What prevented empires with territory in North Africa from expanding south of the Sahara? And vice versa

Upvote:3

This kind of question (why do empires not control the desert) features heavily in Ibn Khaldun's famous Muqaddimah. His conclusion is that those desert arreas are much less productive than other areas and the population is considerably harder to control. Life in those parts is tough and so people are also tough. In fact his observation is that desert tribes will often seize power for themselves if, or rather when, the (previous) ruling dynasty declines.

What is fascinating is that somewhat similar dynamics are at play on China's northern border. Many dynasties were not able to reach north of the Gobi desert. Those that were (e.g. Liao, Jin, Yuan, Qing) usually originated from north of the Great Wall themselves.

Jan 8176

📝 Why is Anubis given a scarf in some representations?
📝 Was it militarily possible to "island hop" the Philippines if not for MacArthur?
📝 Why did King Arthur have such a great influence in Brittany?
📝 At what height were Gargoyles typically used in Gothic architecture
📝 What is the true reason for the destruction of the Indus Civilisation?
📝 Is Dalmatia often disregarded or largely overlooked when studying the history of the Roman Empire?
📝 What were Britain's defensive plans for a Nazi invasion?
📝 What computer was used in 1958 for handwriting recognition by Dimond?
📝 How did cannibals in Jamestown obtain bodies for food?
📝 Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
📝 Is today's Old City of Jerusalem the Jerusalem of the Crusades' period?
📝 Battles that ended with a disaster for all the parties
📝 How was Hadrian's decree banning circumcision enforced? Were there mandatory body check or something similar?
📝 Creating a "focused research question" for a history paper, unsure how to create a question that inspires debate
📝 Internal customs in the Roman Empire
📝 Why did United Kingdom not keep the colonies after Napoleon's defeat?
📝 Feudalism vs Serfdom
📝 Was Edward VIII of England forced to abdicate?
📝 Servitude to hereditary elite out of superstition
📝 To what extent were Polynesians in contact with one-another before European contact?
📝 Was Senegal involved in the 1918 Russian Revolution?
📝 What was the combat effectiveness of German infantry in the western front of the Second World War?
📝 What was the name of the father of Mesha, king of Moab?
📝 What was housing like in early Medieval Scotland?
📝 When did the English and Americans realize that vegetables were healthy?
📝 Which recent revolutions resulted in a major redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor?
📝 What is the basic structure of British Politics?
📝 What branch of the military wore this uniform?
📝 When Lehman Brothers collapsed, what happened to their clients?
📝 What route did the Hindenburg take when traveling from Germany to the U.S.?

Source: stackoverflow.com

Travel Tips

Search Posts

📝 What prevented empires with territory in North Africa from expanding south of the Sahara? And vice versa
📝 What prevented the Mongolian Empire from expanding into Europe?
📝 What possible uniform with decoration is my ancestor from New South Wales in the early 1900's wearing?
📝 What was the route for ships from England to South Africa in 1840?
📝 Did the British government oppose racial segregation in South Africa from 1815-1931?
📝 What would the Royal Sussex Regiment have been doing in South Africa between 1900-1902?
📝 What were the effects of US foreign policy in the South East Asian region in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s on states with capitalist economies?
📝 What is / are the specific reason(s) for Vyacheslav Molotov's fall from grace with Joseph Stalin?
📝 What are the earliest written accounts of Sub-Saharan Africa from the outside?
📝 What is the number of slaves imported from Africa to the Americas by non-British countries?
📝 What has prevented the United Nations from failing the same way as the League of Nations?
📝 What prevented the Finns from building a "counter ice road" to disrupt the "Road of Life?"
📝 What was the wealth distribution in US antebellum North / South
📝 What prevented the Indian Army to wrest Kashmir from Pakistan despite the UN Security Council's resolutions of 1948-49?
📝 What happened with North African oil during the Second World War?
📝 What prevented the USS Franklin (CV-13) from sinking in March 1945?
📝 What prevented the Romans from naval expansion?
📝 What systems of opression did colonial South America utilized to acculturate indigenous peoples, compared to the ones used in North America?
📝 Aside from the Pyramids, what is the tallest man-made structure still standing in Europe & the Near East from ancient times?
📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
📝 Where did the “vikings wear helmets with horn” stereotype come from and why?
📝 What concessions did Hitler demand from the Poles before 1939?
📝 What were the reasons that the British colonies in North America rebelled but not others?
📝 In this cartoon from Puck, what indicates the identities of France and Britain?
📝 What is this military patch with the silhouette of a pegasus on it?
📝 What set Checkpoint Charlie apart from the other border checkpoints in Berlin during the Cold War?
📝 What made the Russian Navy suspect Japanese torpedo boats were in North Sea in 1904?
📝 What prevented slaves in Classical Greece from running off?
📝 What was the "Favorable result" that the German admiralty was expecting from the naval attack on the Royal Navy in 1918?

What prevented empires with territory in North Africa from expanding south of the Sahara? And vice versa

More post

Search Posts

Related post