Book contents
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Global developments
- Part II Eurasian commonalities
- Part III Growing interactions
- Part IV Expanding religious systems
- Part V State formations
- 18 State formation and empire building
- 19 State formation in China from the Sui through the Song dynasties
- 20 The Mongol Empire and inter-civilizational exchange
- 21 Byzantium
- 22 Early polities of the Western Sudan
- 23 Mesoamerican state formation in the Postclassic period
- 24 State and religion in the Inca Empire
- 25 “Proto-globalization” and “Proto-glocalizations” in the Middle Millennium
- Index
- References
22 - Early polities of the Western Sudan
from Part V - State formations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Global developments
- Part II Eurasian commonalities
- Part III Growing interactions
- Part IV Expanding religious systems
- Part V State formations
- 18 State formation and empire building
- 19 State formation in China from the Sui through the Song dynasties
- 20 The Mongol Empire and inter-civilizational exchange
- 21 Byzantium
- 22 Early polities of the Western Sudan
- 23 Mesoamerican state formation in the Postclassic period
- 24 State and religion in the Inca Empire
- 25 “Proto-globalization” and “Proto-glocalizations” in the Middle Millennium
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter examines Western Sudanic states and the role of oral traditions and recent interpretations of archaeological findings in West African history. It discusses the antiquity of both trans-Saharan trade and the trade-based polities of the Western Sudan. The first major West African state in this era was the kingdom of Wagadu/Ghana, which emerged in the Sahel, the semi-arid region between desert and savannah, from villages established during the period 500 to 700 CE. The Mande people's oral tradition, Mande Maana, which presents their own perceptions of the origins of the Mali Empire, is usually referred to outside the culture as the Sunjata Epic. By around 1300, Gao had become so prosperous that it attracted the attention of Mali's rulers and conquered by them. In the ninth to the eleventh centuries, the Kingdom of Takrur was the dominant power in the Senegal River Valley, competing for trade with Wagadu/Ghana.
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- The Cambridge World History , pp. 586 - 609Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
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