The Economic Legacy of Colonialism in Africa

How the slave trades and colonial rule shaped Africa's borders, institutions and economies, and what research finds about their long-lasting effects.

Africa’s economic history was deeply shaped by centuries of the slave trades and by European colonial rule. Economists and historians have studied how these experiences continue to affect African economies today.

The slave trades

Between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, millions of Africans were captured and sold into slavery across the Atlantic, the Sahara, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Research by economist Nathan Nunn found that the parts of Africa from which the most people were taken are poorer today. He and Leonard Wantchekon also found that ethnic groups heavily affected by the slave trades show lower levels of trust today, a legacy of a time when people could be betrayed and sold, even by neighbours.

Colonial rule

In the late nineteenth century, European powers divided almost all of Africa among themselves, a process often called the Scramble for Africa. The Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885 set rules for claiming territory. Borders were often drawn with little regard for the people living there, splitting some ethnic groups and combining others.

Colonial economies were typically organised to export raw materials, such as cotton, cocoa, rubber and minerals, to Europe. Railways often ran from mines and plantations to ports rather than connecting African regions to each other. Economists describe many colonial institutions as extractive: designed to take resources for the colonisers rather than to build broad prosperity.

A railway to the coast

Many colonial-era railways in Africa ran in straight lines from mining or farming areas directly to a port, with few links between neighbouring colonies. Decades after independence, some countries still find it easier to ship goods to Europe than to a neighbouring African country, a pattern partly inherited from these networks.

Long-lasting effects

Research on the long-run effects of colonialism, including work by Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson, suggests that the type of institutions colonisers set up had lasting effects on development. Studies by Stelios Michalopoulos and Elias Papaioannou found that ethnic groups split by colonial borders have experienced more conflict.

Beyond history

Colonial history helps explain Africa’s starting point at independence, mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, but it is not the whole story. Choices made after independence, by both African governments and outside powers, including during the Cold War, have also shaped outcomes. The very different paths of African countries show that history does not determine destiny.

Thinking history explains everything, or nothing

Some argue colonial history explains all of Africa's economic problems; others dismiss it entirely. Evidence suggests history has real, measurable effects, but post-independence policies, institutions and global conditions matter a great deal too.

Key takeaways

The slave trades removed millions of people and are linked to lower incomes and trust today.
Colonial borders were drawn with little regard for the people living within them.
Colonial economies were built to export raw materials, often with extractive institutions.
History shaped Africa's starting point, but post-independence choices also matter.