What is the significance of the Trans Saharan Trade?

Answer 1

Between the 8th and 18th centuries, Trans Saharan trade was at its peak and made Western Africa a major trade route. This allowed to trade with Arabia, Europe, India and China. It brought prosperity, religion (Islam) the establishment of new and vital cities as well as new world knowledge of their previously unknown cities.

Answer 2

Trans-Saharan trade is trade across the Sahara desert between Mediterranean countries and sub-Saharan Africa. A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. In spite of her vast geographical dimensions and natural extremes, the Sahara has never been a barrier which had completely isolated Black Africa from other civilisations, in the same sense as the Atlantic Ocean separated the New World from the Old.

While the Sudan, where the Empire of Ghana was situated, posessed a large amount of gold, the region lacked adequate salt for the survival of Empire's population. The Desert regions of present day Morocco and Algeria, however, contained huge salt resources, and desert inhabitants were always in search of valuables. Not surprisingly, the gold-salt trade between the Ghana Empire and the Arab desert merchants flourished.

Answer 3

The Sahara Desert is a hostile expanse that separates the Mediterranean world-economy from the economy of the Niger. The trade was conducted by caravans of Arabian camels. These camels would be fattened for a number of months on the plains of either the Maghreb or Sahel before being assembled into a caravan. According to Ibn Battuta, the explorer who accompanied one of the caravans, the average size was a thousand camels per caravan, with some being as large as 12,000. Gold, sought from the western and central Sudan, was the main commodity of the trans-Saharan trade. The traffic in gold was spurred by the demand for and supply of coinage. The rise of the Soninke Empire of Ghana appears to be related to the beginnings of the trans-Saharan gold trade in the fifth century. From the seventh to the eleventh century, trans-Saharan trade linked the Mediterranean economies that demanded gold and could supply salt to the sub-Saharan economies, where gold was abundant.

Answer 4

it Songhai control of trade throughout western Africa by controlling of trade Songhai was able to enrich itself mainly