4.3.1. THE LEGENDARY EMPIRES OF THE MEDIEVAL SAVANNAH

EUROPEAN ECONOMIC GROWTH MADE ITS ELITES AWARE OF AFRICAN SALT, SLAVES AND ESPECIALLY, GOLD

The map below of 1375 shows a king holding a nugget of gold.

Zoom 

  Fourteenth-century trade routes 

                                                   Zoom

Fourteenth-century map

• The third of the Three Kings, traditionally young and elegant, becomes a Black. This is how he was seen before the 14th century and after it. There's a full list here.

By Giotto, 1305 / zoom

By Dürer, 1505 / zoom

• The empires that controlled Saharan trade are at the core of the view of past grandeur: 

   Video: one of many

When the last empire, Songhay, succumbs to a Moroccan attack (in 1591) and no similar state replaces it, the area is thought in decline. 

Here is an alternative.

*    *    * 

Next, 

4.3.2.

Economic growth and coming threat