How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

European imperialism, exploitative trade practices, and colonialism played a critical role in underdeveloping Africa. The impact of the slave trade is particularly important. Low estimates suggest that 10 million enslaved Africans arrived in the Americas in the trading era (this number does not include the captives who died before and during the Atlantic crossing). The slave trade robbed Africa of young, able-bodied men and women, shrinking the continent’s workforce and curtailing its birth rate. Africa’s stunted population negatively impacted its economic development. Some communities abandoned previously developed areas because their population was so small they could no longer combat pests, while other communities no longer had the manpower to tame horses or work the land. The development gap grew because Europe experienced explosive population growth as Africa’s population stagnated.

The slave trade fostered instability in Africa, further hindering economic development. For example, “[s]lave raiding and kidnapping made it unsafe to mine for and travel with gold” (111)—Africa’s most lucrative industry before it was displaced by the slave trade. As the slave trade expanded, it led to more wars and greater instability. This slowed development in other sectors, such as agriculture. The economic impact of the slave trade was felt throughout Africa, not just in the areas where the trade was most active. Economic depression in one region impacted others. In contrast to Europe, which profited immensely from slavery, Africa’s development stalled because its labor force was forcibly exported rather than allowed work locally to stimulate African wealth and economic development.

Trade with Europe further disrupted local African economies. For example, Portugal severed trade links between Benin and the Gold Coast by circumventing interior water routes and establishing direct connections across the open sea. Similar disruptions occurred across Africa, such as Western Sudan, Guinea, and the Congo. Europeans curtailed or replaced deeply rooted African commerce and thwarted attempts to integrate African economies. They became middlemen in local trade networks, creating dependency in Africans. Africans were forced to rely on Europeans to engage in local trade and were limited to whatever goods Europe was prepared to buy and sell.

The exploitation of Africa for European profit did not end with the slave trade. In fact, Europe’s antislavery stance stripped many African communities of their primary source of wealth. Exploitation arose in virtually all aspects of commerce; Europeans fixed the prices paid to African peasants at extremely low levels, and they also fixed the prices for shipping, making profits so high that even European merchants complained. Protectionist laws guaranteed European producers a market in the colonies, even when their goods were substandard. Banks and other financial institutions also amassed wealth at the expense of Africans by backing the gold and diamond industries, registering returns higher than even the mining companies.

Colonialism perpetuated Europe’s underdevelopment of Africa into the 20th century. Africans were overburdened with taxes and customs to support colonial administrations, which then forced Africans to work for free on public projects like transportation infrastructure. Private companies also relied on forced, unpaid African labor, which was equivalent to slavery and contributed to the development of Europe at Africa’s expense. Other harmful colonial practices included binding Africans to colonizers through exclusive trade agreements that prevented Africans from accessing alternative markets and kept prices low to maximize European profits. The quality and quantity of colonial education also blocked advancement, most relevantly in the science and technology sectors.

Apologists routinely claim that Europe modernized Africa by introducing capitalism on the continent. Although Europeans introduced some elements of capitalism to Africa, they did not establish a capitalist system there. Europeans blocked Africans from developing into capitalist societies because they did not want to create rivals that would threaten their monopolies. The dynamism of capitalism lies in the way it creates growth. This growth, in turn, creates opportunities for further growth. This did not happen in Africa because colonialists deliberately kept the conditions that sparked innovation and growth off African soil.