ConflictSub-Saharan Africa
Songhai falls to gunpowder
Four thousand Moroccan soldiers cross the Sahara with muskets
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The battle is among the earliest cases where firearms gave a decisive advantage regardless of numbers — Songhai had cavalry and spears. The Moroccans nonetheless could not hold a realm so far from home, and the whole Niger bend broke into small states. This is an important part of why West Africa was weakened when the Atlantic slave trade reached its peak.
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A Moroccan army with firearms crossed the Sahara and defeated Songhai's much larger force at Tondibi. The empire fell apart, and the scholars of Timbuktu were arrested or exiled.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org