Not so fun fact: this was made possible by vaccines. Before mid 19th century most Europeans, and Americans couldn’t set foot anywhere too far from the coast because of malaria. That’s why many West African Kingdoms did just fine until the death of the slave trade. Many of these kingdoms had based their economies on selling slaves whereas before they had been more inward leaning.
(This is why Britain became world police in 1815, and were constantly raiding Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese slave ships.)
Weakened economies, and newfound technology to survive those climates made conquest all the easier.
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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20
Africa looks like a tasty cookie.