledge about these three great civilizations.

What person founded this empire?

Ghana Empire:
Mali Empire:
Songhai Empire:
What was the major city of this empire?

Ghana Empire:
Mali Empire:
Songhai Empire:
During what years did this empire flourish?

Ghana Empire:
Mali Empire:
Songhai Empire:
What goods did this empire trade?

Ghana Empire:
Mali Empire:
Songhai Empire:
What modern country exists where this empire once ruled?

Ghana Empire:
Mali Empire:
Songhai Empire:
What made this empire unique from the others?

Ghana Empire:
Mali Empire:
Songhai Empire:

Answer 1

What person founded this empire?

- Ghana Empire: Founded by the Soninke people; traditional/legendary founder often named Dinga Cissé (exact origins uncertain).
- Mali Empire: Sundiata Keita (c. 1230s).
- Songhai Empire: Emerged as a state around Gao but was expanded into an empire by Sonni Ali (Sonni Ali Ber) in the mid-1400s.

What was the major city of this empire?

- Ghana Empire: Kumbi Saleh (also spelled Koumbi Saleh).
- Mali Empire: Niani was the royal capital; Timbuktu and Gao were major commercial and intellectual cities (especially Timbuktu).
- Songhai Empire: Gao (with Timbuktu an important regional center).

During what years did this empire flourish?

- Ghana Empire: roughly c. 700–1200 CE (peak c. 800–1000).
- Mali Empire: roughly c. 1230–1600 CE (peak in the 13th–14th centuries; Mansa Musa’s reign c. 1312–1337).
- Songhai Empire: roughly c. 1464–1591 CE (height late 15th–16th centuries; fell after the Moroccan invasion of 1591).

What goods did this empire trade?

- Ghana Empire: gold, salt, ivory, kola nuts, and slaves (luxury goods moved across trans‑Saharan routes).
- Mali Empire: gold and salt remained central, plus ivory, slaves, kola nuts; later strong trade in books and Islamic scholarship (Timbuktu).
- Songhai Empire: gold, salt, slaves, kola nuts, agricultural products; controlled major caravan routes and trading centers (Timbuktu, Gao) and traded in manuscripts and learning goods as well.

What modern country exists where this empire once ruled?

- Ghana Empire: territory corresponds mainly to parts of modern southeastern Mauritania and western Mali (also parts of southern Mauritania, eastern Senegal).
- Mali Empire: centered in modern Mali (also parts of Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Niger).
- Songhai Empire: centered in modern Mali (Gao) and extended into what are now Niger, Nigeria, Mauritania and Burkina Faso.

What made this empire unique from the others?

- Ghana Empire: the earliest of the three; gained wealth first by taxing and controlling trans‑Saharan trade routes (especially gold–salt trade); maintained traditional religion alongside early Muslim merchant communities.
- Mali Empire: famed for Sundiata’s state-building and for Mansa Musa’s enormous wealth and pilgrimage to Mecca; patronage of Islam, education and scholarship (Timbuktu as a center of learning).
- Songhai Empire: became the largest and most territorially expansive of the three; strongly militaristic/centralized under Sonni Ali and Askia Muhammad, with greater administrative reform and continued promotion of Islamic learning and trade.