Ancient and Medieval Gold Trade in West Africa

did you know that the Garner king would automatically keep any gold nugget extracted that weighed between 25 G and half a [Music] kilo hello and welcome to world history encyclopedia my name is Kelly and today's video is all about the lucrative gold trade of ancient and medieval West Africa World History encyclopedia is a nonprofit organization and you can find us on patreon a brilliant site where you can support our work and receive exclusive benefits in return your support helps us create videos twice a week so make sure to check it out at worldhistory toorgle being the carthaginian Explorer Hano who sailed out of the Mediterranean Ian in the 5th Century BCE and not only stopped off at the mouth of the senagal river but may have traveled as far as the Bay of Guinea other Men followed in hano's footsteps and eventually a commercial relationship was established with the locals this was the very beginning of the movement of gold from West Africa to the ancient Mediterranean cultures Herodotus in his histories written in the 5th Century BCE described the silent and cautious methods of trade and bartering perhaps due to fear or just the language barrier between the peoples the Romans were also interested in trading for West African gold and they employed traders to exchange olive oil fine pottery and luxury goods for gold Ivory Ebony and exotic animals that were put to work in Roman amphitheaters and circuses the Roman province of tripolitania in modern day Libya became a particularly successful trade Center during this time but it wasn't really until the 8th Century CE that trans Saharan trade really took off and that was because of two things the arrival of the North African Islamic caliphates and the Hardy camel gold during the medieval period was in high demand by the Islamic North African empires for both manufactured goods like jewelry and vessels as well as for coinage to pay armies and much of the gold was needed to pay the growing numbers of Spanish Italian and other European Merchants trading in the southern Mediterranean the issue was for the North African states to acquire the gold they had to cross the Sahara and deal with the African rulers who had a monopoly over the trade of gold the sanhaja berbers controlled camel Caravans for traveling the dangerous and inhospitable Sahara to acquire gold from Africa's interior and they did this with great success during the peak of gold trade 2third of the gold moving around the medieval Mediterranean came from West Africa the Ghana Empire was the first of the subsaharan states in West Africa to gain attention from The Wider Mediterranean world for its gold and was given the nickname of the land of gold the raw material was found in aluvial deposits and from mine shafts typically only a couple of meters deep but the metal was not refined although high in Purity and so it was melted down and cast into bars to make its transport easier gold was in high demand and it was most commonly traded for salt salt was so sought after for meat preservation and to add to food for flavor that it became literally worth its weight in gold being traded pound for pound although there is no evidence for the passage of gold being taxed by the Kingdom of Ghana the metal was very closely monitored by the Ghana Kings any nugget of gold that weighed between 25 G and half a kilo immediately became the king's property and he added it to his great gold nugget stockpile kept in the palace complex this was probably a strategy to avoid following the market with the materials and so to maintain the value of gold dust gold in large chunks was also associated with magic and since the King was regarded as the Supreme Magician of the indigenous African religion this was another reason for the king to keep the larger pieces the king monopolizing all of the substantial nuggets meant that gold was more often than not traded in the form of dust between Traders and the people of the Ghana Kingdom after the Ghana Kingdom came the Mali Empire that gained access to new gold fields on the black VTA and in the aan forest and they became even wealthier than their predecessors Marley probably exacted gold as tribute from the southern states that had access to the gold rather than controlling the regions directly the most famous ruler of the Mali was Mansa Musa I first who while on a pilgrimage to Mecca spent and gave away so much of his gold during a stop off in Cairo that the value of the gold dinar in the city crashed by 20% it took 12 years for the flooded gold market to recover it's not all that surprising then that despite keeping the exact source of his gold a closely guarded secret mansam Musa I became known far and wide as the richest man in the world an honorific challenged by modern-day Scholars after timb 2 was taken by Musa stories grew of the fabled city that was paved with gold in the heart of Africa and these Tales tantalized explorers and adventurers for the next four centuries after the Marley came the sonai Empire who followed in the footsteps of their wealthy predecessors they continued to trade subsaharan Commodities and extracted tribute from tribes they had conquered and eventually established the largest and richest Empire that had yet been seen in West Africa all all did not go well for the sunai Empire though in 1471 CE a Portuguese Fleet sailed around the Atlantic coast of Africa and near the goldfields of Southern West Africa they established a trading presence in addition to the Portuguese setting up shop other kingdoms arose to compete with the sonai for a share in the gold trade including the bouru Empire housand and the kingdom of Benin the Portuguese ships regularly sailed down the coast of Africa and it offered the people of West Africa a middl manfree alternative to the trans Saharan Caravan routes the Portuguese were also pretty Keen to get their hands on gold since they needed it to pay Asian Merchants who weren't all that interested in exchanging goods in kind there was still plenty of gold moving through the sonai Empire and into North Africa but the African Monopoly over the gold trade had officially come to an end gold was continuously exploited after the medieval period but the gold of West Africa eventually became dwarfed by the gold extracted from the Inca and Aztec civilizations in particular upon European expansion into the Americas when you think of gold who in history or mythology do you think of is it mansam Musa let us know in the comments below if you enjoyed this video make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel so you don't miss out on any of our new uploads published every single week this video was brought to you by world history encyclopedia for more great articles and interactive content head to our website via the link below if you like my sweater you can find this design and a bunch more in our shop at worldhistory dosto or you can find a link for it down below thank you so much 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