Kong Empire

The Kong Empire (1710–1898), also known as the Wattara Empire or Ouattara Empire for its founder Seku Watara, was a pre-colonial state centered in what is now northeastern Ivory Coast that also encompassed much of present-day Burkina Faso and parts of Mali and Ghana. It established a largely decentralized commercial empire based upon linkages between merchant houses, protecting trade routes throughout the region. Kong rose to prominence in the 1700s as a key commercial center and center of Islamic studies. In 1898, Samori Ture attacked the city and burnt it down. Although the city was rebuilt, the Kong empire did not survive and the French took control over the area.