stackyFACTSLong before European empires, a massive African superpower controlled the flow of luxury goods between Rome and India.
Long before European empires, a massive African superpower controlled the flow of luxury goods between Rome and India. The Aksumite Empire, located in modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, used its incredibly strategic Red Sea port of Adulis to monopolize the global trade of elephant ivory, rhinoceros horn, and tortoiseshell. King Ezana grew so unimaginably wealthy from taxing this maritime bottleneck that Aksum became one of the first empires in the world to mint its own gold coinage.
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