What did West Africa trade?
What did they trade? The main items traded were gold and salt. The gold mines of West Africa provided great wealth to West African Empires such as Ghana and Mali. Other items that were commonly traded included ivory, kola nuts, cloth, slaves, metal goods, and beads.
What is the main trading market of West Africa?
The EU
What are the top trade goods in Western Africa?
Cocoa and cocoa food preparations (5% of exports) , precious stones (3%) and secondarily cotton , edible fruit, rubber , plastics , wood and wood products , fish and shellfish (about 1% each), form together with fuel , the major export products of the West African Economic Community.
How did trade affect the West African states?
Over time, the slave trade became even more important to the West African economy. Kings traded slaves for valuable good, such as horses from the Middle East and textiles and weapons from Europe. The transSaharan slave trade contributed to the power of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.
How did the introduction of the camel impact trade in West Africa?
How did the introduction of camels influence trade in ancient Africa? Camels enables traders to travel further and faster so they traded for goods from Northern Africa, Europe, and Asia. They could then control trade between Northern and Southern Africa, and charges traders taxes of gold nuggets to go through.
What is the connection with trade between North Africa and West Africa?
The West Africans exchanged their local products like gold, ivory, salt and cloth, for North African goods such as horses, books, swords and chain mail. This trade (called the trans-Saharan trade because it crossed the Sahara desert) also included slaves.
Which product of West Africa was most important in the trade across the Sahara?
When Mossi raids destroyed the Mali empire, the rising Songhai empire relied on the same resources. Gold remained the principal product in the trans-Saharan trade, followed by kola nuts and slaves.
What is the name of the first African trading empire?
Ghana, first of the great medieval trading empires of western Africa (fl. 7th–13th century). It was situated between the Sahara and the headwaters of the Sénégal and Niger rivers, in an area that now comprises southeastern Mauritania and part of Mali.
What was considered the most important item of African trade?
What did Europeans consider to be the most important item of African trade during the 1500s and 1600s? restricted foreign trade.
How did the spread of Islam in the 600s contribute to the growth of trade in West Africa?
introduction of camels. How did the spread of Islam in the 600s contribute to the growth of trade? Muslims became merchants in West African towns. People who lived in the southern forests had to trade to get which essential product?
Who first converted to Islam in West Africa?
First, Islam spread into the regions West of the Niger Bend (Senegambia, Mali), then into Chad region and finally into Hausaland. According to some Arabic sources the first Black ruler to embrace Islam was the King of Gao who had done so by 1009.
How did the Niger River encourage trade?
How did the Niger River encourage trade? It was a source of food. It was a transportation route. Its annual floods provided rich soil.
What is the history and impact of Islam in Africa?
Islam’s history on the African continent is rich, more than a millenium of expansion, scholarship, conquest, empire and theological development. The historial impact of Islam upon trade, particularly in West Africa, greatly increased the wealth of African people and helped form many great African empires.