Pastlasby Oleh Voronko

State · 1804 – 1903

Sokoto Caliphate

A state of 1804 – 1903 — 99 years in the Middle East and North Africa. It replaced Hausa Kingdoms. It was replaced by Kamerun, French West Africa and Northern Nigeria Protectorate. Its line of rulers holds 2 people. Its own article says it was dissolved.

For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.

Stood
99 years
1804 – 1903
Rulers
2
the Caliph of the Hafsid Sultanate
Most ground
802,100 km²
in 1836
Symbol
1
on record, with years
Map: Sokoto Caliphate in 1836, its borders in gold among its neighbours
Sokoto Caliphate in 1836, when it held the most ground the borders dataset draws for it: 802,100 km². Its neighbours wear their tints, as on the atlas's own map. Borders from Cliopatria (CC BY 4.0), coast and rivers from Natural Earth, cities from Reba, Reitsma & Seto 2016 (CC BY 4.0), each city under the name it bore that year.

Where it sits in time

3000 BCE2000 BCE1000 BCE110002000Hausa Kingdoms: 900 – 1808Kamerun: 1884 – 1919Sokoto Caliphate: 1804 – 1903

Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold, what it replaced or followed and what replaced or followed it in grey.

Before and after

The states the record files it as replacing or following, and those that replaced or followed it - Wikidata's own statements, each read from this state's side.

Before it

After it

  • French West Africa · replaced by
  • Northern Nigeria Protectorate · replaced by
  • Kamerun · replaced by · 1884 – 1919

How it ended, as its article says

Dissolved, 1903. Read from the article's section “lead” by its grammar; the claim is only that the article says so.

It was dissolved when the British, French, and Germans conquered the area in 1903 and annexed it into the newly established Northern Nigeria Protectorate, Senegambia and Niger and Kamerun (the latter during the Adamawa Wars) respectively.

One sentence of the English Wikipedia article, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Rulers

Read from the state’s own English article and its rulers’ articles, where Wikidata names no ruler.

Usman dan Fodio · 1804 – 1817 · no death date to read the end againstMuhammadu Attahiru I · 1902 – 1903 · no death date to read the end against18201840186018801900
ending not on record
RulerReignLengthHow it ended · sourceTo the ruler before
Usman dan Fodio1804 – 181713 yearsending not on record
Muhammadu Attahiru I1902 – 19031 yearending not on record

2 rulers, 2 with terms dated as terms, covering 1804 – 1903. Median reign 7 years. 0 of 1 handovers irregular - a killing, a deposition, a rival claimant, a rising or a coup beside it. A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.

Ground held, by year

km² inside its borders as the borders dataset draws them, measured on an equal-area grid; a step series, held between the years the dataset maps.

18201840186018801900

617,300 km² in 1814, 795,400 km² in 1903; at its largest 795,900 km² in 1834. Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0.

Flag or arms

Each symbol with the years its own statement gives; the timeline flies the one of the year on screen.

  • Flag of the Sokoto Caliphate
    flag, undatedFlag of the Sokoto Caliphate · Public domain

Among all states

Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.

  • How long it stood99 years

    stood longer than 46% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.

  • The most ground it held802,100 km²

    held more ground at its peak than 82% of 1,465 states with a border in Cliopatria.

  • Wars recorded per centurynone

    had more wars on record per century than 44% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.

  • How long a reign lasted, at the median13 years

    had longer reigns, at the median, than 44% of 967 states whose dated line can carry a median.

  • Rulers on record2

    has more rulers on record than 34% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.

What led to it, and what came of it

The investigation's own picture: 2 causes the record names and 3 results, the strongest six of each at their own years, joined to the state by the kind of claim - a recorded statement solid, the article's sentence dashed, a theory dash-dot.

Hausa Kingdoms · Linked · 850 – 1808Hausa KingdomsUsman dan Fodio · Coincidence · 1754 – 1817Usman dan FodioSokoto Caliphate · 1804 – 1903Sokoto CaliphateNorthern Nigeria Protectorate · Linked · 1900 – 1913Northern Nigeria ProtectorateFrench West Africa · Linked · 1895 – 1958French West AfricaKamerun · Linked · 1884 – 1919Kamerun100012001400160018002000
linkedcoincidence

Open the investigation: every row with its evidence, the conditions at the time, the theories condition by condition, and the succession analysed.

Theories that apply to its ending

Of 3 theories of why states fall, 1 has every condition present at this ending; each is applied by its own logic, condition by condition, and whether its authors named this case is a footnote.

  • Dynastic cycle and the decay of group feeling

    Ibn Khaldun 1377 · Turchin & Nefedov 2009

    Applies by its own logic: the condition it names held here, and this is the kind of outcome it predicts — adverse regime change or the state's ending.

    • the state 90 to 160 years old — ageBand 99

Open in the atlas

Wikidata Q600524 (CC0) · borders Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0 · coast and rivers Natural Earth · symbols from Wikimedia Commons, each credited above · one sentence of the English Wikipedia article, CC BY-SA 4.0 · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.