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Ghana Empire Gold Trade System
The West African Ghana Empire (Wagadou) built a transregional trade system centered on controlling gold-producing areas, taxing merchants, and monopo…
Timeline
- c. 300–800Gold-producing zone south of Gao · SahelSoninke clans gradually unified and controlled southern gold mining, using force and diplomacy to ensure gold transited through the imperial capital without revealing the location of the mines to outsiders.
- c. 800–1100Kumbi Saleh · MauritaniaThe empire levied caravan transit taxes and used a gold-weighing trade system; the capital Kumbi Saleh became a trading center where Muslim merchants and local rulers met, with gold carried north as gold dust or nuggets.
- c. 1100–1200Niger River bend · MaliAlmoravid invasions and the rise of the Sosso Kingdom weakened Ghana's hegemony; the gold trade system was inherited and expanded by the Mali Empire, and the Ghana Empire ended as an independent political entity.
Sources
- al-Bakri, Description of Northern Africa (c. 1068 CE) — al-Bakri (1068)
- Conrad, D.C. & Fisher, H.L. The Discovery of a West African Empire — David C. Conrad; Humphrey J. Fisher (1982)