Zone contact between the Black Africa and North Africa, Mali, which was the subject of accounts of voyages starting from the VIII E century, saw very early emerging on its territory of the States structured, extended and hierarchical, which made its fame beyond the continent: the kingdom of Ghana, empire of Mali and the Empire songhaï. The history of these kingdoms is well-known thanks to the oral traditions but also by the accounts of the Arab travellers who testified to the richness of these States and of the ostentation which reigned at the court of their sovereigns. But the substitution of the Atlantic to the Trans-Saharan roads, due to the redeployment of the world commerce, started the decline of these great political constructions of the interior of the Sahel.  

The early emergence of the States in the loop of Niger is explained by the economic prosperity which rested on a conjugation of beneficial factors: the softness and the moisture of the climate, favorable as well to the breeding as with agriculture; proximity of many gold mines which fed for a long time the Middle East and Europe, in particular for the striking of their currencies; and especially, starting from the VIII E century, the expansion of the Trans-Saharan trade at which the successive States, ideally located at the crossing of the main roads, took an active part. The commercial exchanges supported the diffusion of Islam in the area, starting from VIIIe century: this one profited at the same time from the proselytism of the Moslems but especially of prestige from their merchants, all at the same time rich and well-read men.  
 

Great empires

The kingdom of Ouagadougou (literally “country of the herds”), more known under the name of Ghana, is the first State of Black Africa according to the historians: it would have been created towards the IV E century and would have extended to the VIII E century. With its apogee, to the IX E century, Ghana extended from Tagant in High Niger and Senegal with Tombouctou, on most of Mali and Mauritania current, perhaps beyond. Its capital, Koumbi-Saleh (locality located in current Mauritania), was built close to the great gold bearing centers of Bambouk and Bouré. Its prosperity was associated with that of great urban centres, such Aoudaghost and Oualata.

At the same period, Trans-Saharan commercial axes were set up; however and slaves échangaient themselves against salt. To the XI E century, Almoravides come from Morocco, at the same time in the hope of taking the control of the trade and to extend Islam, invaded Ghana (taken capital in 1076). The kingdom entered then a phase of decline. In 1203, it fell under the cut from its old vassal, the kingdom sousou (in current Guinea).  

Benefitting from the crumbling of Ghana to the XII E century and displacement of the economic centers towards Tombouctou and Gao, the kingdom of Mali was constituted to the XIII E century: under the direction of Soundiata Keita, the populations of the Manding plate crushed the kingdom sousou with the battle of Kirina in 1235 and were released from its supervision. Mandings were linked to form the kingdom of Mali and chose Soundiata for sovereign. The army continued its projection and conquered a vast territory which extended from Gao to the ocean: the kingdom became a powerful empire then. It reached its apogee under the reign of Kankan Moussa (1312-1337), made famous for its pilgrimage with Mecque, during which it struck the imagination of its hosts by its richnesses. Kankan Moussa made of Mali a high meeting place between Moslem well-read men, but did not respect of them less its subjects not converted with Islam. To the XIV E century, quarrels of succession and inclinations independence weakened Mali which became a prey trying for its neighbor in full rise, Songhaï.  

Undoubtedly created to the VII E century and initially vassal of the empire of Mali, the kingdom songhaï took its rise under the dynasty of Sonni, come to power to the XIV E century. After being itself released of the supervision of Mali, Songhaï launched out in its turn in wars of conquest. Two emperors were distinguished particularly in the great warlike epopee from the Empire songhaï: Sonni Ali Ber and Askia Mohammed. Sonni Ali Ber (Sonni Ali “the Large one”) which reigned of 1464 to 1492, conquered Tombouctou, then with the hands of the Tuareg, and integrated Macina into its territory; Askia Mohammed, which overcame Sonni Ali Ber in 1492 and substituted under sonni that of askia, consolidated the Empire songhaï and an organization even more elaborate gave him than that of the empire of Mali.

The big cities - Tombouctou (which sheltered then nearly 100 ' 000 inhabitants), Djenné, Gao and Oualata - were important economic and religious centers. Their Koranic mosques, schools and universities, where remained of the scientists of the Maghreb, like Ahmed Baba, enjoyed a very great fame. Trans-Saharan trade route passed by Taoudenni, site strategic for its salt mines. At the end of the reign of Askia Mohammed, in 1528, the Empire songhaï extended its power on the major part of Mali, Niger and on Senegal. But, in 1591, Djouder, general of the Moroccan army, carried out a battalion through the desert and, thanks to the power of its firearms, demolished Songhaï.

Decline and revival, of XVIIe at the XIXe century

To the XVII E and XVIII E centuries, geopolitical balances underwent a radical change: the arrival of Europeans involved an inversion of flows of commercial exchanges to the profit of the Atlantic coast and the progressive collapse of the Trans-Saharan trade; these changes, with the “triangular trade” (slavery), brought a general decline of the area and were at the origin of deep political upheavals. This period was also marked by the expansion, sometimes peaceful sometimes warlike, of Islam.  

On the political plan, the fall of the Empire songhaï started a phase of deep disorder which allowed the emergence of new States, sometimes transitory. In the east, Tuareg factions constituted at the XVIIe century a wandering kingdom which took the control of the loop of Niger.

To the XVI E century, in south-west, Bambaras organized their company in Your Dyon (“slaves of association”), filling there of the collective obligations. Biton Koulibaly transformed the Tone Dyon into a professional army. The Niger river became again then the strategic axis of the area, where Bambaras founded two rival kingdoms, upstream of the junction Niger-Outlaw: the kingdom of Ségou, which extended from high Niger to the area of Djenné and which reached full sound rise under the reign of Biton (1712-1755) then under that of Ngolo (1790-1808); and the kingdom of Kaarta, with its apogee at the end of the XVII E century. Under the impulse of Cheikhou Tinder (1775-1844), marabout appointed sheik by Ousmane daN Fodio, the Fulani ones of Macina launched vast a jihad and founded a theocratic State, the empire (or Dined) of Macina, with Hamdallaye (literally “Praise with God”) for capital.   The jihad proclaimed in all Sahel by El Hadj Omar, member of Tidjaniyya, led to the annexation by the Empire toucoulor of the kingdoms will bambaras in the years 1850, then empire of Macina in 1862.

Colonization

To the XV E century, the French Anselme d' Isalguier claimed to have reached the town of Gao and to have married a princess songhaï, but true explorations started only at the end of the XVIIIe century (the Scot Mungo Park went until Ségou) and at the beginning of the XIXe century: the English Gordon Laing in 1826, then the French Rene Caillié in 1828 reached Tombouctou.

The French made river Senegal their axis of penetration towards Niger. Their progression from the coast, as from 1857, then their military conquest ran up then against the resistance of three forces: the Empire toucoulor, which was defeated in 1893; that of Samory Touré, which had to migrate into 1892 towards Coast-in Ivoire; the kingdom of Sikasso, city which fell heroically only in 1898.  

It was at the time when the French presence started to become effective that the power of Samory Touré continued. This one, helped by the tradesmen dioulas, organized, at the crossroads of gold, the trade of salt, the slaves, the horses and the manufactured goods, in particular of the firearms. Extending its power on a vast territory, Samory ran up valiantly, and more once victoriously, with the colonial troops.  

Mali (under the name of High-Senegal-Niger then of Sudan) became, in 1895, a French colony integrated into the A-OF, with Kayes then, in 1907, Bamako for chief town. During the colonial period, its borders were several modified times. The French reflect little in value the economy of Mali, far away from the coasts. In 1904, they inaugurated the railway line connecting the rivers Senegal and Niger. The French colonial expansion was done quickly, with the control of the production and the installation of the infrastructures, like the Dakar-Niger railway, inaugurated in 1923. From 1925 to 1939, the Office of Niger tried an unrealistic project of irrigation in the loop of Niger.  

From French Sudan to the republic of Mali

After the Second world war, the claims in favor of independence intensified. In 1945, Sudan (i.e. Mali current) sent its first deputy to the French Parliament: Fily Dabo Sissoko. In October 1946 was created in Bamako the party of the African democratic Gathering (RDA), federative party which had a representation in most French colonies and which preached the immediate independence of French Africa. In Sudan, it was the Sudanese Union (US-RDA), directed by Modibo Keita and Mamadou Konaté. The outline law of 1956 granted to the French colonies a certain autonomy.

In 1958, questioned by referendum, the populations of Sudan voted massively in favor of the French Community which collected 97 % of “yes”. In September 1959 was born the federation of Mali, gathering French ex-Sudan and Senegal, and which reached independence on on June 20th, 1960. But as of on on August 20th, of the dissensions made burst the Federation and, on on September 22nd, Sudan proclaimed its independence and became the republic of Mali. Modibo Keita was the first president.  

Preached by Modibo Keita, the socialist doctrines of incipient Mali stressed the role of the State in the development: the party-State was born and, providing the foundations of a socialist management of the economy by creating companies of State and agricultural cooperatives, the US-RDA quickly extended its seizure to many sectors of the economy. These political orientations, as well as the exit of the free zone in 1962 during the creation of the frank Malian, caused a cold in the relations with France until 1967. By doing this, the country remained a long time depend on the Soviet Union.

In 1967 and 1968, quarrels within its entourage led Modibo Keita to suspend the National Assembly. On November 19th, 1968, the president was reversed by a group of young officers: he died in prison in 1977. The Constitution was repealed, the prohibited political parties and the power confiscated by a Military committee for the national release (CMLN), directed by lieutenant Moussa Traoré.  
 

De Traoré with Konaré

In spite of the promise to make return the civilians in charge of the State, the mode hardens. In 1976, the UDPM (democratic Union of the people Malian) became the sole party. In the years 1980, worsened by the dryness, the economic difficulties of Mali increased: chronic debt, deterioration of the public resources. To satisfy the money-lenders and to return in the free zone (1984), Mali was to bring deep changes to its policy.  

The government encouraged the private sector investments, liberalized the market of the grains and softens the price control. The state monopolies were abolished, the attenuated tax pressure. The programme of structural adjustment of 1988 allowed the release of the farm prices and the organization of privatizations.  

But, hostile any democratic opening, Moussa Traoré answered by the weapons the multiple strikes which enamelled its government. From 1990, the mode, shown of autocracy and diversion of the public funds, saw the dispute increasing within the population. When, in March 1991, the order was given to the army to shoot at the demonstrators (106 deaths and 708 casualties), anger reached its paroxysm. A group of soldiers directed by the lieutenant-colonel Amadou Toumani Touré stopped Moussa Traoré and set up a Committee of transition for safety from people (CTSP), charged with preparing the return to the multi-party system and the democracy. The absolute respect of the commitments entered into by the CTSP leads to the installation of new institutions and to the transfer of power to a president democratically elected in 1992: Alpha Oumar Konaré. A National conference called in 1992 worked out new institutions. The elections of 1992 were gained by Alpha Oumar Konaré, which became Head of State, and by its party, Adema (Alliance for the democracy in Mali). On April 13th, 1993, former president Moussa Traoré was condemned to death, but this sentence was not carried out. In May 1995, Konaré was re-elected in charge of the State.  

The permanence of the problems at the borders (thus, the deterioration of the relations with Burkina Faso had involved a frontier conflict in December 1984) constrained Mali to often face its neighbors, and the military expenditure appreciably increased in the years 1980. Moreover, Bamako is exposed to inclinations of autonomy of part of certain ethnicities which often find supports near the countries bordering.

In particular, one of the essential problems to which Mali had to face since its independence remains the Tuareg question. The first revolt of the Tuareg burst in 1962. The great dryness of the years 1970 and 1980 increased the difficulties of the pastoral economy and widens the problem with all the under-area. Rebellions and repression followed one another until the beginning of the year 1990. Several agreements were signed, at the national level and the regional level, to find solutions. In spite of the national pact of April 1992 which claimed to answer the one of the claims of the Tuareg movement (particular status for the three areas of North, Azawad), the confrontations however June 1994 to January 1995 culminated. The army then took the principal base of the rebels, and peace seems since being restored.