Timbuktu was a major commercial center in West Africa located at the end of a trade network connecting to North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. Gold and salt were important commodities traded across the Sahara desert, with gold mined in places like Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal. Ghana was a powerful empire based around this trade, with a centralized government led by a divine king who controlled the country's gold resources and taxed goods. Though powerful, Ghana declined after being conquered by the Mali Empire, whose leader Sundiata Keita established a new prosperous kingdom centered around Mali.

1. CLASSICAL AFRICA

2. AFRICA

6. TIMBUKTU

7. TIMBUKTU
 a West African City, located at the end
of trade network near Cairo and
across Mediterranean Sea
 Commercial Center

8. GOLD AND SALT

10. SAHARA TRADE
Gold
 is abundance in Ghana, Nigeria and
Senegal
 brought to North Africa and Europe
 Salt
 important to people’s diet

11. GHANA

13. EMPIRE BASED ON TRADE AND
AGRICULTURE

14. CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
 King
 Appointed officers
 Final judge of all court cases
 partly divine
 owns all the gold nuggets
 Empire taxed all goods

15. ALMORAVIDS

16. KOUMBI SALEH

17. GHANA WON BACK
THE KOUMBI SALEH
 Government punished the
disobey provinces
 Merchants moved to other trading
city

18. END OF GHANA
 Mali soldiers conquered the
empire and established a new
prosperous kingdom

19. CURRENT GHANA
 Mauritania, Mali and Senegal

20. MALI

22. SUNDIATA KEITA

23. MANSA MUSA

25. SONGHAI

27. SUNNI ALI (ALI THE GREAT)

28. TUAREGS

29. SUNNI ALI AND HIS MEN

30. DJENNE

32. ASKIA MOHAMMAD

33.  Improved system of government
 Taxation
 System of communication
 Strengthen Islam
 Appointed Islamic Judge to enforce law
based on Qur’an
 Songhai Scholars learned to read and write
Arabic

34. MOROCCAN SOLDIERS