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Decline & Fall of The Songhai
Empire |
Empires
Songhai Empire
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Introduction:
 The
decline and eventual fall of the Songhai
Empire was due to several factors both
internal and external factors. The
empire was comprised of many people and
cultures who often spoke different
languages so when rulers were weak
territorial break-up was
unavoidable.
Causes -
(Internal Weakness)
In 1528, Muhammad Askia had reigned for
35 years. He was now and old man and
infirm. His offspring took the
opportunity to de-throne him and send
him to exile on Kankaka Island on the
Niger river. Following his exile by his
son, Musa, there was rivalry and
dissension which weakened the unity of
the empire.
In a comparatively
short period of 21 years, from 1528 to
1549, the empire had 4 kings which each
one deposing the previous occupant of
the throne. Askia Musa, who sat on the
throne after deposing his father, was
assassinated in 1533 after serving just
5 years. He was in turn succeeded by
Askia The Great's nephew, Askia Bankouri.
Like Musa before him he was known to be
a harsh and cruel ruler and was deposed
after serving just 4 years.
The
next ruler, Askia Ishak I, sat on the
throne for 10 years from 1539 to 1549.
He had some success in putting down
defiant, insubordinate states and
managed to repel Moroccan claims on the
salt mines which lay to the north of
Songhai. The next king, Askia Daud,
reigned for 35 years and managed to get
back some of the prestige which Songhai
had lost and regained most of the
territories lost. However, all this
success could not hide the fact that the
empire was already weakened by its
previous dissention and rivalries. After
Daud's death in 1582 the following 3
Askia dynastic kings were weak and it
was under the last king, Ishak II, that
Morocco invaded Songhai.
What
made the job of the Moroccan army easier
was due to the fact that Songhai at the
time was anything but united and
powerful enough to repel the invasion.
Many vassal states were to all intents
and purposes independent and hostile
toward Songhai and were only too happy
to assist the invaders.
Other Causes
(Invasion & War):
Morocco had long been envious of the
control that Songhai had over the salt
mines that lay on the frontiers of its
neighbour at Taghaza as well as the
trade caravans carrying slaves, ivory
and gold but had been tied
up with wars being fought against Spain
and Portugal to militarily engage
Songhai. However, in 1578 Morocco
decisively defeated the Portuguese at
Al-Kasr Al-Kebir and freed her to focus
on her wealthy neighbour to the south.
Sultan Ahmad Al-Mansur (also known as
El-Mansour Eddahbi or al-Dhahabi), who ascended the
throne of Morocco shortly after 1578 had
depleted the royal coffers and was
desperately in need of new revenues. He
told his advisors "I have resolved to
attack Sudan. It is an exceedingly rich
country and will furnish us with large
taxes, and we shall thus be enabled to
give greater importance to the
Mohammedan armies". In 1584 his army of
20,000 men marched towards Songhai. This
attempt failed due to inadequate
preparation and most of the men actually
died in the desert.
It was not
until 1590 that Al-Mansur sent a better
organised army to march against Songhai.
This army consisted of only 4,000 men
who were selected with care as they were
the disciplined elite. 2,500 were
European mercenaries who were armed with
firearms such as the smoothbore arquebus
and musket. Their ammunition consisted
of just over 30,000 pounds of lead shot,
30,000 pounds of gunpowder and 6 to 8
English cannons. The Sultan dispatched
his army, under the Spaniard Judar Pasha
of Granada, from Marrakesh on the 16th
of October, 1590 to find the sources of
Songhai's gold.
After travelling
15,000 miles from the Sahara to the
Niger River the two armies met just
outside Gao at the famous
Battle of Tondibi on the
13th March, 1591.
The army of Songhai was armed with
swords, clubs, spears, bows and arrows.
Faced with superior firepower and the
loud bang of guns (which they had never
heard before) they were routed and many
fled the scene thus allowing the
Moroccan invaders captured Gao. On April
25, 1591, the invading army moved onto
Timbuktu and Djenné. The cities were
ransacked and looted however, they found
little in the way of gold. The Songhai
army later put up some resistance.
Ishak II was deposed and the new king
Askia Kagho ordered his men to resort to
guerilla warfare. They put up a
considerable fight until Kagho was
killed by Moroccans who had invited him
for peace talks. He was succeeded by his
younger brother Askia Nuh who continued
the same fighting tactics for several
more years. However, in
1595 the empire was
finally and
decisively defeated and reduced to a
province of the empire of Al-Mansur,
Sultan of Morocco.
Disintegration:
Having destroyed the system of
government they found in Songhai the
Moroccans failed to replace it with its
own system of government. With no
effective control to maintain order and
peace, mayhem and chaos ensued thus
triggering a process of disintegration
into smaller kingdoms. The Bambara,
Fulani and Tuareg fought against each
other for control of the region which
continued until the 19th century. These
struggles had the effect of putting into
decline Timbuktu, Djenné and Gao as
commercial and educational centres. The
Trans-Saharan trade was seriously
disrupted and went into decline. Islam
also
went into decline and allowed animism to
set back in among the population.
Thus came to an end one of the greatest civilizations
in sub-Saharan Africa. The
invaders never did discover the origins
of the gold
supply as it was kept secret by only one
tribe that new its sources.
Songhai - Page
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