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Decline of the Songhai Empire

Decline

The Songhai Empire began to shrink around the edges, especially in the west, from the last quarter of the 16th century CE. This was largely due to a string of ineffectual leaders and civil wars for the right of succession which had blighted the empire ever since the death of King Mohammad in 1528 CE. One particular rivalry, between Mohammad IV Bano (r. from 1586 CE) and his brothers, effectively divided the empire in half. Then the final deathblow was swift. The Moroccan leader Ahmad al-Mansur al-Dhahabi (d. 1603 CE), known rather grandly as ‘the Golden Conqueror’, sent a small force of perhaps 4,000 men armed with muskets to attack the empire in the 1590-1 CE. The Songhai army numbered some 30,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, but their weapons were mere spears and arrows. As a result of this technological mismatch, the Moroccans won the war, even if there were a few sporadic but ineffectual Songhai fightbacks over the next few years. The Songhai treasury was seized and the empire, including Timbuktu, was absorbed into that of the Moroccans, becoming a province therein. The Songhai Empire, West Africa’s largest ever, had simply crumbled from within and evaporated. It would be the last of the great empires that had dominated West Africa since the 6th century CE.

DMU Timestamp: May 11, 2020 21:16





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