Africa Empire
By: Luke Schmidt and Triet Nguyen
Essential Question
How does religion affect an empire economy ?
The Mali Empire
Mali was the ruler of the western African empires which eventually become the largest and richest empire in Africa . When Mansa Musa took over the throne as king of the Mali empire , the empire reached it peak of prosperity. After Mansa become king he divide the empire into provinces and choose a governor to be in charge of each one . Furthermore Mansa cared about his people and does not turn his back against them , he make sure that the local government were working effectively which help the state Mali to become rich .
Because of The empire welcoming like nature , trader would always stopped at Mali because they knew that Mali would always welcome them . This allow Mali to become a good trading spot .
Economy Condition
There economic conditions were based on trade. They would trade metals, stones, and clay. There geography help them, because they lived on a land that provided them the metals. that other empires needed.
Religion
Leading by Islamic belief Mansa Musa begin to spread Islam belief more into Africa , by making his government a central government and brough pilgrimage to Africa and Makkah . Thousand of servants and soldiers joined Mansa on this journey . Everywhere Mansa Musa goes he would give gold as gift to his host and pay other in gold . When he died , his pilmgrage left a big impact on the Africa people.
Eastern trading regions on the Swahili coast
The Swahili traders made the region into an indian ocean trading network.they were important traders with the african empire , they brought potter and indian fabric to Africa.
Blend of Islam and traditional religion
The African empire beleive In common ideas of other religion and are monotheistic which mean they only beleived in a single God .There were people who were call dividers , the diviner are people that are able to see into the future . Ritual ceremonies were also use inorder to dedicated to their ancestor , as they believe that the ancestor were closer to God than they were . After Ghana , Mali and Songhai become states , Islam spread to Africa from trade. Merchants would introduce Muslim beliefs to east Africa and Islamic religion belief play a big role on the politic in Africa .
Overtime the islam beliefs and custom started to mix in with African tradition and belief , creating AfricaIslam . The African people however would still lie about being Islam inorder to trade with merchant and would go home and practice African religion .
Critical Question
What might happen if the Mali empire were to rule by another emperor and it religion were to change how would that affect the empire economy ?