Songhai Empire: The Fall of Africas Greatest Empire

today we'll be covering a fascinating topic but before we do that how would you like to get a deeper understanding of history impress your friends and predict the future more accurately based on past events if this sounds like something you might be into then check out the brand new captivating history booklet by clicking the first link in the description let's get into the video the mali empire is renowned worldwide and most people have heard of their most famous and wealthy ruler mansa musa but when the mali empire fell in the 1460s a new power began to rise the songhai empire the songhai people established themselves around 800 ce before the mali empire was founded they settled both banks around the middle of the niger river and centered their community around the city of gao gao became their capital in the 11th century under the reign of dia kasoy the first dia or king to be recorded in history dia kasoy converted the song high to islam in 1010 ce although historians theorize that this religious conversion was to aid relations with berber traders this speculation is based on evidence that non-muslim customs were still prominent in dia kasoy's court after his commitment to islam after kasoy died the songhai expanded their capital and cemented their control of the trans-saharan trade route the songhai prospered and grew to such an extent that they caught the eye of the mali empire in 1325 when mansa musa led campaigns to take control of gao and the song hides trade access ultimately the songhai empire proved too large for the mali empire to govern effectively in 1335 the lion of dia rulers ended and was replaced by the sunni or she the death of mansa musa in 1337 led to the decline in the influence of the mali empire which soon fell into civil wars in the 1430s songhai gained independence from mali in 1464 ce sunni ali came to power the high had expanded slowly up to this point with small and sporadic raids on their enemies sunni ali orchestrated a more organized campaign with the purpose of permanent expansion of the songhai territory his skills as a military leader and tactician united the songhai and successfully protected their empire against invasions from the tuareg in the north and the masihi in the south sunni ali masterminded the army's reorganization adding a fleet on the niger river to supplement the ground forces the land army included an elite cavalry who wore iron breastplates under their tunics and had a reputation for being fast and fearless foot soldiers were equipped with bows and arrows spears and shields made of either copper or leather they captured the best men from their defeated enemy forces who were then invited to join the songhai army the songhai army was the largest in western sudan totaling 30 000 infantry and ten thousand horsemen they used strength and speed to overwhelm their enemies quickly conquering the surrounding territories sunni ali also used brutality to cement his rule executing many subjects of the fulby tribe who were particularly resistant to his rule the army brought songhai great economic wealth with the trade points it captured but it also brought in literal wealth by plundering those they overthrew sunni ali supported the expansion of the song high with political marriages strategic hostages and control over the conquered tribes in the form of extracting tribute under sunni ali the songhai empire prospered becoming wealthy through successful military campaigns and control of trade routes in 1468 suny ali conquered timbuktu which was well known in the ancient world as an important trade point and center for learning its position on the niger river made timbuktu a valuable river port suny ali continued the empire's expansion taking another popular trade point jeni in 1473 and dominating the lake areas of the middle niger a region west of timbuktu he continued to repel the maasai successfully defending walata in 1480 sunni ali reigned for 28 years and waged 32 wars winning every one however he was not solely concerned with warfare and did also improve the infrastructure by building many dikes to enhance irrigation and agricultural output by this time the songhai had conquered most of the mali kingdom becoming the largest empire in west africa sunya lee used his image as a magician of the local pagan religions to inspire fear in his enemies however throughout his reign he sought to appease the muslim city dwellers whose wealth and knowledge greatly enhanced the empire as well as the pagan cattle farmers despite trying to please all the religious factions sunni ali only managed to alienate himself from them the songhai farmers felt he should prioritize the pagan religions of his people and the muslim scholars thought of him as tyrannical cruel and impious after sunni ali died in 1492 his son baru succeeded him beru sided with the pastoralists which upset the muslim scholars as a result he was deposed by muhammad ibn abi baker turay muhammad may have descended from a senegalese family that settled in gao oral traditions hold that he was sunni ali's nephew his sister's son and a supernatural being called ajini in april 1493 muhammad and his forces defeated baru at the battle of anfao muhammad changed the title of sunni to askia supposedly to ridicule the daughters of the sunni who had said asi tin he will not be unlike his war-like predecessor sunni ali muhammad was more of a statesman he divided the songhai empire into provinces that were each overseen by a governor he also created many official governmental positions most of which his friends and family filled the new line of eskia royalty was based in gao and assumed absolute power and they wanted to show it in every way they could askia muhammad sat on a platform surrounded by 700 eunuchs and only allowed people to approach him in a prostrated position unlike previous songhai rulers who used some muslim traditions to gain traction with traders and city dwellers muhammad attempted to convert the songhai to an islamic state he established islam as the official religion of the nobles but most of the rural songhai people kept their traditional beliefs most songhai followed animist beliefs that everything in the natural world has a spirit especially caves trees and prominent natural features to the songhai the most important spirits to appease were haraki dico a spirit of the niger river and dongo a spirit of thunderstorms it is not surprising that the songhai revered these natural phenomena as river trade and rain were essential to their livelihoods around this time the songhai empire was at its peak due to the 200 000 strong army stationed in the provinces safe economic trade existed throughout the empire taxes were collected to ensure security for those under the song high both inside and outside their territory the songhai achieved domination over trans-saharan trade which solidified its influence and power in the region the government was centralized by creating an elaborate bureaucracy and standardizing the weights and measures ensured the homogeny of the songhai culture the financial stability of the songhai empire was due to the gold fields of the niger river which provided a steady stream of gold these fields were kept out of the hands of suni ali by the portuguese who established a trading post in modern day ghana this gold was then bartered for salt a precious commodity in west africa that was sometimes literally worth its weight in gold as songhai dominated the trade in salt and gold it became the clear leader of the trans-saharan trade system the songhai didn't just trade in gold and salt and gao became a cosmopolitan market town in which goods were exchanged copper arms glassware horses cloth sugar and salt were exchanged for ivory spices cola nuts fragrant woods palm oil and enslaved people enslaved people had a key role in the songhai kingdom the songhai nobles used forced laborers on their large estates to farm fish and raise animals for milk meat and skins village farms often had enslaved workers to help keep up food production for the growing populace some song high rulers used enslaved people as royal advisors as their guidance was seen as unbiased since they could not personally benefit from the decisions being made other palace slaves were craftspeople and musicians under iskia muhammad slaves were also soldiers as they were trusted not to rise up against their rulers despite the many successes of his reign muhammad ended his reign in bittered and half blind and in 1528 he was deposed by his eldest son musa and banished his children quarreled over power during the next decade until another of the muhammad's sons and his third successor ascia ismail invited him back to gao in 1537 the next year muhammad died and was buried in a tomb in gao this tomb still stands and has been classed as having outstanding universal value by unesco ismail only ruled for one year before askia issahawk succeeded him these dynastic squabbles were briefly interluded by a peaceful and prosperous period under the rule of ascia dawood in 1549 however the detrimental effect of the ineffectual and power-hungry rulers had already started causing the vast songhai empire to shrink gradually the edges of the kingdom especially in the west began to shake off songhai control morocco started to gain power and set its sights on the riches of the songhai empire after eskia de wood's reign ended in 1582 the moroccan leader sultan ahmad al-mansour initiated raids on the salt deposits of tegaza in a few short years the moroccan campaign would bring the empire to its knees in 1586 a rivalry between muhammad iv bono and his brothers essentially split the empire in half but it wasn't just dynastic conflict that put an end to this once mighty kingdom as with many indigenous empires during the 16th century advances in weaponry were the ultimate cause of the fall of the songhai empire around 1590 ahmad al-mansour of morocco the self-proclaimed golden conqueror sent a small force of approximately 4 500 men to attack the songhai the songhai army of roughly 9 700 infantry and 12 500 cavalry greatly outnumbered the moroccan forces but the moroccans were not armed with spears and arrows as the songhai were the smaller moroccan force easily defeated the massive songhai army with superior firearms despite a few ineffectual songhai uprisings all of the songhai's wealth and trade assets were seized and songhai became part of the moroccan territory just like that the largest empire in western africa collapsed weakened by rulers who only sought the power of the position and not the responsibility the final blow came in the form of gunpowder but as the empire collapsed the songhai people persevered nowadays around 3 million members of the songhai still inhabit the area around the great bend in the niger river their territory extends from the mouth of the sokoto river in nigeria to lake debo in central mali nomadic songhai groups also live in southeast algeria niger and mali the songhai encompasses many related groups including the zarma with over 2 million speakers the songhai still engaged in small-scale cattle farming fishing and cultivating crops including cereals however many young songhai are now leaving the traditional lifestyle and moving to areas like ghana on the coast at its largest the songhai empire extended to the atlantic coast and into niger and nigeria making it the largest of the three west african empires with mali and ghana following respectively to learn more about the songhai empire check out our book the songhai empire a captivating guide to one of the largest states of medieval west africa it's available as an e-book paperback and audiobook also grab your free mythology bundle ebook while it's still available all links are in the description if you enjoyed the video please hit the like button and subscribe for more videos like this

Channel: Captivating History

Views: 46,690

Keywords: Songhai Empire, Songhai, Songhai History, History of Songhai Empire, fall of songhai empire, History of Africa, African History, Songhai greatest empire, Mali Empire, Mansa Musa, Songhai people, People of Songhai, Niger River, Gao, king of songhai empire, Islam, Songhai people religion, non-Muslim, trade route, Songhai independence, Songhai territory, military leader, Songhai army, Sunni Ali, Timbuktu, Djenne, Massai, Mali kingdom, West Africa, History of West Africa

Id: mj72g6b63Lc

Length: 13min 9sec (789 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 07 2022