this post was submitted on 25 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 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.

Next week, we will be reading the latter two sections, "Continuing Politico-Military Developments in Africa - 1500 to 1885", and "The Coming of Imperialism and Colonialism" of Chapter 4: Europe and the Roots of African Underdevelopment - To 1885.

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[–] Lemmygradwontallowme@hexbear.net 6 points 7 months ago

Oh yeah, I just found this part

During the colonial epoch, the British forced Africans to sing,

Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves

Britons never never never shall be slaves.

The British themselves started singing the tune in the early eighteenth century, at the height of using Africans as slaves. "What would have been Britain’s level of development had millions of them been put to work as slaves outside of their homelands over a period of four centuries?" Furthermore, assuming that those wonderful fellows could never never never have been slaves, one could speculate further on the probable effects on their development had continental Europe been enslaved