The Malian Empire and the Richest Man in History
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- Опубліковано 1 тра 2017
- The History Guy remembers the battle that crowned the richest man in history and the forgotten history of the Great Malian Empire in Africa.
The History Guy uses images that are in the Public Domain. As photographs of actual events are often not available, I will sometimes use photographs of similar events or objects for illustration.
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The episode is intended for educational purposes. All events are presented in historical context.
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HG if you want to see pre colonial west African written history, that of the Fulani empire of Sokoto was collated and preserved by the British administration in northern Nigeria. In fact if I may suggest , the events and correspondence leading up to the Kano Sokoto expedition of 1903 is history worth remembering! Thanks for these historical appetizers of yours
I really love history. It was my best subject in school back in the '60s. You bring forgotten history to life and reawaken the thirst for knowledge.
History was my favorite subject also. I used to get some of best grades in the class and sucked at math. Ended but being a communications tech and self taught myself a lot of math.
I love how passionate you are about forgotten history. Cheers, Russ
Wow! This is one of the greatest empires in history, yet I never even heard of it. I assume a lot of people share my ignorance.
Everyone shares ignorance.
There are others you’ve never heard of too
PLEASE do an episode about The Dutch East India Company.
Why should a documentary be done on such an abhorrent company if you knew the truth you never want truth to be repeated
Always nice to hear history from another part of the planet. As an American student of the 60s & 70s I was inundated/drowned w/ "colonialism" and a constant re-hashing of all of the other trite early-American history. It made me crave histories from other ares/lands and, therefore, I really appreciate your channel and the effort you put into educating and entertaining We, the people. I see your subscription base is growing nicely (over double from when I sub'd barely a month ago).
I really love that intro and miss it. It's actually what got me to subscribe to your channel. I would always think, "Yeah, I DO love history."
Thank You very much Sir !
God Bless you
History lost is very rarely found again. Thank you for helping us remember.
I just love your channel!!! Thank you for all of your hard work and knowledge. The gift you have for storytelling truely makes history exciting.
i got 99 problems but not having a great history show to watch is not one. spend 15 min a night with ya...thank you
William morris jayz that you?
Thank you History Guy. I really enjoyed this episode.
Thank you for covering this. Great job👍🏽.
Great episode. It's one of those historic items about sub-saharan Africa that is indeed forgotten or rather ignored...
As a new Patron, I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Especially since recent DNA testing with two services revealed what I knew...that I had 36% Portuguese/Iberian blood...but the surprise that 2% of my DNA came from Mali. Most likely a direct descendant from within the 1600s. Wow! So this was especially exciting for me to watch! Love your channel!
THG Channel is a great learning point for all people both young and old. I forgot this episode and am so glad I returned to watch it again.
Pretty darn amazing and interesting! Love,love LOVE! This channel!
A wonderful video, great work!
It’s history like this what would remind people today that nations rise and nations fall. Also that the history of Africans is just as rich and important as other cultures.
But that's undeniable since ancient Egypt was in Africa, and modern Egypt is still in Africa except that current occupiers of Egypt aren't the same as that of ancient Egypt.
Your findings are incredible, thanks
Man that was a good touch up. I enjoy your brief descriptions of history
An empire I'd never heard of before save in the name of the nation of Mali. I wonder, what do we know of the ancient Hittite Empire? That's one not many have heard of either, I'm sure. I don't even know what we've learned about that ancient people, but I'd love to hear a segment about them in this channel.
A lot is known about the Hatti, theyeft behind a lot of text.
@@deathdoor And somewhere alegedly - a treasure that was never found:-)!
Fascinating. More pre-colonial Africa, please!
thank you for keeping history true ..i appreciate you...thanks for sharing...peace..ima check out moor of your videos
REALLY LOVE YOUR DEEPER HISTORY!!! TKS
Should be taught along with the history of other empires e.g. Rome Greece, China, etc starting in grade school.....
@Joe Blow Empty channel, troll; it wasn't pissed away, it was stolen by European colonialists.
Its kind of a hard subject to teach when most of the known history is oral and/or anecdotal. I'm unaware as to the extent archeologists have explored in West Africa and to what they have learned about the Malian empire. That being said, with regards to rome, Greece, China etc... We can name philosophers, political actors, generals, inventors, (details of their lives), inventions, major battles, treaties, important dates... all in great detail.
I'm not naysaying their accomplishments but details and facts aren't known. Notice this video was unusually short for The History Guy.
@Joe Blow I don't know, four hundred years sounds like a good run. Will the USA match it?
@@GunsGearNGrub please delete your comment. White people😅
Love your passion for history... 🙏
Great video! Really enjoy your channel.
I had no idea. I feel so rustic! Thank you History Guy!
You're talking about Mansa Musa
I love history as much as you do and watch many of your videos. Since it has been less than a year since I have been watching them I am not sure if you have anything on Haiti. 1) The Haitians slaves who were brought buy the French to the battle of Savannah. 2) The great victory battle of of Vertières that finished the French expedition army off after yellow fever had diminished their ranks. 3) The role play by Haiti in Napoleon sudden decision to sale Louisiana to Jefferson. I, a Haitian teacher, would love to hear your take on these subject and perhaps Toussaint Louverture who brought the French to their knees before his treacherous capture. And perhaps also Pierre Toussaint the compassionate slave who continued to care for the wife of his master in New York after they had fled the revolutionary war... So many great subjects. Please look into them.
Well done!
Good one!
I wonder if we will move from oral history to written history to video (youtube) history. I am a great fan of your channel and appreciate all the effort you put into it. You are a great storyteller as well.
I love your videos this one was very interesting
Thank you!
I cant thank you enough 👍 new subscriber
Interesting/Informative
Thank You!!!
this is the right chanel for me :)
For 2 months in the fall of 1973 I was assigned to a C-130 (3 aircraft) detachment that did a drought relief in Mali (Operation Authentic Assistance). 7 Air Force personnel out of 50 of us came down with Malaria and various other bug related illnesses. Since the capital Bamako was on the Niger river, you were constantly eaten alive by mosquitoes. It was 113F in the shade. Open sewers in the streets. Then, the Yom Kippur War broke out East of us and left us trapped in a Muslim nation. One positive thing I did get out of this was that I can tell people that I actually was in Timbuktu (Tombouctou) twice. And to think I could have wound up in Vietnam. LOL
Or as my 7th grade science teacher with a speech impediment would have said . " 7 cases of Malawia " .
Another great Video HG. A trip to the Smithsonian's Museum of African Art will make one question any statement about African's only having oral histories. In fact the quantity of artwork built from micro-precision metal work should destroy any thinking that Africa's reality was one of complete technical inferiority. In fact, the Smithsonian's actual African artwork is levels above nearly all of the artwork I've seen depicted.
Was deployed to West Africa in 1993 on USS Whidbey Island LSD 41. Visited Sao Tome, Ghana, Benin and Senegal.
Im amazed you actually mentioned Abu Bake, touche & well done, ive subscribed.
That was history which I would never have heard of, if not for this channel.
If you haven't already, a show on Great Zimbabwe woud be very interesting.
Fascinating.
even in simple shorts like this you are so awsum
Thank you. Could you show and describe some of your hats and other items in the back round of your videos.
Another great video. Just out of curiosity, what did you use for sources on this piece?
Love the music of Mali
Thanks for another informative video. The history of Africa in general is not widely known by many of us in the west. We have only seen Africa in decline. It makes sense that great and powerful societies once existed there as this is where Homo Sapiens originated.
And I'd only enjoyed it. I was completely clueless. How about this one? Thanks again. History guy😁💪🇺🇸⚓🎗🤔😁
I am just trying to imagine the great movie that could be made about this empire and the adventures of its king. Something with the sweep of Lawrence of Arabia, only with fewer camels and more women. Come to think of it, most of The History Guy's video subjects would make, or could make, better movies than anything I have seen in years. Shame there is no market now for any movies aimed at an audience that functions at a level beyond pubescence.
There are actually quite a few stories of the Malian empire that would make great movie or series plots.
I agree, the only recent exception I can think of is maybe is The Revenant which was loosely based on Hugh Glass.
Would probably have to be some other country's movie industry to do it. Hollywood is so illiterate these days (with some few exceptions like The Revenant, as mentioned).
@@bforman1300
The film industry in Europe as well as Hollywood
has succumbed to PC thought. "Uncomfortable"
(or historically accurate) realities of history are
more than the bankers who finance these films
want to support.
Mansa Musa: starring; Johnny Depp 😂
You can find the written history in the Vatican archives.
Holy feck, can you imagine if this world was right and all men shared their knowledge. Instead of enslavement, we could have enlightenment, and live exceedingly wonderful lives.
According to some records for a time the major trade in the city of Timbuktu was in manuscripts and books, of a wide variety of subjects and learning disciplines The wealthy vied with each other in amassing personal libraries. There were many universities and schools, some catering to hundreds of students and literacy was high for the period.. Manuscripts were carefully kept and passed down through generations.
In the past decade Al Qaeda affiliated militants have destroyed or looted several libraries, but the majority were hidden by residents. There is an ongoing project of recovering the Timbuktu manuscripts, digitizing and translating the them and making them available online
I keep looking at the long photo behind you. My wife has such a picture that came from her father who was in the CCC.
Ok, ok. Another intriguing story. So much we don't know about Africa.
I suggest that the first requirement for an HG story is to have at least one battle.
Pirates? Sure, but battles are a must. I often wonder if there is a master list somewhere of all the formally named battles in our history. Men were always battling each other. Maybe in a galaxy, far far away, our descendants will discover how not to battle. Ha
I doubt you posted this clip with the audio sounding so unbalanced. It's not like you at all. You might want to check it out. But I love your channel. I've seen about 75% of them.
Following up on phish and chips comment, it would be interesting to learn the events on the African end of the trade that enabled slavery to flourish in the US
"Much of that history was destroyed by colonialism"...? How so? That empire had already fallen and it's Europeans who actually documented it into the anthropological record.
Colonialism destroyed much of the archaeological and cultural record.
There is however a very old library in Africa, the towns exact name momentarily escapes me, do your googles, but this pls ancient African library is connected to Mansamussa's salt empire, the library is a ancient depository of very old books, many of which written in non-deciphered languages, wait to be unlocked by future linguists and one day historians...8)
There were other areas along the Niger river, in Nigeria I remember a museum showcasing thier advanced sculpture art and iron works. Benin if I remember correctly. Whether or not they had writing seems to be getting more complicated every decade. Now there seem to be possible fulani writing and nsibidi in Nigeria possibly reserved exclusively for use in the ruling elites. Poor African people, they have gone decades thinking they were nothing except slavery and colonialism. Did I here that correctly?Mali had sailing ships to explore ocean?
One of the greatest empires ever
You should do Admiral Yi.
History guy! Recommend you read "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen to get a new perspective on your history degree.
Thanks for sharing this video. I fist learned of the Mali Empire after reading the epic fantasy novel, TIMBUKTU CHRONICLES: AIDA AND THE CHOSEN SOLDIER. The author uses a nice blend of history and fantasy and an amazing tale to cleverly navigate part of the empire’s history. I hope Hollywood makes it into a movie someday.
With so many subscribers, I am dismayed that this video has so few thumbs.
I have no idea why some episodes get more interest than others.
Maybe there is a general lack of interest in western Africa, or of the Sahara. Hey how about an episode about the little known or remembered state Western Sahara? It was never quite resolved and there is some interesting tidbits in that story.
I have a historical conundrum for you or any other viewers that read this. Maybe it's worth an episode if you can figure it out. I like to pan around on Google maps and look for interesting things. I have spotted what seems like a really spectacular fortified castle of sorts on the western shore of lake Yoa in the country Chad. This lake is darn near the middle of nowhere Sahara desert and is or was a very important place to stop for water if you were caravaning between central and northern Africa. I have not been able to find any reference to this castle anywhere. I don't know who built it, or when, but it must have been part of some empire or other in the past. Check it out in Google maps/earth and see for yourself. If you take a look in satellite mode you can't miss it.
Balling 😎
I live in Vermont and would love to hear a cool story about the Green Mountain State. However I’m not sure we have any. If you find the time.....
an important poem and oral history...
His name was pronounced as Suunjata meaning lion king.
Have you done a history of the use of gold as a currency ?
So instead of making movies of these great African Kings with such rich stories, we get 48 King Arthur and Robin Hood movies?...FICTION btw ......got it.
Humankind is defined by STORIES.
From my research Mansa Musa didn't just spend money he gave it away to the poor
Brought to you soon by Hollywood starring Denzel as the King Lion, Denzel as the Sorcerrer and Angelina Jolie as the Buffalo Woman 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️Wha?
Read Ibn Batuta
What was the circumstantial evidence that he made it to the new world?
It seems unlikely that they reached the Americas given the lack of evidence and no real outbreak among the local of old world diseases at the time, but I’d love it if they eventually find what happened to this fleet!
How neat would it be to find out they actually reached Brazil or elsewhere? Perhaps genetic testing might indicate an early influx of African DNA one day.
I think calculations claiming his personal wealth are pretty misleading, because of the very localized nature of economies back then the regional value of goods varied massively. Sure the amount of gold he had would have been a massive fortune in Europe or even more so in China but the actual purchasing power of that gold would have been fairly very poor compared to its value in those regions. There is also the issue of his personal fortune vs goods he had access to as head of state? Many monarchs claimed to personally own entire kingdoms but that isn't really the same as having a large personal fortune. Octavius I believe 'owned' the whole of Egypt under his own name.
For a similar example if we looked at how much silk a Chinese emperor owned including silk held by the government and then converted based on the value of that silk in London you would conclude that the Emperor must be insanely wealthy as well.
The first story sounds strangely like Black Panther but with the roles of the exiled reversed.
It is always refreshing and rich when Africa is included in history. Sadly you are a minority. Thank you for remembering this forgotten history. We were taught in school about his Son. In the curriculum of today in Nigeria I am sure it is no longer taught.
I always feel twitchy about oral histories. The Bhagavad Gita claims 4,000,000 soldiers fought in the Kurukshetra War. I have this feeling that someone might have exagerated a bit ...
I agree. But, of course, sometimes oral history is all that you have.
As I understand it, most (if not all) oral traditions were extremely accurate due to the measures taken to ensure that the history was passed on correctly.
Take for example the Celtic/Gaulish Druids. They studied for thirty years before finally becoming a Druid.
While I do not know, exactly what they had to study, I'm sure that much of that time was spent memorizing everything from their history, to their rituals, to recipies for dinner.
It was a far cry from our modern society that commits to memory, only enough to pass the upcoming exam, and then forget most of it within weeks.
Probably it was more like 500 ships, and those ships are known to have been river boats- very unlikely to survive the ocean.
The "Bible" was oral history for about 500-600 years.
I think it's important to remember in this case that the griots or jeli are more than people who tell stories. In the old days they had to keep track of contracts between individuals, any changes in laws, and to keep accurate lineage records for the many clans in all of West Africa from Sengal to Benin, etc. Basically they were used for keeping knowledge would be written down. The young griot had to learn word for word from the teacher who passed on information. I've read that it took perhaps 20 years to actually be able to call yourself a griot(or jeli). Anyway, there are still many prominent griot families. Some focus on history like this video is about while others focus more on music and so on. All of this doesn't mean that the stories are accurate, but the same guy who kept the history also had to keep track of merchant's shipping manifests... so accuracy counted for something
Of course historians probably European (white) would cast doubt that anyone from Africa would even think about sailing great distances let alone actually be able to make it to the American continents.
So it's not surprising they would say nope never happened.
Sadly academia has probably overlooked or even hidden or destroyed evidence of many people or things from history no matter how thin because the information or items would cast doubt on theories. As reputations and the Winners Narrative are often more important than the truth.
You are probably right. Maybe. Show some evidence.
Horizon broadened again
Makes me question the historical validity of all previous videos.
I think King Solomon of Israel was the wealthiest man who ever lived. try to look him up and see. I enjoy you channel
Ancient fortunes are difficult to determine, and there is relatively little archaeological evidence documenting the period of Solomon's reign. The extent of his possible wealth is a matter of dispute. But, in reality, even if we took 1 Kings 10:14 at face value there were much larger empires that would presumably have gathered more in taxes. Solomon is included on some attempts at lists of historical "wealthiest people ever," but not included on most, largely because we have no reliable historical record of his actual wealth.
Understand that king Musa I of Mali reigned more than 2000 years after the time of Solomon, so there is much more reliable historical evidence for him Still, there is no accurate way to account for his total wealth. Evidence, though, of how much of the gold in Europe was derived from Malian mines does support the assertion that he may have been the wealthiest person in history.
It's easy to travel for 8 months without roads or wheels.
It was Mali’s wealth that drew the interest of Europeans looking to steal that gold wealth. The Portuguese were the first to come calling. When they were disappointed, they turned to slavery as a business opportunity. That was the antecedents of the trans Atlantic slave trade
Branon Fontaine Oh they weren’t stolen because a fair price was paid for them?
Branon Fontaine And who bought the slaves? You can’t anything without a buyer
Mansa Musa gave so much gold and silver to poor Egyptians, it caused their economy to collapse for ten years. He was wealthier than Solomon.
I didn't know we took fictional stories as historical fact now.
How do you know it’s fiction??? You whites can be quite pathetic sometimes.
ua-cam.com/video/HDn96lUP2Pk/v-deo.html so much for fiction
It sounds alot like the story of Chaka, I'm not sure about this. Chaka we know of, this guy not so much.
Where did these people get the word "buffalo"? Were buffalo in Africa?
Maybe this explains the apparent African artifacts found in the new world.
There are no documented "African artifacts found in the new world", that's an urban myth. No artifacts, no cultural evidence, and the clincher...absolutely no genetic evidence.
My mistake, I thought this was a legitimate site. www.nairaland.com/1212037/africans-discovered-america-thousands-years
Thinks
nevyen
3 weeks ago
There are no documented "African artifacts found in the new world", that's an urban myth. No artifacts, no cultural evidence, and the clincher...absolutely no genetic evidence.
Sorry, not by a long shot. It's rather another one of those "pseudo-scientific" sites that construct some fancy claims with some rather far fetched connections...
Meh.
BTW, That's the second version of that "so much gold spent, it devalued the currency"; the first time I heard that it was about the queen of sheba and her importing a huge gift of gold for Solomon.
that begs the question: which one, if at all, is right? I feel like that is more here say than history. Noble of you to glorify this particular "history". Yeah, wow; incredible accomplishments. Well, now it's fair. Everyone is great. Hooray!
How rich was he?
when he returned from Mecca the king ran out out money and had to borrow money from moneylenders in Egypt to make his way back home.
soloman mines , etruscans, phoenicians , any one .. any one. i think he made it and can be found in south american myth n legend. dgf
For the richest man we know. So little is known about him... how come?
How's things going in your kingdom? Ooh so so