INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER GROUPS
The Ancient Ghana empire was in the center of the trading industry, and therefore the people interacted with many other trading groups. The Ghana people had very clear trading regulations as far as trading was concerned, and were very well respected by the northern groups that worked with them. The spread of Islam into Western Africa started with Ghana when the Northern African Muslims interacted with the Ghanian people. It is said Muslim warriors called a war on Ghana due to the fact that not everyone would convert to Islamic beliefs. Other than trading and wars, the Ghana people had little contact with the outside world since the desert was very hot and dry and hard to travel across, the rivers had many waterfalls which made far travel on water impossible, and the flies that lived on the edge of the desert carried deathly diseases. In the 11th and 12th century, Ghana became the target of attacks and in 1235 it was defeated by the Mali Empire.