---Songhai---

#LEADER LIST (Calgacus)

Sunni Silman Dandi
Sunni 'Ali 
Mohammed
Musa
Ishaq
Dawud
Mohammed Gao

#CITY LIST (Piyankhi)


Gao
Jenne
Timbuktu
Diffa
Nguigmi
Zinder
Tessaoua
Maraoi
Tahoua
Dosso
Dogondoutchi
Kano
Kumo
Zaria
Sokoto
Onitsha
Lagos
Maiduguri
Oshogbo
Djado
Dapaong
Bassar
Badou
Sotouboua
Bafilo
Tchamba
Niamtougou


#CIVILOPEDIA (TETurkhan)

#RACE_SONGHAI
^ The Songhai are $LINK<expansionist and religious=GCON_Strengths>. They start the game with the discoveries
$LINK<Warrior Code=TECH_Warrior_Code> and $LINK<Ceremonial Burial=TECH_Ceremonial_Burial>. They can build the $LINK<Impi Warrior=PRTO_Impi>.
^
^    A Songhai kingdom had existed in the Gao region since the eleventh century AD, but it had fallen under the control of Mali in 1325.  As Mali power 
slowly declined the Kingdom of Gao started to reassert itself.  Under the reign of the Sunni king, Sonni Ali (1464-1492) it finally broke free from 
Mali, and the once small kingdom began to grow into an empire, the Songhai Empire.
^
^    Sonni Ali based his military on a cavalry and a highly mobile fleet of ships. With this military, he conquered the cities of Timbuktu and Jenn, the 
major cities of the Sahel. The Berbers, who had always played such a crucial role in the downfall of Sahelian kingdoms of the past, were pushed far north. 
^
^    Sonni Ali was succeeded by Askia Muhammad Tour (1493-1528). Muhammad Tour continued Sonni Ali's imperial expansion by seizing the important 
Saharan oases and conquering Mali itself. From there he conquered Hausaland. In addition, Muhammad Tour further centralized the government by creating 
a large and elaborate bureaucracy to oversee his extensive empire. He was also the first to standardize weights, measures, and currency, so culture 
throughout the Songhai began to homogenize. Muhammad Tour was also a fervent Muslim, and he replaced native Songhai administrators with Arab Muslims 
in order to Islamicize Songhai society. He also appointed Muslim judges, called qadis, to run the legal system under Islamic legal principles. These 
programs of conquest, centralization, and standardization were the most ambitious and far-reaching in sub-Saharan history until the colonization of 
the continent by Europeans. 
^
^    The Songhai Empire reached its greatest territorial expansion under Askia Daud (1549-1582). It controlled almost all of West Africa, making it the
largest African Empire in history. 

#DESC_RACE_SONGHAI
^    The Songhai Empire however had gotten too large. It encompassed too much territory to control. After the reign of Askia Duad, subject peoples began to revolt. 
The first major region to go was Hausaland, then Maghreb (Morocco) rebelled and gained control over crucial gold mines. The Moroccans defeated Songhai 
in 1591 and 1612, the cities of Songhai fell into complete anarchy. The Empire soon afterwards collapsed, bringing and abrupt end
to a once mighty Empire.

