Kingdom1464 CE – 1591 CEAfrica

Kingdom of Songhai

The Songhai Empire succeeded Mali as the largest empire in West African history, controlling trans-Saharan trade routes and making Timbuktu's Sankore University a renowned center of Islamic scholarship.

Key Figures

Sunni Ali Askia Mohammad I Ahmad al-Mansur Ahmad Baba

Preceding Causes

Sunni Ali Ber captured Timbuktu (1468) and Djenné (1473) from declining Mali and Tuareg control, using a powerful river navy on the Niger to build a centralized military state.

Kingdom1235 CE

Kingdom of Mali

The Mali Empire was one of the largest and wealthiest empires in West African history, famed for Mansa Musa, whose 1324 hajj to Mecca distributed so much gold that it reportedly depressed gold prices across the Mediterranean for years.

Cause-Effect Graph

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