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Mauritania
Index
Although the Almoravids had substantial contacts with the
Maghrib, influences from the black Sudanic kingdoms of Ghana,
Mali, and Songhai played an important role in Mauritania's
history for about 700 years--from the eighth to the fifteenth
century. Ghana, the first of the great West African Sudanic
kingdoms, included in its territory all of southeastern
Mauritania extending to Tagant. Ghana reached its apogee in the
ninth and tenth centuries with the extension of its rule over the
Sanhadja Berbers. This large and centralized kingdom controlled
the southern terminus of the trans-Saharan trade in gold, ivory,
and salt.
The capture of Koumbi Saleh in 1076 by the Almoravids marked
the end of Ghana's hegemony, although the kingdom continued to
exist for another 125 years. The Mandé, under the leadership of
the legendary Sundiata, founded the second great Sudanic kingdom,
Mali. By the end of the thirteenth century, the Mali Empire
extended over that part of Mauritania previously controlled by
Ghana, as well as over the remaining
Sahelian (see Glossary)
regions and the Senegal River Valley. Sundiata and his successors
took over Ghana's role in the Saharan trade and in the
administration and collection of tribute from vast stretches of
the Sudan and the Sahel.
The slow decline of the Mali Empire that started at the end
of the fourteenth century came about through internal discord and
revolts by the inhabitants of vassal states, including the
Songhai of Gao. By the end of the fifteenth century, the Songhai
Empire had replaced the Mali Empire and extended to Mauritania
and the upper Senegal River Valley. At the end of the sixteenth
century, a large Moroccan force defeated the Songhai, bringing to
an end the seven centuries of domination of the western Sudan
(and a large part of Mauritania) by strong, centralized black
kingdoms.
Data as of June 1988
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