Editing Niger (section)

==== The Hausa states and other smaller kingdoms (1400s–1800s) ====
[[File:Photo1906 Zinder overview.jpg|thumb|Overlooking the town of [[Zinder]] and the Sultan's Palace from the French fort (1906). The arrival of the French spelled an end for precolonial states like the [[Sultanate of Damagaram]] which carried on only as ceremonial "chiefs" appointed by the colonial government.]]
{{Main|Hausa Kingdoms|Dosso Kingdom|Dendi Kingdom}}
Between the Niger River and Lake Chad lay [[Hausa Kingdoms]], encompassing the cultural-linguistic area known as [[Hausaland]] which straddles what later became the [[Niger-Nigeria border]].<ref name="ancient3">{{cite web| url = https://www.worldhistory.org/Hausaland/| title = Hausaland| publisher = World History Encyclopedia| author = Cartwright, Mark| date = 9 May 2019| access-date = 13 November 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191226173321/https://www.worldhistory.org/Hausaland/| archive-date = 26 December 2019| url-status = live}}</ref> The Hausa are thought to be a mixture of autochthonous peoples and migrant peoples from the north and east, emerging as a distinct people sometime in the 900s–1400s when the kingdoms were founded.<ref name="ancient3"/><ref name="Bradt"/><ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web| url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/4chapter5.shtml| title = Hausa States| publisher = BBC| access-date = 13 November 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180915100345/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/4chapter5.shtml| archive-date = 15 September 2018| url-status = live}}</ref> They gradually adopted Islam from the 14th century, and sometimes this existed alongside other religions, developing into syncretic forms; some Hausa groups such as the Azna resisted Islam altogether (the area of [[Dogondoutchi]] remains an animist stronghold).<ref name="Bradt"/><ref name=countrystudy/> The Hausa kingdoms were not a compact entity but several federations of kingdoms more or less independent of one other. Their organisation was hierarchical and somewhat democratic: the Hausa kings were elected by the notables of the country and could be removed by them.<ref name="boubou-hama"/> The Hausa Kingdoms began as seven states founded, according to the [[Bayajidda]] legend, by the six sons of Bawo.<ref name="ancient3"/><ref name=countrystudy/> Bawo was the only son of the Hausa queen [[Daurama]] and [[Bayajidda]] or ([[Abu Yazid]] according to certain historians) who came from [[Baghdad]]. The seven original Hausa states (also referred to as the 'Hausa bakwai') were: [[Daura Emirate|Daura]] (state of queen [[Daurama]]), [[Sultanate of Kano|Kano]], [[Rano]], [[Zazzau|Zaria]], [[Gobir]], [[Katsina (city)|Katsina]] and [[Hadejia|Biram]].<ref name="boubou-hama"/><ref name="Bradt"/><ref name="autogenerated1"/> An extension of the legend states that Bawo had a further seven sons with a concubine, who went on to found the so-called 'Banza (''illegitimate'') Bakwai': [[Zamfara]], [[Kebbi Emirate|Kebbi]], [[Nupe Kingdom|Nupe]], [[Gwari]], [[Yauri Emirate|Yauri]], [[Ilorin Emirate|Ilorin]] and [[Kwararafa]].<ref name="autogenerated1"/> A smaller state not fitting into this scheme was [[Konni (Hausa state)|Konni]], centred on [[Birni-N'Konni]].<ref name="H-Dictionary"/>
[[File:Scramble-for-Africa-1880-1913.png|thumb|250px|Comparison of Africa in the years 1880 and 1913]]
The [[Fulani]] (also called Peul, Fulbe etc.), a pastoral people found throughout the Sahel, began migrating to Hausaland during the 1200s–1500s.<ref name=countrystudy/><ref name="ancient3"/> During the later 18th century some Fulani were unhappy with the syncretic form of Islam practised there; exploiting also the populace's disdain with corruption amongst the Hausa elite, the Fulani scholar [[Usman Dan Fodio]] (from Gobir) declared a [[Fulani jihad|jihad]] in 1804.<ref name="H-Dictionary"/><ref name="Bradt"/><ref name=fisher1975>H. J. Fisher. The Sahara and Central Sudan. in The Cambridge History of Africa: From C 1600 to C 179. Richard Gray, J. D. Fage, Roland Anthony Oliver, eds. Cambridge University Press, (1975) {{ISBN|0-521-20413-5}} pp. 134–6</ref> After conquering most of Hausaland (though not the Bornu Kingdom, which remained independent), he proclaimed the [[Sokoto Caliphate]] in 1809.<ref name="ancient3"/> Some of the Hausa states survived by fleeing south, such as the Katsina who moved to [[Maradi, Niger|Maradi]] in the south of what later became Niger.<ref name=countrystudy/> Some of these surviving states harassed the Caliphate and a period of wars and skirmishes commenced, with some states (such as Katsina and Gobir) maintaining independence whereas elsewhere newer ones were formed (such as the [[Sultanate of Tessaoua]]). The Caliphate managed to survive until, "fatally weakened" by the invasions of Chad-based warlord [[Rabih az-Zubayr]], it finally fell to the British in 1903, with its lands later being partitioned between Britain and France.<ref name=Falola-2>{{cite book|last=Falola|first=Toyin|title=Colonialism and Violence in Nigeria|year=2009|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington, IN}}</ref>

Other smaller kingdoms of the period include the [[Dosso Kingdom]], a [[Zarma people|Zarma]] polity founded in 1750, which resisted the rule of Hausa and Sokoto states.<ref name="H-Dictionary"/>