Mansa Musa took a famous pilgrimage to Mecca. The story goes that he stopped by Cairo. While there, he gave away so much gold it caused rampant inflation. But where did all that money come from?
Five Things To Know About the Mali Empire for AP World History.
New people became part of Mali's economy as it expanded. Existing trade networks also expanded.
The West African kingdom of Mali flourished in the Niger River Valley. The Niger River provided water that helped support the growth of several crops. These crops produced enough food to support large populations. Cities, including Gao and Timbuktu, formed along the shores. The river also helped create the earliest trade networks. Like elsewhere, water made it easier to transport goods and people to new places. The salt trade was particularly important. People mined salt in the desert. It was then floated down the Niger River and sold at high prices.
The Trans-Saharan trade also predated Mali Empire. These trade routes originated in the time of the Roman Empire. Traders took gold and salt across the Sahara Desert. Enslaved people were also forced to march across the Sahara Desert. The Sahara Desert was difficult and dangerous to cross. The Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert in the world. Travelers would have to navigate miles of sand dunes, rocky flat areas, dried lakes, and salt pans. Water, shelter, and food were sparse. Anyone traveling with valuable items were targets for thieves and bandits. It was a dangerous trip.
The upside for travelers was that powerful empires existed on all sides of the desert. To the north were the European and North African states. To the east was Egypt and the dar al-Islam. Trade goods could also travel across the Silk Roads or Indian Ocean from the Middle East.
Sundiata Keita founded the Mali Empire in the 1200s. Oral tradition states that Sundiata freed his people from rule by a nearby kingdom. He was also the first mansa, or ruler, of the Mali Empire. The Mali Empire grew under his leadership, and the mansas that followed him. This expansion brought new people into the empire and expanded trade networks.
Like all empires, Mali's rulers set about conquering neighboring people and land. This included taking control of gold and salt mines in West Africa. Conquered people did keep some control over local affairs. But the mansa had considerable political power. Conquered people were often enslaved. They forced to work in gold and salt mines or sold. Conquest led to expanding trade networks. New people joined existing economies, often against their will.
Expanding trade was also a priority. The mansas invested in relationships with groups on the other side of the Sahara Desert. Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca served an important religious purpose. It allowed him to meet and give gifts to important trade partners and leaders in the Middle East. As a result, Mali was a big part of the Trans-Saharan Trade Routes. These routes allowed Mali to trade with Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East. It also allowed them to access goods from the Indian Ocean Trade routes, the Silk Roads, and Europe.
Trade expanded because of improved transportation technology.
One reason for Mali's success was the development of new technology. Technology made it easier to transport a large quantities of goods across the desert.
One of the most important inventions was the camel saddle. The camel saddle allowed people to pack more goods onto camels. It also made it easier to transport goods over longer distances. Traders had to cross the entirety of Sahara Desert to a profit from their goods. Only small settlements and nomads lived in the desert. These groups were unlikely to buy enough of any product to justify the danger of the journey itself. A single camel with a saddle could carry hundreds of pounds of trade goods. Being able to take more goods increased the profit a trader could expect from one voyage. This incentivized more traders to make the risky trip.
Another important innovation during this time was the caravan. A caravan was a group of people who traveled long-distances together. Caravans in North African often had thousands of camels. Traveling in groups provided protection from bandits. Caravans from Mali hired nomadic people from the areas they traveled through. These nomads had extensive knowledge of the desert and navigation. This was important because deserts often lacked useful landmarks. In this way, it was like being in the middle of the ocean.
Nomads helped traders find a safe path through the desert. One component of this were oases. Oases were natural springs found in the desert. Caravans could stop at these oases, rest, and let their animals recover. Another place caravans could rest at were caravanserai. The caravanserai were hotels for traders. One of the most famous carvanserai in North Africa was the Funduq al-Najjarin in Fez, Morroco. You can see modern-day pictures here. It was a welcome sight for travelers after spending over a month looking at sand and camels. Caravanserai were another place where traders could rest during their voyage. Many caravans might use the same caravanserai or oasis at the same time. Traders from different groups could exchange news, ideas, and technology. This helped them avoid problems and made successful voyages more likely.
The volume of trade across the Sahara Desert expanded during this time.
The amount of trade that occurred increased for the same reason that trade routes expanded. Wealthy empires created more demand. This created more incentives for traders who risked being attacked by bandits or starving to death in the desert. New technology made it possible to transport more products. Expanding trade networks meant that there was demand for West African products in far-away places like China and India. Even though West Africans didn't typically trade with these groups, Egyptians and Swahili-speaking people often did.
It is difficult to quantify the exact volume of trade during this time. First, Malian traders were often secretive about the exact extent of their trade. Some groups also considered it offensive to write down an agreement. It meant you couldn't trust someone's word.
Finally, many written records from this period were stored by individuals, not governments or libraries. Many of these records have been damaged, destroyed, or lost. Others have not been easily accessible to researchers until recent years. It's possible that we will learn new things about the volume of trade as this research is done, but for now we have to use relative terms. Either way, records from the time show that the amount of trade occurring in North and West Africa expanded during this time.
West African traders sold both products and people. Gold, salt, and enslaved people were bought and sold around the Sahara Desert. The expansion of this trade has important implications for history. Let's look at each in turn.
Mali quickly became known for it's gold trade. The mansas restricted ownership of gold and tightly regulated gold mines. For example, only the mansas could own gold nuggets. By restricting the supply of gold, Mali's leaders helped avoid problems with inflation. Some historians speculate that Mali didn't use gold for currency because it was so plentiful. It would have been easy to produce too much, which would have made it all less valuable. Of course, restricting trade also ensured that the mansas could prevent others from challenging their power.
Salt was another important product. In some places and times, it was more valuable than a similar quantity of gold. This makes sense if you consider the uses of salt. First, food spoiled quickly in hot climates before refrigeration. Salt was important to preserve food and mask any bad tastes. For example, salt-preserved lemons are a staple in many North African and Mediterranean cuisines. Furthermore, people needed salt to replenish electrolytes. In hot climates, people sweat more, so they have a greater need for salt.
Salt was mined in large blocks in West Africa. The conditions in these mines were bad. Enslaved people worked long hours, did not have adequate housing, and often got sick. However, the blocks were easy to transport using camels and very lucrative.
Finally, enslaved people were traded across the Sahara Desert for centuries. Most of these people were captured in West Africa during warfare. Traders forced them to march across the Sahara Desert. Traders sold enslaved people to Europeans, various groups in the Middle East, and around the Indian Ocean basis.
All of this trade helped establish Mali's reputation in the wider world. This meant that traders, scientists, artists, and diplomats routinely visited Mali and interacted with Malians who were traveling abroad. Timbuktu and other cities in the Mali Empire gained a reputation for wealth. Unfortunately, this reputation had a dark side. The Portuguese associated Mali with slavery. When the Portuguese wanted enslaved people for sugarcane plantations, they knew they could find slave traders in West Africa. This is one of many things that helped establish the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in the next time period (1450-1750). However, it certainly not the only cause.
Increased interaction resulted in new literary, artistic, and cultural practices.
Mali's growth attracted travelers from far away places. It's wealth also made it possible for leaders and traders to visit other places. This interaction brought new ideas, art, and science to Mali.
Mansa Musa played an important role in this process. He brought back artists, scientists, books, and architects after his pilgrimage. These people brought new ideas to Mali. Mansa Musa also funded mosques and schools. The most famous of these buildings is the Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu. You can see it here.
This building shows how interaction reshaped Mali's society. The construction of the mosque shows that Mali embraced a religion from the Middle East. At the same time, builders used traditional West African methods. This includes using mud walls and distinct shape. This shows that people used old and new traditions to create a distinct culture.
Timbuktu became an important city for religious, political, and intellectual leadership. It was famous in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Scholars explored technology, theology, government, medicine, and the arts. At one point, there were tens of thousands of people studying in Timbuktu. They produced hundreds of thousands of manuscripts. The calligraphy and illustrations reflect artistic techniques seen throughout the Islamic world. The texts show scholars grappling with complex ideas and new theories.
In 2012, al-Qaeda invaded Timbuktu. They attempted the city's characteristic mosques and manuscripts. A heroic group of Malians risked their lives to smuggle the manuscripts out of harm's way. These efforts show that Mali's characteristic history and culture remain important today. Many of these papers have are available online. You can explore them here.
More travelers wrote about their experiences.
Mansa Musa may be the most famous traveler associated with the Mali Empire. Unfortunately, he did not create a written record of his life and travels. Instead, we know about him from records written by other people and physical evidence. This doesn't decrease his influence as a ruler and traveler. It does limit what we can learn about the world he experienced.
Another traveler, known as Ibn Battuta, traveled to Mali. Unlike Mansa Musa, Ibn Battuta wrote about his travels in a book called the Rihla. You can see a copy of the Rihla here. Muslims in the medieval period encouraged each other to travel. Many Muslim travelers wrote accounts of their travels. These accounts were popular. People read them for entertainment, but also to learn. Travel memoirs helped people plan pilgrimages and learn about the world.
Ibn Battuta's travel memoir of Mali not only tells us about what it looked like in his time. Ibn Battuta also wrote down stories he heard of Sundiata and Mansa Musa. His account helped spread these stories outside of West Africa. Ibn Battuta also provided descriptions of the Trans-Saharan Trade Routes. He recorded the treatment of enslaved people on these trade routes. This information helps us understand the places he visited and the people he met.
I help ambitious students improve their skills and master the AP World History exam. Learn more here!
You may also like:
All blog posts are licensed using a CC-BY-SA 4.0 license. You are free to copy or share this information in any form. You may also adapt and build upon this material for commercial and noncommercial. If you chose to share, adapt, or use this information, you must give credit to Spring Learning Services, LLC and indicate if changes were made. All material must be shared using the same terms
This material is based on my interpretation of the AP World History Course and Exam Description and my experience working in education for the past decade. The views expressed on this page are my own. AP® and Advanced Placement® are trademarks registered and owned by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, this site.