The Songhai Empire
The largest state in African history, at its height as Europeans reach the coast.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 36 years
- Known to
- ± 5 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
Songhai expands from Gao under Sunni Ali from 1464 and then Askia Muhammad, controlling the Niger bend and the trade cities, with a professional army, a fleet of war canoes and a centralised administration. It is the last and largest of the Sahelian empires. Its destruction in 1591 by a Moroccan force equipped with firearms, crossing the Sahara, marks the point where gunpowder decisively outweighed numbers.