The Empire of Mali - The Final Bloody Act - Extra History - #5
Added 2018-05-11 17:30:58 +0000 UTC1465. The Mali Empire is overextended, barely able to garrison its territory, and driven by internal power struggles. Sensing weakness, a new player emerges: the sorcerer-king, Sunni Ali.
Comments
Yup, tsetse flies (or about four other spellings), genus Glossina. Specifically they spread a parasite. (On double-checking this, apparently there are several other things, including meningitis, that get called "sleeping sickness" as well, but given the location I'm assumign we're talking the tsetse fly thing.)
Lou Hartman
2018-05-19 18:03:00 +0000 UTCsleeping sickness is an actual thing lol. Caused by the tetsi fly I believe.
HiddenHistory
2018-05-19 16:18:52 +0000 UTCAmazing series as a whole, but I have a couple of gripes with it - for starters, in the first episode, the ability to use iron is treated like its something sacred in west africa when in reality, most all people besides the khoisan were doing it across the continent - and even they were doing it from picking up the skill from ironworking bantu africans. Also, why the continued use of the word tribe? These were organized states. Tribe usually has a negative connotation to it, so i personally don't like the word. Anyway, looking forward to your next series :)
HiddenHistory
2018-05-14 00:03:12 +0000 UTCHmm i'm still really hoping they'll do an episode on the Dutch trade empire. Some of the most era defining events (Rise of the modern economy, the first modern army and the birth of the first Modern republic.)
Jay
2018-05-13 09:38:33 +0000 UTCIt'd be interesting to do a case study that compares the quality of meritocracy to the success of empires. As is, I don't know enough about all the empires of history to comment about this intelligently.
Erik Eldritch
2018-05-12 15:27:51 +0000 UTCI hope when you do a series on the slave trade you remain objective. And remember things like the fact the African slave practise was equivalent to European ones in some regions.
Grim Lock
2018-05-11 23:56:35 +0000 UTCIt does help a lot and, ethically, that's the right thing to do. Now, is it vital (as in can't happen without it) No it's not.
Marc Langlois
2018-05-11 23:29:02 +0000 UTCOkay serious question; do you guys think that Meritocracies are vital in the growth of nations, empires and golden-ages?
Thomas Alfred Weaver
2018-05-11 23:23:13 +0000 UTCEverything about the Congo Free State is horrifying. Estimated death tolls run from 5 to 20 million and might have included more than half the population of the region.
Christina Maria Jessen
2018-05-11 21:43:51 +0000 UTCReminds me of Leopold II. It’s mind blowing that one of the worst human rights violators of the era was a freaking Belgian king.
SpoonofEvil
2018-05-11 20:15:11 +0000 UTCWizard kings? Sounds OP, please nerf.
Thomas Alfred Weaver
2018-05-11 20:05:49 +0000 UTCYou know, Mali had a pretty good run looking back at it. Lasting for 400 years is impressive, lots of famous European states haven't managed that, and the amount of civil warring seems pretty unremarkable compared to the likes of England or China. Have there been countries that have done better? Absolutely, but there are a lot of highly respected ones that have done a lot worse as well. Also, I'm so happy to hear you mention Denmark and Sweden among the slave trading nations. Denmark was the fifth (or possibly sixth, I can't quite remember) most important nation for transatlantic slave shipments, yet it's considered a topic not to talk about here and internationally it gets overlooked in favor of the big colonial powers. Yet if you walk through Copenhagen, seeing the mansions of the old mercantile families and the famous architecture of King Christian IV, the wealth that paid for them was founded on slavery. To this day, much of the traditional bourgeoisie of Denmark, recognizable by their unique last names, are people whose wealth came from their ancestors using humans as a commodity. Denmark is not a big country and it was slower than places like England, France, the Low Countries and the parts of Germany along the Rhine to adopt newer mercantile culture in the renaissance and enlightenment. Danish colonial ventures were also mostly failures, money pits draining what little resources the crown didn't spend on military adventures in Sweden. So more than most slave trading nations, the wealth that Danish merchants did manage came from the slave trade. It's a legacy that the world needs to know and Denmark needs to own up to.
Christina Maria Jessen
2018-05-11 19:22:44 +0000 UTCwhat will the one off be
schuyler
2018-05-11 18:46:19 +0000 UTCIn Leonard Nimoy's voice!
Jonathan Luoto
2018-05-11 18:02:11 +0000 UTCAlternate History Idea: What if Instead of Dying of “Sleeping Sickness” Mansa Musa’s Son had been a much Healthier Person and began Enacting a Number of Reforms Designed to Strengthen the Empire’s Grip on the Trans-Saharan Trade and Spent his Money more Wisely than in our Timeline, although Gao still Gained its Independence from the Mali same way as it did in Real History. Civilization IV Technologies ~ Military Tradition *Ping!* “Victorious Warriors Win First and then go to War while Defeated Warriors go to War First and then Seek to Win.” ~ Sun Tzu
Martin Verran
2018-05-11 17:35:05 +0000 UTC
