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An essay of the kingdom of mali
An essay of the kingdom of mali
An essay of the kingdom of mali
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More handpicked essays just for you.
An essay of the kingdom of mali
An essay of the kingdom of mali
An essay of the kingdom of mali
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In Ghana there are full Mosques which were made by muslims, if you were to travel in Ghana there would be many Mosques ( Doc 5). These mosques were created due to pillarmage known as Haji. Mansa Musa who travels across the sahara desert to perform hajj will be a deadly process so he created mosques around west africa so as to be safer and easier to travel. This emphasizes how the expansion of islam across west africa brought achievements where people can safely cross the sahara desert. An artisan talks about Bronze heads and all those bronze heads were mainly made by muslim ( doc 4).
According to a document named Mansa Musa it stated One of the major trade cities of Mali
“This king is the richest and most noble lord of all of this region due to the abundance of gold which is collected in his land. ”(Mansa Musa). During the Empire of Mali, Mali was considered a site of cultural exchange thanks to all the money that they had. Cultural exchange means there was an exchange of ideas and different cultures.
According to Document 4, Mansa Musa, the emperor of the Mali empire, expanded the Mali empire to twice the size of the Ghana empire. On his hajj to Mecca, Mansa Musa stopped in Cairo, Egypt, and impressed many Egyptians. One specific Egyptian official was blown away by his generosity. “This man Mansa Musa, spread upon Cairo the flood of his generosity: there was no person, officer of the court, or holder of any office of the sultanate who did not receive a sum of gold from him.” This quote explains that people of Mali were considered to be very generous because they were willing to give away their gold, sometimes in trade for nothing.
After Columbus “discovered” the Americas, the Colombian exchange began. In this trading system, Afro-Eurasia would trade items from the Americas with their commodities. Many Europeans would go to the Americas to make money or spread their religion. One empire was the Spanish empire. They looked for valuable minerals and found silver mines in Mexico and Peru, prompting the silver trade.
In West Africa, the Niger River provided gold to West Africa. The presence of gold throughout Africa contributed to abundant wealth throughout the medieval empires. Al Bakri, an Arab scholar, showed that the Ghana Empire used gold to decorate their horses, swords, and hair(Doc 1). The use of gold as decorations demonstrates that the western empires had abundant gold that could be used for other purposes besides trading.
Also, during the Empire of Mali Mansa Musa made a pilgrimage and got a bunch of gold and gave it out to people when he was traveling.” Mali became a site of cultural exchange because Mali was a place to go where products, ideas, and technologies were shared between different
This meant there was tons of spreading of Islam, and trade. Another reason for Mali being a site of cultural exchange was its resources. Mali had a huge supply of gold and salt. Berber people would cross the Sahara, taking the salt South, and the gold North, and this was very profitable.
In addition, Foner states, “New France witnessed considerable cultural exchange and intermixing between colonial and native populations.” The relationships the French strived to create and develop led to a cultural exchange between the peoples. In truth, France may have only been kind to gain a profit, however, their relations with the Native Americans truly benefited from their kind
Mansa Musa and his wealth was one reason Mali, lead to a site of cultural exchange, but Mali also became a site of cultural exchange because of the effects of trade, which also lead to spread of knowledge, ideas, and religion. Not only did Mali become a site of cultural exchange from the effects
When compared to the exorbitant rate that Mansa Musa gave the tradesmen of Cairo it clearly indicates his massive wealth and provides testimony to the fact that he was indeed the richest man in history. Moreover, the actual rate may have been even higher as the book, Medieval West Africa, says that Mansa Musa “paid them back amply” (p.61). Many may say that Mansa Musa was wrong to give such a high rate, however, we clearly see the benefits of it from the accounts in the book given about him. Those who cam into contact with Mansa Musa praise him highly and that praise, prestige, and wealth would have been extended to his people and kingdom as well. Therefore, the kingdom of Mali would become better known around the world and start to appear on more maps.
The geography was that Europe was very far away from tropical Africa and there's was the Sahara Desert in the way which was pretty large, before Europeans were more advanced they simply couldn't travel but so far. The politics was Saharan Africa was ran by people who were Arabic Muslims. They were often enemies of the Europeans, so they did not come across the Sahara Desert anyhow.
The Ghana were able to control the route and tax people as they passed, allowing them to build up a revenue. The Ghana were often referred to as the “Land of Gold” since being extremely wealthy. The exchange of gold nuggets for protection allowed the trade of gold dust to arise since the gold nuggets themselves would be in the kingdom with the king. The Mali Empire had gold and salt mines within their empire as well, allowing them to trade with other civilizations. Gold in the empire was seen as a trade item and a source of currency, and much like the Ghana only gold dust was used in trade as the nuggets themselves would be placed in the kingdom.
Mali: Traditional and Islam under one King Many people in Mali stuck with their traditional culture while at the same time it was an Islamic Kingdom all under one king. “How is this possible?”, one might ask since the traditional culture of Mali is quite different from Islamic Culture. Mali’s seemingly culture crash works because traditional culture was separated from Islamic Culture, meaning that the people who practiced Islamic Culture weren’t necessarily in direct contact with people who practiced traditional culture. A generalization of traditional mali culture to support this is “Most people who lived in villages had traditional religious beliefs and practices”.
Culture, an assortment of human activities and principles, leads a group of people with common beliefs and values; but after it was taken away by the Europeans, all they felt was lost and with no identity. (Arowolo 2010, 4) Colonialism caused an abrupt decline of culture and tradition in the colonies because the Europeans imposed a new culture on the African’s traditional one. Due to Africa’s subjugation and it being controlled by the Europeans, Western civilization and life style began shaping the colonies. (2) One can say that European culture is characterized by a Christian worldview and individualism. (7) Consequently, imperialism caused African cultural heritage to become replaced by a prosperous European-based one.