Reordering of the West African Sahel Region

Timeline

1. 1610–1615Timbuktu · MaliAround 1610, the Arma group, descendants of the Moroccan expeditionary force, effectively controlled Timbuktu; nominally still submitting to the Saadi sultans, they in fact governed the city and surrounding oases autonomously. The Islamic scholarly tradition continued amid the turmoil, but political unity could never return to the Songhai era.
2. 1615–1619Niger bend and Senegal River basin · SahelAfter 1615, Bamana, Fulani, and other groups established or consolidated local polities in the southern Sahel, challenging the Arma and residual Moroccan influence. Part of the trans-Saharan routes shifted south or were rerouted, and the salt-gold-slave trade was redistributed among multiple political centers, forming a new regional order of 'coexisting states' in 17th-century West Africa.