The ivory trade.............back to France.................via ship..........most big game in Africa is central Africa to S. Africa..........the Sahara dominates N. Africa..................so.....logically........if u killed rhinos in Kenya say.........how could u get the tusk back to France?.............the Sahara is rather difficult to transverse.............Kenya is East Africa..........a ship.....with no Suez canal yet.........would have to sail from France.....around the cape of Good Hope in S. Africa........up the East coast to Kenya.........kinda far..........the Sahara is difficult for caravans.......so..........via the Congo river......u ship ivory.........tusks that u took from an elephant or rhino.........and killed the entire animal just for its tusks..............to the coast...........hence, Ivory Coast..............and picked them up........any point north of the Ivory Coast.........means u would have to cross the Sahara desert.............business..........it is the biggest Illuminati........elite types..........Nathan R.......in 1775 or so..........said that he did not care what puppet sat on the throne of England.........that he controlled England's money supply........and banks...........that meant he controlled the British empire...........but money is just paper without gold or silver to back it up............and u can have all the money in the world.........but what is it really doing any good if u cannot buy anything worthwhile with it?..............

Land migration[edit]

Prehistoric polished stone celt fromBoundiali in northern Ivory Coast. Photo taken at the IFAN Museum of African Arts in Dakar, Senegal.

The first human presence in Ivory Coast has been difficult to determine because human remains have not been well preserved in the country's humid climate. However, the presence of newly found weapon and tool fragments (specifically, polished axes cut through shale and remnants of cooking and fishing) has been interpreted as a possible indication of a large human presence during the Upper Paleolithic period (15,000 to 10,000 BC),^[30] or at the minimum, the Neolithicperiod.^[31]

The earliest known inhabitants of Ivory Coast have left traces scattered throughout the territory. Historians believe that they were all either displaced or absorbed by the ancestors of the present indigenous inhabitants, who migrated south into the area before the 16th century. Such groups included the Ehotilé (Aboisso), Kotrowou (Fresco), Zéhiri (Grand Lahou), Ega and Diès (Divo).^[32]

Pre-Islamic and Islamic periods[edit]

The first recorded history is found in the chronicles of North African (Berber) traders, who, from early Roman times, conducted a caravan trade across the Sahara in salt, slaves, gold, and other goods. The southern terminals of the trans-Saharan trade routes were located on the edge of the desert, and from there supplemental trade extended as far south as the edge of the rain forest. The more important terminals—Djenné, Gao, and Timbuctu—grew into major commercial centres around which the great Sudanic empires developed.

By controlling the trade routes with their powerful military forces, these empires were able to dominate neighbouring states. The Sudanic empires also became centres of Islamic education. Islam had been introduced in the western Sudan (today's Mali) by Muslim Berber traders from North Africa; it spread rapidly after the conversion of many important rulers. From the 11th century, by which time the rulers of the Sudanic empires had embraced Islam, it spread south into the northern areas of contemporary Ivory Coast.

The Ghana empire, the earliest of the Sudanic empires, flourished in present-day eastern Mauritania from the fourth to the 13th century. At the peak of its power in the 11th century, its realms extended from the Atlantic Ocean to Timbuctu. After the decline of Ghana, the Mali Empire grew into a powerful Muslim state, which reached its apogee in the early part of the 14th century. The territory of the Mali Empire in Ivory Coast was limited to the north-west corner around Odienné.

Its slow decline starting at the end of the 14th century followed internal discord and revolts by vassal states, one of which,Songhai, flourished as an empire between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Songhai was also weakened by internal discord, which led to factional warfare. This discord spurred most of the migrations of peoples southward toward the forest belt. The dense rain forest, covering the southern half of the country, created barriers to the large-scale political organizations that had arisen in the north. Inhabitants lived in villages or clusters of villages; their contacts with the outside world were filtered through long-distance traders. Villagers subsisted on agriculture and hunting.

Pre-European era[edit]

Pre-European kingdoms.

Five important states flourished in Ivory Coast in the pre-European era. The Muslim Kong Empire was established by the Juula in the early 18th century in the north-central region inhabited by the Sénoufo, who had fled Islamization under theMali Empire. Although Kong became a prosperous center of agriculture, trade, and crafts, ethnic diversity and religious discord gradually weakened the kingdom. The city of Kong was destroyed in 1895 by Samori Ture.

The Abron kingdom of Gyaaman was established in the 17th century by an Akan group, the Abron, who had fled the developing Ashanti confederation of Asanteman in what is present-day Ghana. From their settlement south of Bondoukou, the Abron gradually extended their hegemony over the Dyula people in Bondoukou, who were recent émigrés from the market city of Begho. Bondoukou developed into a major centre of commerce and Islam. The kingdom's Quranicscholars attracted students from all parts of West Africa. In the mid-17th century in east-central Ivory Coast, other Akan groups' fleeing the Asante established a Baoulé kingdom at Sakasso and two Agni kingdoms, Indénié and Sanwi.