Sundiata And Mansa Musa Essay

Rulers, Most Important people, and How the Empire Rose and Fell There were two main rulers in the history of the Empire of Mali, Sundiata and Mansa Musa. The rise of Mali began under Sundiata’s rule. He was a mighty warrior and an impressive magician. With his great army he took over the salt and gold mines which then helped his empire thrive even more. Sundiata worked to improve agriculture and farming within the empire. For example, he cleared brand new land for beans, onions, and rice crops. He even introduced a new crop, cotton. The people evaluated cottons value and found that it was very useful, so they started selling it to other people. Sundiata took local leaders powers away and gave the responsibilities to himself. By

This made farming and harvesting go a lot faster. The next great ruler was Mansa Musa; he was Mali’s greatest ruler. Mansa Musa help[ spread Islam greatly in the empire and outside the empire. For example, in 1324 Mansa Musa went on a pilgrimage to Mecca. His first stop was Cairo, Egypt where he arrived with 100 camels each carried 300 pounds of gold. Mansa Musa had 60,00 workers traveling with him. In Egypt he gave out free gold to everyone, and he gave out so much gold that gold wasn’t rare in Egypt for 10 years later. He also helped Mali grow by capturing important trade cities like Djenne, Gao, and Timbuktu. Mansa Musa made such a great impression on people about Mali that Mali became famous throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. Unfortunately, after Mansa Musa died his son, Maghan, took the throne. Maghan was a very weak ruler. When intruders attacked Mali he couldn’t stop them which is one of the reasons Mali fell. Another reason was Mali’s size and population. For example, Mali grew so big to the point where the government couldn’t handle it. The city of Gao announced its independence in the 1400s like many other parts of the empire that broke

For example, the Niger river was one of the main resources that people used. They used it to grow crops around the river because of its fertile soil. The people of Mali also used it to fish and sometimes even for drinking water. If you lived in Mali you would trade salt, gold, and cotton. Some people in Mali worked on crops everyday and were growing things like beans, onions, and rice. Most of the strong fighting men joined the army and helped gain land for the empire. In Mali if you were a blacksmith or a basket weaver you would be the most valued person in