During 1200 to 1450, Timbuktu had the largest library in the world and it held hundreds of thousands of books. Their library brought them great wealth and prosperity. However, after Chris Columbus and his Spanish explorers discovered the Americas and eventually started the Columbian Exchange, Africans were greatly disadvantaged. The Europeans captured millions of West Africans and transported them to the Americas as slaves. Timbuktu was located in West Africa. Their library is their biggest token of wealth after all the horror all the enslaved West Africans went through.