Usman dan Fodio's jihad had created the largest empire in Africa since the fall of Songhai in 1591.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, when the Sokoto Caliphate will be at its greatest extent, it will stretch fifteen hundred kilometers from Dori in modern Burkina Faso to southern Adamawa in Cameroon and include Nupe lands, Ilorin in northern Yorubaland, and much of the Benue River valley.

In addition, Usman dan Fodio's jihad had provided the inspiration for a series of related holy wars in other parts of the savanna and Sahel far beyond Nigeria's borders that lead to the foundation of Islamic states in Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic, and Sudan.

An analogy has been drawn between Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the French Revolution in terms of its widespread impact.

Just as the French Revolution affects the course of European history in the nineteenth century, the Sokoto jihad affects the course of history throughout the savanna from Senegal to the Red Sea.