The state of the Malinke people centered between the Senegal and Niger rivers eventually became which historical empire?

• A. Mali
• B. Ghana
• C. Songhai
• D. Kush

Answer: (A)

The key idea is how a local West African polity grew into a powerful empire by unifying people and controlling major trade routes. In the region between the Senegal and Niger rivers, the Malinke (Mandinke) established a centralized state that, under strong leadership, expanded to form the Mali Empire. Sundiata Keita is the regional founder figure who united the Malinke and neighboring groups, turning their state into a large, thrusting empire around the mid-13th century. Its wealth came from controlling gold and salt trade across the Sahara, and it built famed centers like Timbuktu and Djenné that housed commerce, scholarship, and culture. Although later powers in the same broad area—like the Songhai—rose after Mali's height, the initial transformation of this Malinke state into a formal empire tied specifically to that region is the Mali Empire. The other options belong to different places or earlier/later periods, not the same west African center described here.