Eli5: Why other continents are more advanced than africa economicaly,socially, technologically etc .. ?
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Thats a bit much for an eli5, but i might list one possible contribution. I dont claim that this is the only reason, maybe not the maim reason, and since Africa is a big and diverse place its certainly not true for all parts of it. Also, im not an historian but like reading stuff on topics like that.
To start off though, its not even a strictly true statement, most of North Africa has been pretty advanced, and still is somewhere in the midfield, despite an obvious crisis going on in the last decade. Some places in Central and Southern Africa are doing quite alright right now, you just dont hear a lot about them.
A lot of Africa is not very suitable for farming. Its drylands, arid plateaus, savannah, rainforest, and so on. In that situation, people tend to live as hunter-gatherers or by herding cattle.
Compared to sedentiary agriculture, that lifestyle doesnt allow to support large populations. The yield per area is lower, and a hunter-gatherer probably produces less excess food that can support specialists than a farmer. Its obviously an extremely unfavorable condition for the formation of large cities. Its not favorable for the formation of a specialist class thats supported by farmers and can advance crafts and technology. It disincentivizes the cultivation of new land – no point if youre a nomad. It makes large-scale exploitation of peasants – the profit of which can be invested in a centralized infrastructure – near impossible. Theres little point in the development of trade and industry beside some luxuries, because hunter-gatherers and cattle-herding nomands are relatively self-sufficient.
Which is a possible reason why the formation of modern empires like in Asia and Europe didnt take place in some parts of subsaharan Africa (it took place in others, like Aksum/Ethiopia.
Well, at some point colonialism came and fucked shit up. Central Africa wasnt even that far behind historically at that point, but colonialism yeeted those societies into the modern era fast – with no time to gradually develop the society and economic means necessary – and in a deeply exploitative manner. Ethiopia, the last modern independent state in subsaharan africa fell to italy in the 30s, and the rest is history.
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