How did natural resources affect the ancient empires in west africa?

Question

How did natural resources affect the ancient empires in west africa?

Answer 1

I though perhaps they were resource poor. Could be wrong, though.

Answer 2

Look up empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.

Wikipedia says:

"By 400 BCE, contact had been made with the Mediterranean civilizations, including that of Carthage, and a regular trade in gold being conducted with the Sahara Berbers, as noted by Herodotus. The trade was fairly small until the camel was introduced, with Mediterranean goods being found in pits as far south as Northern Nigeria. A profitable trade had developed by which West Africans exported gold, cotton cloth, metal ornaments, and leather goods north across the trans-Saharan trade routes, in exchange for copper, horses, salt, textiles, and beads. Later, ivory, slaves, and kola nuts were added to the trade. The development of the region's economy allowed more centralized states to form, one of the first being the Ghana Empire.

It came to dominate the entire western Sudan. In the tenth century, however, Islam was steadily growing in the region, and in 1052 the Almoravids launched a jihad against the empire.

The first successor to the Ghana Empire was that of the Sosso, a Takrur people who built their empire on the ruins of the old.

Defeated by the Mandinka prince Sundiata Keita at the Battle of Kirina in 1240, topped the Sosso and guaranteed the supremacy of Sundiata's new Mali Empire.

The Mali Empire continued to expand, eventually creating a centralized state including most of West Africa. Trade flourished, while Kankan Musa I founded a university at Timbuktu and instituted a program of free health care and education for Malian citizens .

Under the leadership of Sunni Ali (r. 1464-1492), the Songhai of Gao formed the Songhai Empire, which would fill the vacuum left by the Mali Empire's collapse.

The Songhai Empire was the dominant force in the region, and through the leadership of Askia Mohammad (c. 1442-1538), underwent a revival in trade, education, and Islamic religion.

A civil war over succession greatly weakened the empire, however, leading to a 1591 invasion by Moroccan Sultan Ahmed el-Mansour crippling the empire.

European traders first became a force in the region in the fifteenth century.

By 1650 the slave trade was in full force at a number of sites along the coast of West Africa, and over the coming centuries would result in severely reduced growth for the region's population and economy."