rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑
January 19th, 2025, 13:33
isn't the mali empire basically a complete refutation of the "yurops just had it easier!" libtard argument?
they had access to massive wealth far beyond anyone else and did … nothing … with it
Mali, and Mansa Musa have been massively overhyped by people who buy into the myth that he was the 'richest man who ever lived'.
For one, Musa was never -that- rich. He took the throne when his cousin died, and when he went on his Hajj he took the better part of 30 years worth of gold from his treasury to fund his visit. Yet, despite this, he ran out of money along the way (interestingly, he never 'gave it out', as such, he mostly spent it on slaves among other things). He eventually had to borrow money from merchants, and others, which he proceeded to not pay back.
As far as 'collapsing the Egyptian economy', coin values decreased by 8% roughly, and stabilised relatively quickly after - hardly the economic crisis that lasted 12 years.
Their military was pretty big, because it was mostly levy, about 100,000 men available at its peak. Records of any battles are pretty slim, but FWIW Mali was basically defeated by Portuguese slavers, so I wonder how well they would have fared at their peak versus say, a European, or Ottoman force. They were also beaten by Tuareg nomads while near their peak power, so that's also pretty damning evidence.
Their empire was literally built on slavery, and having little to no real dangers beyond their territory as the Sahara pretty much protected them from most if not all major forces.
Honestly, it's pretty sad reading. The Native South American empires did far better.
