Mali and Songhai, as well as the smaller kingdom of Ghana before them, were once great trading kingdoms famous for their gold.
Great Songhai kings such as Sunni Ali Ber and Askia Mohammed Toure extended the Songhai kingdom farther than Ghana or Mali had before it and brought an organized system of government to the area.
After the decline of the Songhai empire, Timbuktu was briefly occupied by Moroccan forces, then taken over by the Fulani people and later by the French.
From the early 15th to the late 16th century, the Songhai Empire was one of the largest African empires in history.
Outside of this, the Songhai lands reached far down the Niger river into modern day Nigeria itself, all the way to the Northeast of modern day Mali, and even to a small part of the Atlantic coast in the West.
Prior to the Songhai, the region was dominated by the Mali Empire, centered around Timbuktu.
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