Great Kingdoms & Empires
From the gold-rich plains of Mali to the stone-hewn cities of Aksum, explore the sovereign states that shaped the course of world history.
Mali Empire
The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa from c. 1226 to 1610. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa. At its peak, Mali was the largest empire in West Africa, widely influencing the culture of the region through the spread of its language, laws, and customs.
Enter the Archive →
Ghana Empire
The Ghana Empire, also known as simply Ghana, Ghanata, or Wagadu, was an ancient western-Sahelian empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali.
Enter the Archive →
Kingdom of Benin
The Kingdom of Benin or Empire of Benin, also known as Great Benin, is a traditional kingdom in southern Nigeria. It has no historical relation to the modern republic of Benin, which was known as Dahomey from the 17th century until 1975. The Kingdom of Benin's capital was Edo, now known as Benin City in Edo State, Nigeria. The Benin Kingdom was one of the oldest and most developed states in the coastal hinterland of West Africa. It grew out of the previous Edo Kingdom of Igodomigodo around the 11th century AD; it was annexed by the British Empire in 1897, but endured as a non-sovereign monarchy.
Enter the Archive →
Asante Empire
The Asante Empire, also known as the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted from 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana and also parts of Ivory Coast and Togo. Due to the empire's military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy, trade networks and culture, the Asante Empire has been extensively studied and has more historic records written by European, primarily British, authors than any other indigenous culture of sub-Saharan Africa.
Enter the Archive →
Zulu Kingdom
The Zulu Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire, was a monarchy in Southern Africa. During the 1810s, Shaka established a standing army that consolidated rival clans and built a large following which ruled a wide expanse of Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to the Pongola River in the north, centred on the present KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
Enter the Archive →Discover More Sovereignties
The history of African statehood is vast. Help us document smaller polities, city-states, and confederations.
Search All Empires