Side by side

Mali and Niger compared

Two sourced records set beside each other — the figures each nation publishes, and the events each chronicle records of the other. Compared, never graded.

🇲🇱Mali

c. 1235Sundiata Keita founds the Mali Empire on the upper Niger

Dossier →Chronicle →

🇳🇪Niger

3 August 1960Independence of the Republic of Niger

Dossier →Chronicle →

Shared indicators
41
Domains
9
Crossed events
6
Data through
2026-08-10

The figures, side by side

Each figure is the same observation, with the same source, as on the two dossiers. Every value shows the year it was observed — vintages differ by indicator and nation. A “—” is an absence in the source data, never a zero. Metric names link to the world ranking; values open the figure on its own dossier.

Entangled histories

6 events in which either nation’s sourced chronicle names the other — including under earlier names of the same state. Each is the same record, with the same sources, as on its own chronicle; nothing here was written for this page.

  1. 14th century

    Timbuktu and Djenné flourish

    Under Mali's mansas the Niger cities grow into major centres of trans-Saharan trade and Islamic scholarship, attracting merchants and scholars.

    Culture & Ideas · from the Mali chronicle · The Mali Empire · Timbuktu — World Heritage Centre, The Mali Empire

  2. 1468

    Sonni Ali takes Timbuktu

    Sonni Ali captures Timbuktu, and in 1473 Djenné, bringing the Niger trade cities under Songhai control and laying the foundation of the empire.

    War & Rupture · from the Mali chronicle · The Songhai Empire and Its Fall · The Songhai Empire (HIST103), Sonni Ali

  3. April 1591

    Battle of Tondibi ends the Songhai Empire

    Moroccan forces under Judar Pasha, armed with firearms, rout the Songhai army at Tondibi near Gao, collapsing the last of the great Niger empires.

    War & Rupture · from the Mali chronicle · The Songhai Empire and Its Fall · Fall of the Songhai Empire, Moroccan invasion of the Songhai Empire

  4. c. 1712

    Bitòn Coulibaly consolidates the Bambara kingdom of Segou

    Mamari (Bitòn) Coulibaly transforms a youth society into an army, founding the centralised Bambara state of Segou on the middle Niger.

    Formation · from the Mali chronicle · Segou, the Tukulor and Samori · Bamana Empire, Bamana (Ségou) Empire

  5. 1861

    Umar Tal's Tukulor empire conquers Segou

    Al-Hajj Umar Tal, leading the Tijaniyya jihad begun in the 1850s, overthrows the Bambara kingdom of Segou and extends the Tukulor empire across the upper Niger.

    Religion · from the Mali chronicle · Segou, the Tukulor and Samori · ʿUmar Tal — West African Tukulor Leader & Jihadist, Bamana (Ségou) Empire

  6. early 20th century

    Colony of French Soudan

    The conquered upper Niger is administered as French Soudan within French West Africa, its economy reoriented toward the colonial metropole.

    Colonisation · from the Mali chronicle · French Soudan and Independence · Modibo Keita — 1st President of Mali, Mali Federation