Songhai Empire's Expansion in the 1470s

Timeline

1. 1471–1474Middle Niger River · West AfricaSonni Ali, based in Gao, combined cavalry raids with riverboat blockades to gradually conquer the tribes and city-states of the Niger bend. Military victories in the early 1470s gave Songhai control of key waterways and fishing-salt resources, cutting off the remnants of old Malian influence in the middle-river corridor.
2. 1468–1476Timbuktu · MaliAfter Sonni Ali captured Timbuktu, he gradually incorporated it into the imperial administrative system during the 1470s, controlling north-south caravan tariffs and the book trade. Timbuktu's Islamic scholars and merchant class continued to operate under Songhai rule, quickly giving the empire the status of the Sahel's cultural-economic hub in place of the weakening Mali Empire.
3. 1475–1480Djenné · MaliIn the later 1470s Songhai forces pressed south along the Niger, and downstream cities such as Djenné gradually submitted or allied. By 1480 Songhai's territory reached the Mauritanian salt routes in the west, controlled the middle Niger in the east, and extended south to Djenné, forming the prototype of West Africa's largest empire and laying the foundation for Askia Muhammad's reformist zenith in the 16th century.