How Geography DOOMED Africa

Africa has hosted many great empires over the ages, but despite having contact with both Europe and Asia, did not keep up technologically (except Wakanda). Here is one possible theory to explain why.

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[russellcannon]

You missed two key geographical characteristics of Africa that impacted the peoples there. The lack of navigable rivers deep into the heartland, and the lack of deepwater sea ports. Cheers, Russ

[hareecionelson]

Also, a lot of Africa is landlocked, and the rivers are not very good for transporting goods. Also, Africa is bloody huge.

[SoulfulVeg]

From my limited experience, living in N Nigeria, I see some validity in your theory. Nigeria is so rich in resources, including oil, gas, agriculture and minerals. But, there are really 2 Nigerias. First, there is the north, which is arid, Muslim and home to several tribes, but mostly the Hausa and Fulani. The south is more lush, humid, partially coastal, Christian and dominated by Igbos and Yorubas. They have a general distrust of each other, which stems from the Biafra civil war. From my understanding, the boarders were decided by the British.

[thomasaquinas]

Some scholars say the crushing heat, imposing desertification, lack of tractable animals, and difficulty in water control led to Africa's problems, not to mention colonialism. Other scholars point to other nations that have dealt with any or all of these challenges. What's sad is that the ravages of colonialism, poor local governance, and local warfare are evident everywhere...

[TheArtofCodeIsCool]

Interesting observation. Some other reasons: The lack of fast growing straight trees that can be used to build ships with. The lack of a cold sterilizing winter that kills off many disease carrying insects.

[lastrebelify]

There is a book called: " the accidental super power ". It says most of the success of United states is due to its geographic location and river systems. Similar to the theory in here. It's a good read....

[chalkomaniac]

So being *THICC* is more useful than being tall is the thing I learned from this video

[josephpenarrieta]

It helps to think of this place, not as a single continent, but a collection of regions: the Sahara, Guinea (West Africa where Nigeria & Ghana are), Congo, Riftland (Africa east of the Great Rift valley), & Agulhas (the southern region of Africa splitting the Atlantic & Indian ocean).

This approach allows you to tackle things more realistically, more in depth, & less generalized. That being said, the climate did hinder Africa, as Atlas said in another video, the heat did disable many nations, but not to the point of hopelessness.

Guinea & Congo are still very fertile lands & many peoples thrived in these places & Riftland as well. But another factor that hit these regions hard was the fact that they were so geographically split apart & separated from Eurasian & Saharan civilizations.

In Eurasia, wealth was able to freely travel along all the trade routes, & make all of Europe & Asia very wealthy (except for the rural parts), but these regions were split from Eurasia so extremely less trade happened in these regions with Eurasia.

A lot less wealth flowed & climate encouraged traders to skip the Sub Sahara & stick to Eurasia because of the East to West constant climates. Guinea (West Africa) was the wealthiest civilization here because of its relative proximity to the Mediterranean.

In conclusion, the Sub Sahara thrived in many respects, but because East-West trade routes in Eurasia didn't link up as much with Guinea, Congo, Riftland, & Agulhas these regions suffered

[richardpayne]

I once read that Africa is also limited by rivers that are not practical for commercial shipping and thick jungles that limit trading on border regions.

[Ruizy]

I’ll have a little talk with the CEO of Geography then

[susannemuris]

This theory is called geographical determinism. It was described in detail in the 1997 book "Guns, germs and steel" by Jared Diamond.

[rodrigofloyd]

I would not say it is DOOMED. It is one of the last places in the world that maintains ecological balance.

[londynharris-elzein]

This theory actually makes a ton of sense. A lot of my family is from Sudan (mostly Muslim, Arab, and fairer skinned than Southern Sudanese people) and there's definitely a lot of distrust between the two groups. A lot of this conflict could be due to the fact that Sudan falls in the desert part of Africa while South Sudan is located in the Sahel region. Thanks for the video!

[kortess]

Actually, this theory should be expanded by the fact that most of Africa has basically no climate variations throughout the year, so the tribes there weren't forced to develop technology to maintain a certain diet all year round.
So for example, in the Congo Rainforest, fruit grow without any stop for winter, autumn or spring. It's eternal summer there.
Unlike Europe or China, which had some harsh winters that forced those civilisations to develop technology for storing crops harvested in the summer

[Akhibrass]

The success of the Silk Road as mode for the exchange of people, goods, technology and ideas is a clear example of the benefits of a long horizontal geography.

[leonardoleo]

This theory is right. If african geography were different(lets say), then great civilizations would develop there
And, thinking about this, this happened in the Americas too. We see, the inca empire develop in the same climate(andes mountain), the same goes to the aztecs(mexican highlands). In other places in this continent, the climate were more diverse, and so was the tribes. Makes sense, doesnt it?

[blacocloc]

I'm African and I've had this belief since 2005 when I visited Europe. I thought it was just me. It's common sense to deduce when you study the climate and location of the continents

[finaoo]

Interesting theory. Climate would seem to be contributing factor, but I think the relatively slow development of Africa has more to do with the lack of navigable waterways than climate diversity. Ancient civilizations needed water for efficient transportation of people, goods, and (most importantly) ideas. Europe is 1/3 the size of Africa, and its entire eastern side is land locked. Africa is 3x the size of Europe and is completely surrounded by water. And yet, Europe has more coastline than Africa because of it's relatively jagged outline. There are many, many natural harbors along Europe's coast, and relatively few along Africa's coast. The continental shelf along Africa's entire west coast is relatively shallow, so large ships can not approach it. People and goods have to be transferred to smaller boats to approach land, whereas Europe's harbors can accommodate docking for direct transfer of both. Europe also has many more navigable rivers in its interior. It's not a surprise that the only navigable river in Africa (the Nile) happens to be the only place that ancient civilization flourished on the continent.

[penitent]

so the new empire of Antarctica shall soon rule the world?

[Paradox_Incognito]

6:05 (Bill Wurtz History of the entire world I guess flashback)
_They never got Ethiopia-_