By the end of the fourteenth century, civil wars, internal struggles, and external attacks spelled the end of the Kanem Empire. In what is now the African state of Nigeria, the Bornu empire was born in 1396 as a continuation of the Kanem Empire. In time, the Bornu Empire would become larger than the Kanem Empire and would extend to include parts of the present-day states of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon.
In the fourteenth century, the Kanembu, who had been a part of the Kanem Empire, were under attack from neighboring groups—Arabs, Berbers, and Hausa. Overcoming these attacks, they managed to found the new state in Bornu. The intermarriage of the Kanembu and the Bornu created a new people, and a new language: Kanuri.
The Kanem-Bornu Empire endured for five centuries. The empire peaked during the reign of Mai Idris Aluma (1571-1603) who is considered its outstanding statesman. Aluma is noted for three primary things: his military skills, his administrative reforms, and his Islamic piety.
With regard to his military skills, one epic poem recounts his victories in 330 wars and more than 1,000 battles. He fought against the Hausa to the west, the Tuareg and Toubou to the north, and the Bulala to the east.
As a military commander, he engaged in scorched earth tactics in which his soldiers would burn everything in their path. His army included a cavalry with armored horses and riders. It also included musketeers trained by Turkish military advisors. These musketeers were distinctive as they wore iron helmets.
Among his military innovations was the use of fixed military camps which were walled. These served as bases for his troops.
Aluma maintained diplomatic relations with Tripoli, Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire sent a large ambassadorial party—200 members—to his court at Ngazargamu.
With regard to governmental administration, Aluma instigated legal and administrative changes based on Sharia law. During his reign, Aluma utilized a council composed of the heads of the most important clans to provide him with advice. Major political figures were required to live at the court. Also included among his advisors were slaves who had been raised and educated in prominent families. He also reinforced political alliances through appropriate marriages.
With regard to his Islamic piety, Aluma sponsored the construction of numerous mosques and made the pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca. In Mecca, he established a hostel to be used by the pilgrims from the Bornu Empire.
Economically, the empire prospered under his rule. Government revenues came from tribute, from the sales of slaves, and from participation in the trans-Saharan trade. The empire was strategically located and was convenient to the trans-Saharan trade routes. The products which passed north through the empire included natron, cotton, kola nuts, ivory, ostrich feathers, perfume, and hides. Imports into the empire included horses, salt, silks, glass, copper, and muskets.
Aluma is credited with having the roads cleared (thus enhancing trade) and designing better boats for Lake Chad. He not only improved the ease of transit through the empire, he also made it safer. He wanted it so safe that:
"a lone woman clad in gold might walk with none to fear but God."
He also introduced a standard measure for grain.
By the mid-seventeenth century, however, the power and glory of the Bornu Empire had begun to fade. By the early nineteenth century, the empire was in decline. The Fulani were making major inroads against the empire. In 1808, Fulani warriors conquered Ngazargamu. Usman dan Fodio, the Fulani leader, proclaimed a holy war on the irreligious Muslims in the area.
A Muslim scholar and statesman, Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi, put together an alliance of Shuwa Arabs, Kanembu, and some semi-nomadic people to oppose the Fulani. In 1814 he built a capital at Kukawa in present-day Nigeria.
In 1893, the British took over Nigeria and the once-great Bornu Empire became the Borno Emirate under the British Empire.