How did West Africa empires collapsed?

Amit Meltzer gives the synopsis, I'll give the play-by-play. The first thing to bear in mind though is that the term “West Africa” is relatively recent time. read more

In general, all of West Africa’s sizable kingdoms and empires either collapsed or were reduced when Europeans took direct control of the region in the late 19th century. Prior to that, Europeans mostly traded with local entities, and that trade gave rise to strong empires such as the Songhali, Benin, Ashanti, Oyo, Kaabu and others. read more

With the gradual abolition of slavery in the European colonial empires during the 19th century, slave trade again became less lucrative and the West African empires entered a period of decline, and mostly collapsed by the end of the 19th century. read more

The Ghana Empire lay in the Sahel region to the north of the West African gold fields, and was able to profit from controlling the trans-Saharan gold trade. The early history of Ghana is unknown, but there is evidence that North Africa had begun importing gold from West Africa before the Arab conquest in the middle of the 7th century. read more