Lance Yeager, Jon Minton, JT Miller, Ben Scott, Ryan Staats

 The Mali empire spurred first inside the Ghana Empire as a tiny, growing kingdom.  It started on the upper portion of the Niger River.  Sundjuta organized a force against the older, central part of the Ghana Empire.  Mali gained control.

 The Mali Empire retained its power for just about two centuries.  It grew to be twice the size of the Ghana Empire preceding it.  The Mali economy heavily relied on crop exports and growing.

 The Mali used camels, donkeys, horses, and the Niger River to transport goods.  The river allowed large goods and large quantities of goods to be transported easily, rather than on land.  The land was fertile in the Mali Empire area and droughts were sparse, making agriculture the most important economic item.  They had significant fields for gold mining and salt mines.

 The Mail Empire ruled from “the Atlantic coast south of the Senegal River and to the east of the middle Niger bend in Gao.”  Tribute was paid from outlying lands and small kingdoms that are pledging allegiance to the empire. Pay was in crops and weapons.  There was prominent slave use and animal domestication in the empire.  The empire was at its capstone in the 14 th century.

 Mali prospered only as long as there was strong leadership.  Sundjata established himself as a great religious and secular leader, claiming the most direct link with the spirits of the land and thus the guardian of the ancestors.  After Sundjata, most of Mali’s rulers were Muslim, some of whom made the hajj.

 The most famous haji (pilgrim to Mecca) was Mansa Musa, king of Mali and its most renowned ruler.  In 1324, Masna Musa, and the accompanying 60,000 people carrying large quantities of gold, traveled along the Niger River to Timbuktu, and then across the Sahara via the salt mines of Taghaza from oasis to oasis, to reach Cairo.  He then Went to Medina.

 Mansa Musa, with his 500 slaves and 100 camels carrying gold, caused a sensation.  In Cairo, the value of their gold coin was depressed for a decade due to Musa’s generosity in giving away gold.  As word of Musa’s wealth spread to Europe, cartographers began to include Mali on maps of Africa.

 Mansa Musa was an exceptionally wise and efficient ruler.  He divided the empire into provinces, each with its own governor, and towns that were administered by a mochrif, or mayor.  A huge army kept the peace by stopping rebellions in the smaller kingdoms bordering the central part of the empire, and policing the many trade routes.

 Mansa Musa began incorporating achievements of the Islamic civilization into Mali.  Timbuktu, Mali’s capital, became a diverse center of learning, luxury, and trade.  The language of learning then began to shift toward Arabic.

 The empire depended on the personal power of the ruler.  By 1500, the empire was down to almost nothing from constant outside attacks.  The Songhai Empire became the new center of power after the Mali destruction.