Who Was Mansa Musa?

By jamie

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6. Military Power

With so much wealth, the Mali Empire needed to protect its assets and it built a military that would dominate the region for around 2 centuries. The Empires military was at its most powerful during Musas reign when he amassed an army of 100,000 men, and also 10,000 armored cavalrymen.

The military under Musa was so powerful that nobody dared challenge them. That was until 1444 when the Portuguese arrived. Musa had died by the time but his legacy helped ensure an army that was too powerful even for the Portuguese to defeat. The Portuguese shifted their efforts toward trading with the Empire instead.

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