In 1884-85, the
Berlin Conference took place and its results will affect the entire continent
of Africa, having repercussions that still continue. The Berlin Conference,
held in the old Chancellery, decided how the continent would be shared amongst
the European powers. With little knowledge of the geography of the place and
without input by African or African opposition came to an agreement on the
borders of their countries.
The borders of
Africa is widely believed to be the primary cause, not the colonization itself,
which imbued the continent with systemic economic and political issues. The
design of the borders in 1884-85 by the colonial powers, “led to ethnic
struggles, patronage politics, and spurred civil conflict, leading to poverty
and under development”, says Michalopoulos and Papaioannou in “The Long-Run
Effects of the Scramble for Africa.”
Due
to the arbitrary and artificial nature of the borders, African ethnic groups or
tribes would be partitioned. A relationship has been found where partitioned
ethnicities experience longer and more intense periods of civil war compared to
those that are not.
An indicator of a
society’s development is its proliferation of electricity, of which a byproduct
is light pollution. By measuring the light intensity from remote sensing data
of partitioned and non-partitioned ethnic groups a relationship is found. Partitioned
ethnic groups have a negative relationship with light intensity, implying lower
development levels to groups that are not partitioned.
To contrast, prior
to colonization and the declaration of independence both non-partitioned and
partitioned African groups were similar economically.
Works Cited
Michalopoulos,
Stelios, and Elias Papaioannou. The Long-run Effects of the Scramble for
Africa. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment