Le négoce caravanier au Sahara central : histoire, évolution des pratiques et enjeux chez les Touaregs Kel Aïr (Niger)

Kel Air warlike aristocrats were involved in different ways in both saharian and transaharian caravan exchanges which enabled them to put social, economical and political pressure on several areas and on the people who were living there. This social and geographical control led to the settlement of a group of commercial and political areas and contributed to the organization of those groups. From the second half of the XIXth century a lot of disruptive factors appeared and the caravan exchanges began to decline. The relationships in production and trade, the relationships in terms of power, as well as the relations between people and space were drastically changed, leading these populations in a situation of crisis.