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[–]Tarrock[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The latter. Colonization didn't start until the gunpowder was being widely used in Europe and we had invented the printing press. Africans were still living in mud huts without written languages.

[–]weavilsatemyface 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Africans were still living in mud huts without written languages.

No they weren't. Most Africans lived in cities every bit as large and almost as advanced as European cities. And Africans developed writing long before Europeans.

Honestly dude your view of history comes from a cartoon.

Colonization of Africa didn't take off until the late 19th century, where in just a few decades the new colonial masters managed to slaughter vast numbers of Africans through war, disease and brutality. Some African tribes saw up to half their population killed off by the European powers, a level of destruction almost unthinkable.

Before that, Africa -- despite the Arab and Atlantic slave trade, and the constant war needed to provide a steady supply of slaves -- was not especially more backward than any other continent. Europe was more advanced in some forms of technology, but Africa was more advanced in others. For example, iron-smelting technology, early African blacksmiths were able to make hotter furnaces and use ores that Europeans were unable to use.

Out of the thousands of years of human civilization, Africa and Europe were pretty much neck-and-neck in technology until maybe the 16th or 17th century. Even then the differences were minor for the first couple of centuries. But advanced technology is an accelerant, and when Europe finally pulled ahead, the difference accelerated as Europe drained wealth, resources and manpower from Africa during the colonial period.

CC u/binaryblob