Geography
Where is the Sand Trade Route?
The Sahara Desert
Which animal was given the nickname "Ships of the Desert"
Camels
Which merchant famously traveled to Asia and wrote about it?
Marco Polo
What materials were exchanged or traded on the Sand Trade Routes?
Gold, salt, textiles, kola nuts, horses, manuscripts, and enslaved people
Did the Songhai Empire have centralized or decentralized power?
Centralized
What is trans Saharan trade?
A major international trade route that fostered new relationships among distant peoples.
What was a development that enabled long-distance trade routes across the Sahara?
The Camel
What people who live in Ghana became significant players in this trade, particularly after discovering abundant goldfields?
The Akans
What was something essential for the trans- Saharan trade?
Pastorialists
What is the city of Timbuktu known for?
The University of Sankore and ground for trade and knowledge
How large is the trade route?
This material created unprecedented wealth in West African cities
Gold-salt exchange
Who was the conqueror of the Mali Empire, net worth = 400 billion USD today?
Mansa Musa
What drove the trade along the Sahara?
Gold of West Africa and salt of the Sahara
These three cities dominated the southern terminus by the 13th and 14th centuries
Timbuktu, Gao, and Djenne
Why were the roads significant?
They connected interior West Africa with North Africa and the Mediterranean world, driving independent growth, urbanization, and the spread of Islam.
What ideas spread as a result of this trade network?
Islam, political structures, and urbanization
Which founder of the Mali empire laid the foundation for Mali's future prosperity?
Sundiata
What challenges did the trans saharan trade route face?
Competition from European traders and the rush for precious metals from the Americas
Which empire set up permanent settlements in the oases for successful trade in the sand road?
The Songhai Empire
Was the trans sharan route a single trade route?
No, it was a complex web of caravan paths, oasis stations, and trading cities that funneled West African gold northward while channeling North African salt southward.
Among which people did Islam largely take root?
Urban elites, kings, and long-distance merchants.
Which scholar wrote about his findings and provided historical accounts for societies he encountered during his travels along the trans-Saharan routes?
Ibn Battuta
Which merchants from North Africa traded with West African merchants?
Berber merchants
This city valued salt so much that they traded it for its equal weight in gold.
Djenné