US History › Section A · Worlds meet › Topic A.3
West Africa and the role of slavery
West Africa before 1492 was a region of farming villages, trading cities and powerful empires whose gold was famous across the Mediterranean. This topic introduces those societies, the forms of slavery they practised, and how the Atlantic trade turned bondage into something new and far more brutal.
In this topic
- A region of many worlds
- Gold, salt and the Sahara
- Ghana: the land of gold
- Mali and Mansa Musa
- Worked example: reading the Catalan Atlas
- Songhai
- Forest kingdoms and the coast
- Slavery in West African societies
- Portugal and the first Atlantic trade
- Worked example: how Atlantic slavery became something new
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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