In our consistent impression, it seems that the indigenous black people in Africa have never established a world-famous empire, in contrast, the Tang Empire in China, the Ottoman Empire and the Roman Empire across Asia, Europe and Africa, are widely known. However, this does not mean that black people are historically unknown, in fact, the person who was once called "the richest king in history" is the ruler of the black empire.
The name of this empire was the Mali Empire, and the richest king was mansa konkang Musa, or mansa for short. Founded in 1235 and destroyed in 1611, the Mali Empire lasted a total of 376 years, during which the Mali Empire showed the people of the world its wealth (only in its glory years), and King Mansa was the vanguard of telling the world this fact.
How rich was the Malian Empire? First of all, there is a lot of gold there. When the Mali Empire was only a small emirate subordinate to the Ghanaian Empire, it became famous in West Africa for its gold trade. After the destruction of the Ghanaian Empire, the successive generations of kings of the Mali Empire continued to expand their territory, and when it reached the hands of the 9th king, Mansa, the empire was extremely prosperous, from the tropical rainforest in the south, to the Sahara Desert in the north, to the Atlantic coast in the west, and to the area inhabited by the Dahausa people in the east.
During Mansa's reign, the Mali Empire was in a "golden age" and produced half of the world's gold. Not only that, but the Malian Empire also controlled the trade routes for African imports of salt, which were indispensable to West Africans, but they could not produce it themselves, but could only rely on imports. This powerful Islamic empire was in a more secure position to trade under the rule of the Mansa.
Moreover, the kingship of the Mali Empire was very high, monopolizing the import of various important materials and possessing huge wealth. Mansa did not shy away from preaching wealth, on the contrary, he was willing to let the people of the world see his wealth. As a devout Muslim, Mansa naturally made a pilgrimage to Mecca, islam's holiest city, and this trip brought down the world economy.
Because Mansa had so much gold, his party was also very luxuriously equipped when he traveled, which directly shocked the jaws of the onlookers in Europe and the Arab world. Mansa's team consisted of a vast caravan of camels, with 500 guards at the front holding golden rods, each with 6 pounds of gold hanging from his body; followed by a convoy of hundreds of camels, each carrying 300 pounds of gold;
There were thousands of camels behind him, carrying his three thousand beauties, all kinds of rare food, gifts, and the main ornaments of the clothes on each concubine's body were gold, a pearlescent treasure; even the 8,000 guards accompanying him were ten times better dressed than the people along the road, and this was not the end, Mansa also brought 60,000 porters, and a large number of slaves were responsible for driving the animals forward.
On the way, Mansa spent a lot of gold, a mineral that other countries felt was precious to him, and he was worth as much as copper and iron. He and his entourage and concubines willfully spent money to buy things, giving gold every time, and it didn't matter whether what they bought was worth so much gold. Passing through Cairo, Mansa even took the lead in sprinkling gold on the streets, causing a flood of gold in Egypt that lasted for 20 years.
Mansa's gold spending has caused economic turmoil in the Western world, and wherever he goes, the price of gold falls. The profligate Mansa was dubbed the "King of gold mines" by the Western populace, and with his financial strength, the Mali Empire gained great fame in Europe and the Middle East, and he was also rated as "the richest man" by a historian of the time. However, after Mansa's death, the Mali Empire rapidly weakened due to infighting, attracting colonists and eventually being replaced by another black empire, Songhai.