Medieval African Kingdoms

In medieval times, many kingdoms existed in Africa. This is a list of the seven most important.

The Axum Kingdom existed between 100 to 940 A.D. It was one of the most important kingdoms in those times and controlled many lands next to and across the Red Sea. Coins minted in Axum have been found in China and India.

The Kingdom of Ghana existed between 750 and 1078 A.D and was situated in West Africa. It was famous for having lots of well-concealed gold mines and a very strong military, an Arab who visited said that the king commanded 200,000 soldiers and 40,000 archers.

The Mali Empire (West Africa) existed between 1230–1670. It was also very famous for being obscenely rich, having all those gold mines formerly belonging to Ghana and also all the salt mines you could wish for. The Mali Empire was founded by Mansa (king) Sundiata Keita. The previous king had made a really bad mistake by killing all of Sundiata's brothers, so Sundiata became strong in the Force and killed the previous king, renaming his kingdom Mali.

The Songhai Empire (1464–1591) was the most powerful at the time. Disputes had weakened the Mali Empire, so one of the states rebelled and took some of Mali's land.

The Ethiopian Empire began in 1137 and ended in 1975. They lasted a long time, and successfully repelled the Italians, Turks, and Arabs. One of their dynasties claimed that they were descended from Solomon.

The Mossi Kingdoms were situated at the Upper Volta River. They dominated and even conquered Timbuktu at one point. The Arabs tried to convert them to Islam, but they resisted and fought off all the jihads aimed at them. They lasted from the 11th century to 1896.

Benin is located in West Africa. It was another strong military power, but since then was conquered by the French and then became socialist and now is an independent country. The people living there still speak French.