Alia Whitney
September 18, 2014 The three greatest Western African trading states were Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. Starting as early as 300 ce with Ghana and ending the Songhay. The kingdom of Ghana marked the beginning of a series of empires that were involved in extensive commercial trade in West Africa. The kingdom of Ghana also known as “the land of gold”. Gold was traded for salt in Ghana which came from the Sahara desert. The kingdom of Mali includes all of Ghana. Mali was the second largest kingdom in the world. Expanding its trade in many ways was Mali which came to control the gold trade that the kingdom of Ghana had controlled before it. The kingdom of Songhay encompassed part of kingdom of Mali. The kingdom of Songhay ended when the Moroccans invaded and conquered them. The days of the great kingdoms of West Africa were over by 1600 ce.
Ghana started as a successful empire due to the resources they acquired. It was adopted by the Arabic way, which during that time was a major ideal. Arabic culture helped make the Ghana empire have dominion over its neighbors. Another fact that made Ghana powerful was their trade in goods, which consisted of copper and iron technology. In 1000 C.E. Muslims attacked Ghana, and their resources started to go down. The issue that happened was with the decrease in resources in the Ghana Empire which caused them to suffer, which then resulted with the down fall in 1203 where Kumbi took over. Mali took over later on after the Ghana