Question

As mansa musa traveled he caused some problems for the places he went – what were those problems, how did he contribute to them, and how bad was it really?

Answer 1

Mansa Musa was the tenth emperor of the Mali Empire, located in west Africa. During his reign, in the beginning of 14th centyry, it is believed that Mali was the largest producer of gold in the world. This brought him enormous wealth.

Musa was known to be very generous. During his travels, he would donate gold to the poor or exchange it for other goods. This, however, harmed the ecnonomies of the cities and settlements he visited, due to the fact that the sudden influx of gold would make the value of this metal fall. On the other hand, the value of goods that were traded for gold suffered considerable rises. This was serious issue that would he himself would try to solve by borrowing all of the gold he could carry from money lenders in Cairo, Egypt on his way back.