The West Africans exchanged their local products like gold, ivory, salt and cloth, for North African goods such as horses, books, swords and chain mail. This trade (called the trans-Saharan trade because it crossed the Sahara desert) also included slaves. Several luxury items were also traded along the Trans-Saharan Trade Route such as ostrich feathers. The African communities involved in the trade also received guns which they used to strengthen their kingdoms. Oases were the most significant places along the trade route as they provided both the camels and the traders a place to rest after the tiring journey. The West Africans exchanged their local products like gold, ivory, salt and cloth, for North African goods such as horses, books, swords and chain mail. This trade (called the trans-Saharan trade because it crossed the Sahara desert) also included slaves. Trans-Saharan trade Introduction The Saharan trade extended from the Sub-Saharan West African kingdoms across the Sahara desert to Europe. Trans-Saharan trade, between Mediterranean countries and West Africa, was an important trade route from the eighth century until the late sixteenth century. The Trans-Sahara trade refers to the trade between West African Kingdoms south of the Sahara and Arab and Amazigh (Berber) Kingdoms on Africa's Mediterranean coast. Some of the goods traded, especially gold, probably traveled as far as Persia and all of Europe. Nomadic Amazigh Tribes, like the Touareg, Trans Saharan trade routes. WHS connected with the trade routes which linked sub-Saharan Africa with the Mediterranean. These did exist in Ancient times but had their high point much later after the introduction of the Camel around 3C AD such that "regular trade routes did not develop until the beginnings of the Islamic conversion of West Africa in the 7th and 8th centuries.
This favoured the creation of powerful cavalry forces, and so one of the main things traded by the North African traders in the trans-Saharan trade were their Goods from Western and Central Africa were traded across trade routes to faraway places like Europe, the Map of Medieval Saharan Trade by T L Miles. Their small to large donkey caravans carried books, slaves, cotton cloth, iron bars , kola nuts, gold, salt, perfumes, beads, cowries, and copper, among other items.
The Trans-Saharan trade did not only allow Africans to sell and export their goods but also to import foreign goods, in exchange for West African export goods. By the end of the 5th century, Berbers were routinely traveling across the Sahara to trade salt and other goods to the African states in Sudan, Mali, Ghana, and These huge Arab caravans carried things like silk, salt and textiles to the people of Africa. They then traded these things with the West Africans for things like gold,
The Sahel people were the middlemen of trans-Saharan trade. Camels were used as a form of transportation. Camels were used as a form of transportation. A major item traded between southern and sub- Saharan Africa was salt. Trans-Saharan trade was the transit of goods between sub-Saharan Africa and the northern Arab and European worlds. Goods included precious metals, such as gold, as well as slaves. The trade route was in operation between the seventh and 14th centuries, expanding the more established trade route of the Silk Road between Europe and the Middle East. Some of the most essential items traded along the route included gold and slaves. The slaves were mainly sourced from native communities or were usually prisoners of war. Several luxury items were also traded along the Trans-Saharan Trade Route such as ostrich feathers. Ghana was located half way between the sources of the two Trans-Saharan trade items: salt from the desert up north and gold from Bambuk to the East. Ghana played the enviable role of middleman. The introduction of the camel as carrier of goods in the trade was a massive boost to the exchange between Ghana and the desert peoples such as the Berbers.
6 Apr 2017 Mali (Malle) was a prosperous and influential trading empire in the and salt mining and through control of the Trans-Saharan trade routes in the region. By river, they could transport bulk goods and larger loads much more English: Map showing the main trans-Saharan caravan routes circa 1400. {{ Information |Description=Map of Medieval Saharan Trade routes, centerd on Niger 16 Oct 2015 In turn, trans-Saharan traders purchased some of these goods, especially gold, ivory, slaves, and kola nuts, and carried them to North Africa. They traded precious stones, spices, horses and copper. They traded with so many countries their belief of Buddhism and culture expanded. Trans-Saharan trade requires travel across the Sahara (north and south) to reach sub-Saharan Africa from the North African coast, Europe, to the Levant. While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of trade extended from the 8th century until the early 17th century. Finally, the trans-Saharan trade brought the Sudanic states and their access to gold to the attention of the world outside the insular West African region. Trade Commodities. Salt, gold, and slaves were the essential commodities throughout the 500-1590 period.