This changed in the 600s when Arab Muslims and later, Europeans became slave traders instead of it just being black slave traders.
Slavery
In the 1060s this Muslim group attacked Ghana and tried to force Islam. They weakened the Ghana empire by cutting off the trades routes.
Almoravids
These were trade cities that Mansa Musa added in Mali during his rule.
Timbuktu, Djenné, and Gao
It allowed thousands of people to read the same books and share ideas. It was invented by Gutenberg in the 1400s.
Printing Press
These are businesses in which a group of people invest together. The investors share in companies' profits and losses so it is less risky for them.
joint-stock companies
This was Songhai's greatest ruler known as Askia the Great. He was a devout Muslim. Under him Gao and Timbuktu flourished. His cities had many mosques, universities, and libraries.
Muhammad Ture
The trans Saharan slave trade
He was a Muslim king under which Mali reached it's height. He added the trade cities of Timbukto, Djenne and Gao who traded salt, gold, metals, and shells.
Mansa Musa
This is a government in which citizens vote for representatives. The US is an example.
Democratic Republic
This means "re-birth" and refers to the period in Europe that followed the Middle Ages. It began in Italy. During this time European rulers increased their power of protection and led to a period of order and stability.
The Renaissance
This is when the Soninke farmers along the Niger River banded together in defense again nomadic herders. This community grew to be known as Ghana.
AD 300
This is when the Muslim group the Almoravids attacked Ghana to force Islam.
1060s
After 300 AD these farmers along the Niger River banded together against nomadic herders and formed Ghana.
Soninke
Many ancient Greek and Roman texts which the Europeans rediscovered in the 1300s during the Renaissance dealt with this subject.
Science
This is the area that is now France. In the 480s the Franks conquered it.
Gaul
This is a pilgrimage to Mecca. Making this journey once in their lives is the spiritual duty of all Muslims.
Hajj
This is when Islam was founded by Muhammed.
600s
The first people in Ghana were farmers along here. Mali and Songhai were also located along here.
Niger River
There were warriors who fought on horseback who received land in exchange for military service.
Knights
This is an economic system that unifies and increases the power and wealth of a nation.
Mercantilism
By this time Islam would become the most practiced. religion in the West African region.
1400s
This was the name of Muhammed Ture, one of Songhai's greatest rulers. He was a devout Muslim. Gao and Timbuktu flourished under his rule.
Askia the Great
The followers of the prophet Muhammed wrote his teachings in this book.
Qur’an
He was a Greek philosopher and teacher who wrote "Republic" about an ideal society that was based on justice and fairness.
Plato
This refers to clear, ordered thinking. Aristotle taught that people should live lives based on reason.
Reason
Traditionally slavery in West Africa only involved these people. It changed in the 600s when Arab Muslims and Europeans became slave traders too.
Black Africans
This is a title of a military rank.
Askia
Feudalism
In the 1000s this was a long series of wars between European Christians and Muslims of Southwest Asia. They were a failure.
Crusades
This period (500s-1500s) came after the Roman Empire fell. By the early 500s Europe was divided into many small kingdoms.
Middle Ages
This is how long Mansa Musa ruled the Mali empire. During this time the empire reached its height.
25 years
By this time Ghana was firmly in control of West Africa's trade routes because all trade in North and South Africa passed through here.
800s
He was an Italian politician and poet who wrote in Italian, a common language (instead of Latin)
Dante Alighieri
This was the first Greek city-state to establish a democracy. (It was a direct democracy because all of the men directly participated).
Athens
He was a great Renaissance artist who was also an inventor, engineer and mapmaker.
Leonardo da Vinci
These are building for Muslim prayer. Mansa Musa of the Mali empire had many of these built.
Mosques
Sundiata
He was a Greek teacher who wanted to make people think and question their own beliefs.
Socrates
This is a form a government in which people rule themselves. The first one was in Athens.
Democracy
He was a Greek philosopher who taught that people should live lives based on reason.
Aristotle
This is when Mansa Musa of the Mali kingdom conquered the rival kingdom of the Songhai who also lived along the Niger River.
1300s
He was an Arab who founded Islam in the 600s. God spoke to him through an angel and made him a prophet.
Muhammad
He was a German man who developed a printing press that could print an entire page at one time, making books available to the masses for the first time ever.
Johannes Gutenberg
Nation States
In 1271 he traveled from Europe to China along the Silk Road and spent 20 years in Asia. He brought back stories of spices, coal, and paper money.
Marco Polo
These people lived along the Niger River. When the Mali kingdom weakened in the 1400s, the Songhai grew in strength and conquered it.
Songhai
This was a group of people from North Africa who controlled the Saharan trade routes for hundreds of years.
Berbers
The Roman Republic was created. (It wasn't a democracy.)
509 BC
These were trade associations that became an influential part of Europeans life in the Middle Ages.
Guilds
Black Death