4.3.1. THE LEGENDARY EMPIRES OF THE MEDIEVAL SAVANNAH

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

The mysterious lands fascinated them. 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.

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4.3.2.

Economic growth and coming threat