evidence: The territory that is now the Republic of Guinea was part of succeeding empires of West Africa, historically referred to as the Empires of Western Sudan, existing between the 10th and 15th centuries. The first of these empires was the Ghana Empire, which was conquered and annexed by the Songhai Empire; Songhai too was defeated in the second quarter of the 12th century. The Mali Empire then thrived, until the advent of the colonialists in the early 19th century. It is from this Mali Empire that so many of the people in present-day Guinea—like those in The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Ivory Coast, the Republic of Mali, and others—trace their origins. Guinea`s Fulani population, its largest ethnic group, is believed to be descended from Berbers in the Niger plains. Among native Africans, the Mali Empire was called Manding, which is why the predominant ethnic group in Guinea, as in The Gambia, are called Mandinka, Mandingo or Malinke, which literally means people from Manding.