Did Europe Underdevelop Africa?

The Slave Trade Illustrates the Limitations of “Historical Economics”

In How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), Walter Rodney tells a complex story. He covers 500 years of history, beginning in the fifteenth century and reaching into the late twentieth century. Europe’s rise and Africa’s ruin are seen as parts of a single process of uneven development. It began with the Atlantic slave trade and the export of millions of…