How Mansa Musa Became The Richest Person EVER | Mali Kingdom

How Mansa Musa became the Richest Person on Earth ever lived?

In the year 1280 A.D., a birth of a child takes place in Mali, a country in Southern Part of Africa. This person was the one who was about to become the Richest Person.

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You wanna know how much rich?

Okay so let me give you an comparison of his wealth. You might have surely heard of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos?

Yes they are the Richest Person in the world currently. Now if you add the wealth of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the next 50 billionaires in the Richest List, then also they can't come near to the wealth of Mansa Musa.

I think now you might have the idea about how rich he was.

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The meaning of Mansa in Mali was Sultan and everyone believed the Mansa would become the king of Mali in future.

Let's discuss how he became he richest person in the history ever!

History and Origin

It was in the year 1312 when the Sultan of Mali decided to expand its kingdom. He decided to send a army of about a number of ships with hundreds of troops and food to go across the sea and find out the land on the other side.

The army went in the Atlantic Ocean to capture and impose its rule on the land across the sea to expand their empire.

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But time passed and there was no hope of their return. But suddenly one day a single ship returned with quite bad condition.

When asked about the ship's captain, it was discovered that their all ships had been submerged into the sea due to bad weather and climatic conditions.

After hearing this, the sultan of Mali felt quite disappointed but as he firm on his decision to rule on the land across the sea, he decided to himself go there and to impose his control on that land.

The sultan departed with about 3000 ships in the Atlantic Ocean but before leaving he gave the responsibility to Mansa Musa as the emperor of Mali.

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Years went but there was no sign of the sultan to return. But his absence had no effect on the Mali Empire. Even during the Sultan's reign, Mali empire was going well but after Mansa took up the responsibility, the empire touched the heights of sky.


Strategies by Mansa

You might think what strategies did Mansa followed which led his empire touch the heights of skies?

Well for this he had a well-structured plan. He focused on increasing the treasury of his kingdom.

To increase his kingdom's wealth, he focused on capturing those areas which are rich in salt and gold mines. As these commodities were in high demand during that time, so by selling these to people, they can earn a lot of money.

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They captured many areas and had imposed a control over hundreds of gold and salt mines, which not only helped them to earn wealth but also to expand their territory.

Now he can't built a rich empire just by selling gold because during that time every kingdom was obtaining a good amount of gold from their mines.

The major source of income of Mali kingdom wasn't by selling gold but by imposing high taxes on these precious items. The revenue generated was enough to regulate all the activities in the kingdom.

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Now let us talk about another reason which too helped Mali Empire to grow in wealth and importance.


Reason Behind Strong Relations?

Now its quite obvious that by the means of gold and salts only, he can't build a strong and rich nation.

So here comes the help by religion. Mansa Musa followed Islam and hence the whole kingdoms too followed Islam.

As all their neighboring territories were also Islamic, so they formed an alliance and hence Mansa had no fear for any attack on his kingdom and he was able to focus on economy.

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Due to this friendly relation with his neighbour's, he was able to flourish the trade of gold and salt in other kingdoms and imposed heavy taxes on them to increase his wealth.

There were some other people in his kingdoms who belonged to different religion. Thought Mansa's army was large enough to pressurize them to convert into Islam but Mansa knew that to build a strong nation, he had to take all the people united in his kingdom.

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This helped his kingdom to prevent internal wars between their people and the people belonging to other religion were independent to follow their religion.


Estimation of his Wealth

Well if would be present in that kingdom at that time and would ask any of the citizen of the kingdom regarding Mansa's wealth, then their answer would be INCALCULABLE! His estimated wealth was over $400 billion.

You can understand with this small example only when Mansa was going to Hajj Yatra which is a 9600 kms from his kingdom in 1324.

He didn't went alone over there but with a group of around 60,000 people of which around 12,000 were his soldiers who were employed to carry boxes filled with gold. Around 8 camels were there to carry gold powder on their back.

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Well all these valuables was just for Zakat (charity). Yes you heard it right! All these gold items were to be donated to the needy on his way.

This huge charity resulted in a hyperinflation as the value of gold declined drastically. This was first time in the history that hyperinflation was caused due to charity of an individual.

But Mali kingdom didn't continued to be at the top as after Mansa's death, all his ministers started fighting with each other which resulted in breaking down of Mali kingdom and at last the end of it.

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So this was the whole story about how Mansa grew his kingdom and what was his estimated wealth.

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Do share it with you friends regarding this incredible historic man.

Thanks for Reading!