2.4 - The Trans-Saharan Trade Network

• Trans-Saharan Trade Network


  Series of trade routes that connected North Africa and the Mediterranean world with interior West Africa and to some degree the rest of sub-Saharan Africa
• Trans-Saharan Trade Network began expanding


  Around 1200
• Causes of expansion of Trans-Saharan Trade Network


  • Innovations in transportation technology
  • Introduction of the Arabian camel about a thousand years before the period
  • Use of camel saddles for riding and carrying bigger loads
  • Establishment of caravanserais (rest stops) along the routes
• Goods traded in the Trans-Saharan Trade Network


  • Gold
  • Cola nuts
  • Horses
  • Salt
• Specialization of goods


  Different regions exported different goods, creating demand for trade
• Empire of Mali


  • Powerful state that grew wealthy from participating in the Trans-Saharan Trade Network
  • Gained wealth by taxing merchants traveling through its territory
• Mali converted to Islam


  Became connected to the economic trade partnerships throughout Dar al-Islam
• Mansa Musa, the most powerful and influential ruler of Mali, embarked on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) with a giant entourage and injected so much gold into the Egyptian economy that the value of all existing gold plummeted
• Mansa Musa's monopolization of trade between the North and the interior of the continent


  Increased the wealth of Mali and facilitated the growth of existing trade networks