this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2025
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This is a weekly thread in which we read through books on and related to imperialism and geopolitics. Last week's thread is here.

The book we are currently reading through is How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Please comment or message me directly if you wish to be pinged for this group, or if you no longer wish to be pinged.

This week, we will be reading all of Chapter 3: Africa's Contribution to European Capitalist Development - The Pre-Colonial Period.

Next week, we will be reading the first two sections, "The European Slave Trade as a Basic Factor in African Underdevelopment" and "Technical Stagnation and Distortion of the African Economy in the Pre-Colonial Epoch" of Chapter 4: Europe and the Roots of African Underdevelopment - To 1885.

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[–] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

"In recent times, it has become an object of concern to some liberals that the USA is capable of war crimes of the order of My Lai in Vietnam. But the fact of the matter is that the My Lais began with the enslavement of Africans and American Indians. Racism, violence, and brutality were the concomitants of the capitalist system when it extended itself abroad in the early centuries of international trade."

A very relevant sentiment today. King Leopold II would find much in common to talk about with Biden, Trump, and Netanyahu.

[–] GoodGuyWithACat@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago

(being the most bitter critic of capitalism) Marx went on to point out that what was good for Europeans was obtained at the expense of untold suffering by Africans and American Indians.

Another funny from Rodney. That should be one of Marx's official epithets, "The Most Bitter Critic of Capitalism"