# Historical debate : did Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to mecca in 1324 eventually lead to the annexation of Africa? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 5, 2024, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-debate-did-mansa-musas-pilgrimage-to-mecca-in-1324-eventually-lead-to-the-annexation-of-africa/998475 "2024-03-05T08:24:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-debate-did-mansa-musas-pilgrimage-to-mecca-in-1324-eventually-lead-to-the-annexation-of-africa/998475/1 "2024-03-05T08:24:03Z")
Ok in 1324 the emperor of Mali Mansa Musa who was considered a devout Moslem and historically the richest ruler of the world went on a hajj to Mecca that was so financially legendary it made history and is still discussed today But it has been thought of to have a rather dark effect and that was it brought negative attention to Africa by reminding Europe via Arabia that it was there and it had a lot of what Europe was looking for at the time like spices and gold and eventually slaves And it was allegedly the exaggerated stories of the pilgrimage (one legend was that he brought and gave away so much gold that it wiped out the Arabian gold markets for almost 20 years) that decades and possibly centuries later drove Portugal and Spain (and eventually the rest of Europe) to begin colonizing and pretty much taking it over So my question is there any truth to any of this or no or possibly? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-debate-did-mansa-musas-pilgrimage-to-mecca-in-1324-eventually-lead-to-the-annexation-of-africa/998475/2 "2024-03-05T10:45:47Z")
There was _already_ tons of trade from West Africa to North Africa and Europe. That’s how Mali got so rich in the first place. Much of that trade was already in slaves during the middle ages: > **[Trans-Saharan slave trade](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Saharan_slave_trade)** > > The Trans-Saharan slave trade, also known as the Arab slave trade, was a slave trade in which slaves were mainly transported across the Sahara. Most were moved from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa to be sold to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations; a small percentage went the other direction. Estimates of the total number of black slaves moved from sub-Saharan Africa to the Arab world range from 6-10 million, and the trans-Saharan trade routes conveyed a significant numbe Records o... Since Mali was a crucial economic node already (and they must have been for Mansa Musa to get so wildly rich), I think they would have always been a target for rusing European colonial powers even without the famous Hajj. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-debate-did-mansa-musas-pilgrimage-to-mecca-in-1324-eventually-lead-to-the-annexation-of-africa/998475/3 "2024-03-05T11:04:07Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > So my question is there any truth to any of this or no or possibly? It’s _possible_, but as far as I’m aware, the big drivers of Portuguese colonization were a) the actual products of the Gulf of Guinea region (ivory, [various](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_guineense) [peppers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grains_of_paradise), slaves and actual gold) and b) stops on the way to their actual main destination of the Indies. Note that the Spanish weren’t directly involved in colonizing sub-Saharan Africa. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-debate-did-mansa-musas-pilgrimage-to-mecca-in-1324-eventually-lead-to-the-annexation-of-africa/998475/4 "2024-03-09T12:30:27Z")
remember that until recent sacking by militant Muslims, Timbuktu had largest Muslim library, similar to Alexandria or Vatican