The Rise and Fall of Ghana

Ghana was a civilization that rises during the 6th century. Ghana is located in modern day western Sudan and the Savannah region. It was located near the Niger river which provided in lots of rich soil that was great for agriculture; however it was only good for the first 6,500 years the empire has risen. Crops such as red-skinned African rice, tuber, roots crops, oils, fiber plants, and fruits were well flourished in their agriculture. Not only that, they were luckily located near irons banks, and gold mines which helped them become rich and trade for valuable items.

One of the greatest accomplishments of their empire was that they flourished in trade; they were able to trade across northern Africa due to the domestication of camels in 300 CE. They were located near many gold mines and iron and salt banks so they were easily able to obtain the treasures. Which these, they were able to become rich easily. Not only that, they were the first united western African empire to become successful in a civilization. They were able to built many small cities, and the leaders of the empire converted to Islam (since they often traded with Muslims in the area) which impacted the religion all across Africa.

The Ghana Empire was not only located near the Niger River, but also surrounded by a dry environment. Most of the empire lied within very dry environment which became a problem over time agriculturally (affected crop growth). Even though the citizens of the Ghana Empire good farmers, the issue was that the Empire itself was relatively small. The population of the empire was dense for the location (around 30 million people). This ended up them having no space for the resources, leaving it to rot and decay.

Around 1076 CE, the Ghana Empire started to collapse. During that time, the Almoravid of Northern Africa attacked the Ghana Empire due to trade issues by the Saharan commercial center. After this attack, they had a hard time struggling to recover what happened. Not only that, they had a long period of time where they lived in very dry, and hot conditions which dramatically affected the agriculture growths and lack of food in the empire. It wasn't until the Kingdom of Sosso attacked and in the end, destroyed the Ghana Empire. However, the Kingdom of Sosso didn't last long as the king was defeated by Sundiata Keita who then seize the old capital of the Ghana Empire in 1240 CE. He then founded the Mali empire which that allowed the Ghana Empire to merge with it.