Africa's Geography: Unfortunate Circumstances Led to Unfortunate Results

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Africa’s geography put them at a great disadvantage over the Europeans, which eventually allowed the Europeans to colonize Africa with ease. The geography of Africa is wildly different than that of Europe’s. Crops in Europe were very suitable for farming, and their native animals could be domesticated easily. Because of this, farming in Europe didn’t take very much effort, and surpluses of food could develop at a quick rate. These surpluses allowed specialists to form. Specialists devoted all of their time to developing new and advanced technology, instead of farming. With the formation of this advanced technology, the Europeans quickly gained an advantage over the rest of the world. The opposite was true in Africa. Africa’s crops were difficult to grow, and their animals were nearly impossible to domesticate. Because of this, the Africans had to work much harder than the Europeans just to produce enough food to survive. Specialists couldn’t form in African society because everyone was devoted to farming. This absence of specialists led to a lack of advanced technology, which caused Africa to slowly fall behind the rest of the world. Africa eventually became so vulnerable, that when Europe came along to colonize the continent with the technology that they had formed, Africa couldn’t do a thing to stop them.
Part of Africa’s disadvantage over Europe was their inability to receive proper crops and animals for farming from the Middle East and Asia. Wheat, barley, sheep, cattle, and goats travelled to Europe from the Fertile Crescent and Asia quickly. It took much longer for these crops and animals to reach Africa, almost 5,000 years (The Shape of Africa)! This is because Europe, unlike Africa, is located on an east-west axis with As...

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Kopel, Dave. "The Catastrophic Consequences of Gun Registration." NRA Publications n.pag. Webpath Express. Web. May 16, 2013. .
Rittgers, David. "Gun Control Doesn't Work." National Review n.pag. Webpath Express. Database. May 15, 2013. .
Smith, Patricia. "The Gun Debate." New York Times Upfront. 28 Jan 2013: 6-7. Print.

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