Trans-Saharan trade

As a trans-Saharan trade of the trade is designated, the interior of Africa combined with the Mediterranean world.

Trans -Saharan trade in the ancient world

The origins of trade between West Africa and the Mediterranean were previously in the dark. It was assumed that since 1000 BC and in the West since 700 BC held on petroglyphs horses and chariots a certain role played in the eastern Sahara in goods, but the low viability of this car and the large water consumption of horses are likely to have precluded a full Sahara crossing with these means of transport. Herodotus in the 5th century BC by the Garamantes, the making of Black Africans with their chariots hunting. It has often, wrongly it well, saw a first direct indication of the trans- Saharan slave trade. Given the favorable climatic conditions in ancient times, however, donkeys and mules could have played a significant role in crossing the Sahara. In gold, ivory and slaves were seen mostly the main exchange products. Recent archaeological and ethno- historical studies suggest a justification of the slave trade on the Bornustraße by Phoenician traders from Carthage in the 6th century BC. Was not until after the pulses from the north rose the Garamantes to the most important middle men of the trans- Saharan trade on. The decline and destruction of Carthage in 146 BC probably had no major effect on trade, especially the strong Roman demand in terms of continued unabated on the products of the South. Particularly appreciated were slaves, gold and exotic animals for the Roman circus fights. Ptolemy mentioned in the 2nd century AD, an expedition of the king of the Garamantes south to Agisymba to submission of unruly black Africans in this country. Research in recent years suggests that Agisymba is to be regarded as a precursor kingdom of Kanem. Of great importance for the recovery of the trans-Saharan trade was the increasing spread of the camel in North Africa, which may have been introduced in the 17th century BC in Egypt, but n only since the 4th century BC generally came into use in the Sahara.

Trans -Saharan trade in the Middle Ages

Since the 5th century, it came with the rise of the Empire of Ghana in the Western Sahara to a renewed upsurge of trade. The emergence of a social upper class in the Niger Senegal area, the demand for luxury goods from the north considerably. The intensification of trade was also favored by the state protection of Ghana. In exchange for the gold of the Wangara the North African traders do mainly salt from the salt pans of Taghaza (Northern Mali) and Idschil ( Westmauretanien ) because salt in tropical West Africa was highly sought after. Endpoint of trade in the Maghreb was to the 11th century Sijilmasa. On the Bornustraße between Lake Chad and Tripoli were slaves since antiquity the most important export product. Salt came into this area from the oases of Bilma and Fachi. Main imports products from North Africa were horses, substances and weapons.

Under the Songhai calibration Timbuktu rose from 1450 on the Niger River on the most important commercial center in the Sahel. It was the close contacts with the Maghreb and the center of Islamic culture in western Africa. However, the Songhai Eich 1591 was shattered by an invasion of originating from present-day Morocco Saadian. The collapse of the state led to a significant effect on trade in the Western Sahara, as in the episode lacked a regulatory power that could secure the trade routes.

Trans -Saharan trade in modern times

Political stability and security of the goods in Hausaland and Bornu in contrast, justified by an upsurge in trade over the Bornustraße. Even the Gold Ashanti was partly his way across the Hausa States to North Africa. Overall, however, the West African gold trade was mainly affected by competition from the Portuguese and later other European nations on the West African coast. Nevertheless, the trans-Saharan trade was able to maintain its economic importance for the kingdoms in the Sahel, to the middle of the 19th century. After that, slowly enforced in the Ottoman Empire prohibition of the slave trade began to severely inhibit the formerly flourishing trade across the Sahara. Even on the last side routes from Chad today to Benghazi in Cyrenaica came as the trade before the start of the colonial era to a virtual standstill. The French attempt to build a transsaharische railway line from Algiers or Tunis via the Ahaggar Mountains to Timbuktu, failed because of the resistance of the Tuareg, who saw their trade monopoly, thereby jeopardizing their livelihoods. With the colonial subjugation of Northwest Africa by France, the trade and economic relations of Central Africa directed by permanently from the coastal areas of the Atlantic Ocean.