- Joined
- Dec 18, 2019
For Africa, at least, the reason is probably that these societies were catapulted centuries, potentially millennia ahead of where they would've been if Europeans hadn't stuck their noses into Africa. You're taking people that haven't even discovered things that we'd consider fundamental to a large, functioning society, and plonking them in a post-WWII level society. Most of their societies hadn't developed a written language by the time the Europeans arrived, which makes any sort of unified, large state almost impossible. They also lacked agriculture in a lot of these societies, which is essential for villages, towns and cities to develop, which are required for any successful, stable state. Metalworking was also absent in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, which is important for developing any sort of advanced tools or weaponry. That's just three things I can list off of the top of my head. And these sorts of things are required for any sort of stable society to exist, which is key for the further development of said societies.
You're taking people that, in some cases, haven't experienced life beyond a basic hunter-gatherer system, and forcing them to behave akin to the citizens of a developed, western nation. I imagine if you took a group of Celtic, Germanic or Slavic tribespeople from 2000 years ago, and made them try to emulate a developed modern nation, it'd go just as well as it has in Africa.
You're taking people that, in some cases, haven't experienced life beyond a basic hunter-gatherer system, and forcing them to behave akin to the citizens of a developed, western nation. I imagine if you took a group of Celtic, Germanic or Slavic tribespeople from 2000 years ago, and made them try to emulate a developed modern nation, it'd go just as well as it has in Africa.