HOW PRECOLONIAL EMPIRES WERE FORMED.
In precolonial era ,the major motivation for formation of kingdom or empire was the need for protection. Different tribes organised themselves into groups with a leader for the purpose of protecting themselves from inter tribal wars.soon those small groups grew and expanded under the control of a leader. Communities that could individually defend themselves didn’t find any need for that.
Also,precolonial kingdoms engaged in invasion and conquer tactics. When your land is invaded and subdued, you will automatically become part of the Kingdom and sometimes through intimation, pay tribute or receive your insignia of office from them.
One thing is common with all these kingdoms and empire, they are not necessarily of same ancestry,they had different languages. They are only part of the Kingdom due to annexation or invasion by force and not by will.
today we will be looking at various precolonial kingdoms ,their expansion and what they are made of.
Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Turkoman tribal leader Osman I.
The Kanem–Bornu Empire existed in areas which are now part of Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria. It was known to the Arabian geographers as the Kanem Empire from the 8th century AD onward and lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu (the Bornu Empire) until 1900.
Was established around 14th centuries, southwestern Nigeria. This little known kingdom grew to prominence around 15th centuries when the Portuguese arrived via the coast and instituted trade of goods and arms. The kingdom began to expand by annexation of lands of her neighbours to institute control. The cultural influence of Benin was felt as far as lagos and some western Igbo communities including Agbor. The kingdom (Benin),a mispronounciation of the native word Ile Ubinu by the Portuguese includes both bini and non bini speakers who independently have lived within that vicinity without any ancestral links.
It spanned the modern-day countries of Senegal, southern Mauritania, Mali, northern Burkina Faso, western Niger, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, the Ivory Coast and northern Ghana. By 1350, the empire covered approximately 478,819 square miles (1,240,140 km2)
