New Routes

• • Timbuktu became a center of Islanic scholarship
• • Trade allowed travelers and scholars to move around the world and exchange knowledge 
• • Ibn Battua visited Mali and was impressed by its wealth and social structure
• • Mansa Musa made the hajj to Mecca in the 1320s
  • spent so lavishly that he destabilized the egyptian economy 
  • displays of wealth helped create myths that West Africa was a land where gold grew like plants in the ground
  • europeans began exploring the west african coast due to these myths
• • Portuguese sailors in the 15th century sought a route around Africa to access the Indian Ocean trade
• • Portuguese established new sea lanes, reducing the importance of Saharan trade routes
• • large caravans continued crossing the desert until the early 20th century
• • The arrival of railroads and steamships reaching West Africa's interior further changed trade dynamics