Mansa Musa: Empire Building, Succession, Alliances, and Technology
In 1375, celebrated Jewish mapmaker Elisha ben Abraham Creques created a mapped visualization of what he perceived as the known world. “Measuring nearly ten feet in width and spread across six parchments,” this beautifully detailed map depicted rulers, prophets, and foreign lands; however, at the map’s center was the illustration of a great African king known for his wealth and power, the image was of Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire.
Mansa Musa, the 14th-century African King of the Mali Empire, was the wealthiest man in history. During his 25-year reign from 1312 to 1337, Mansa Musa was worth over $400 billion, making him more prosperous than Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates combined. In addition, Mansa Musa successfully expanded education, foreign trade, and infrastructure development programs, taking an already mighty empire to its zenith in the 14th century. A brilliant military tactician, politician, and strategist, his kingdom surpassed any in Europe and was known for its abundant gold resources and a large, well-trained military. Nevertheless, Mansa Musa understood for Mali to become a strong empire, he had to sustain a strong military, grow the economy and educate his citizens. He also used Islam to create social cohesion and identity, executing the primary pillars of nation-building. So what can we learn from Mansa Musa’s rise and the decline of Mali?
During the 14th century, Europe suffered from the Hundred Years’ War, The Crusades, feudalism, The Black Plague, and invasions from the Mongols and Ottoman Turks. Though it would experience a renaissance towards the end of the century, Europe was not the place to be. The Mali, Ming, Mongol, Ottoman, and Tumirid Empires were the global leaders in military, economic, and cultural influence in the 14th century. Mali derived much of its wealth from having control of the trans-Saharan trade routes, where its military conducted patrols to protect the routes from bandits, ensuring trade and diplomacy. In addition, the Mali Empire constructed fortifications, such as walls and fortresses, to defend its cities. These fortifications served as defensive strongholds and provided a line of defense against invading forces. Therefore, it’s important to understand Mali’s military strength in the 14th century, as it enabled the empire to thrive for three centuries. During Mansa Musa’s reign, the Mali military stood at over 100,000, consisting of professional soldiers and conscripts. The Mali Empire’s cavalry was renowned for their skilled mounted warfare, providing mobility, speed, and tactical advantages. The empire also had a well-trained infantry, archers, and a well-organized military hierarchy. Mansa Musa relied on this military to protect the trade routes, massive amounts of salt and gold production, political stability, territory, and influence over a vast swath of West Africa, including the Songhai, Gao, and Timbuktu kingdoms.
But beyond his immense wealth and military prowess, Mansa Musa invested heavily in education. He established Timbuktu as a renowned center of learning where students traveled from the Middle East, North and Sub-saharan Africa, Asia, and Europe to learn Islamic studies, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, pharmacology, literature, poetry, history, and geography. In addition, the growth of Timbuktu made it a vibrant literary scene, and the city was known for its poets, writers, and storytellers. However, Mansa Musa was not content with being a West African power and wanted to put his empire on the world stage. So in 1324, along with 60,000 armor-clad soldiers on horses and camels, 12,000 enslaved people wearing Persian silk, holding gold staffs, and carrying 18 tons of gold worth $1B in today’s currency, Mansa Musa took a pilgrimage to Mecca that became a thing of legends. During a stop in Egypt, he and his caravan spent and gave so much gold it suppressed the Egyptian economy for over a decade.
Mansa Musa made Mali stronger than ever before and laid a foundation to carry on for over a hundred years. It had no peers on the continent and was likely the wealthiest empire on Earth. Though it experienced internal conflict, foreign incursions, and diplomatic spats, it lasted until the late 15th century, approximately 160 years after Mansa Musa’s death. Mansa Musa executed an almost perfect plan on how to build a nation, but why did Mali fall?
Succession:
Mali had a terrible succession plan that would hinder the empire for decades following Mansa Musa’s death. When Mansa died, there were fights among his sons for the throne, causing conflict. Finally, the strongest and most cunning would take rule, die, and the tumultuous succession cycle would be repeated. This infighting stagnated Mali from becoming an even more powerful nation, and unity was limited to a few decades. Given his brilliance and leadership, Mansa Musa never established a succession plan (neither did the Mansas before him), a mistake repeated by every Mansa after him.
Alliances:
Mali could have done a better job of strengthening its alliances. But, unfortunately, Mali was so wealthy, had such a strong military, and had little turmoil outside of the occasional throne battles that it rarely asked for help defending its territory. As a result, Mali did not see the need to invest in military alliances. When the Portuguese challenged Mali, they defeated them soundly, so much so that the King of Portugal personally sent a representative to establish peace. The win was good and bad for Mali. They showed their strength against a European power alone, which was good for the battle but not the future, as enemies began to surround Mali — the conflicts Mali would encounter in the 15th century would show they could not do it alone for long.
Technology Adaptation:
The Mali empire encountered the Portuguese as they attempted to invade their shores in the 15th century. The Portuguese had firearms which they used in warfare with the Malians. The Mali military fought the Portuguese and a few Arab invaders armed with firearms; however, Mali never had the foresight to obtain these weapons seriously because they had so much success using their tactics. Also, firearms were not as durable and dependable at the time, which further lessened Mali’s desire to obtain them. When firearms evolved and the empire realized the need for guns, it was too late. Mansa Mahmud II, known as Mamadou in Portuguese accounts, had inherited a weaker and threatened Mali and sought Portuguese assistance or at least firearms. The Portuguese responded by sending an envoy with gifts but no weapons. However, Mali never became a state with firearms. Unfortunately, the military Mahmud II passed onto his son in 1496 was virtually the same as the one inherited by Musa I in 1312. The same military that helped usher Mali into being a superpower is the same military that failed to protect Mali from rival West African nations, Arab and Portuguese invaders.
Given the military prowess and discipline of the Mali military, firearms in the hands of the Mali Empire might have changed the history of West Africa. Mali had a lot going for it. Immense wealth, a strong-standing military, established political and economic governance, and a culture centered on education. However, failure to see how firearms would develop into the most deadly tactical weapon in human history, a continued focus on invading and dominating local African Empires, and not strengthening military alliances stopped Mali from being what England, France, and Portugal became. Mali would be conquered by the Songhai Empire, which arguably became even more powerful than Mali. Though the Songhai would thrive and adapt many of Mali’s military and economic advancements they repeated the same problems that caused Mali from reaching another zenith. What we can learn is obtaining wealth is one part of the goal, but protecting it and using technology to further it are the hard steps.
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