Student Question
How did the slave trade contribute to Africa's underdevelopment?
Quick answer:
The slave trade significantly contributed to Africa's underdevelopment by depleting its population of strong individuals and encouraging internal conflicts as African states waged wars to capture slaves for European traders. This led to weakened states and disrupted cultures, paving the way for European colonization in the 1800s. Colonizers exploited Africa's resources without benefiting the local populations, leaving a legacy of economic and social challenges that persist today.
The slave trade contributed heavily to Africa's underdevelopment. Europe used Africa as a source for slaves, in many cases taking the strongest citizens possible. African states went to war with each other in order to obtain slaves to sell to the Europeans. This weakened the states, and even today the poorest states in Africa are the ones that contributed the most slaves to the global slave trade. The slave trade destroyed cultures and made it almost impossible for kingdoms to continue to flourish. When Europeans started to colonize Africa in earnest during the 1800s, they found weakened states that were no match for European military and administrative power. Europe's colonization of the region would not have been possible if not for centuries of the slave trade. Europe then proceeded to take natural resources from the continent without providing any benefit to the native peoples who lived there. While chattel slavery is rare now, its legacy still continues.
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