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How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

In: Historical Events

Submitted By cikulilian
Words 1932
Pages 8
Ryan Nowlin

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Thesis statement

Europe underdeveloped Africa economically through their colonization of Africa and through the slave trade

Introduction

The current underdevelopment in Africa has been one of the biggest concerns facing the economists today. One of the reasons for such underdevelopments is the history of colonial exploitation and extraction and the slave trade. Empirical evidence shows that the underdevelopment has historical connections to the European colonisation (Rodney, 45). This paper analyzes how slave trade and colonisation led to underdevelopment of Africa.

Analysis

The Europeans invaded Africa at a time when the continent was endorsed with a lot of natural resources, which were still not yet exploited. When they started colonising the continent, they exploited these resources and send them back home to develop their continent. They made very little efforts to develop the African continent. This left the continent prone to underdevelopment due to the exploitation of the resources without any meaningful investment. Moreover, slavery and the slave trade led to a decreased number of people in the continent. The strong men from Africa were captured and sold for slave trade to work in the European farms. This left Africa with no people to work in the farms and the small industries. In fact, research by some scholars shows that population in Congo reduced by over 50% during the colonisation. This left the countries without the human power needed to develop the continent.

The loss of human capital in Africa as a result of colonisation had both direct and indirect impact on development. A good example of effects of the slave trade was that when the population reduced in areas infested with tsetse flies, people fled to other areas abandoning their home

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