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Slavery wasn't something that just…happened.

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Plantation owners didn't wake up one day and say… [Plantation owner wakes up yawning]

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“Man, I’d love for my life to be a continuous war crime.”

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And then BAM!

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Slaves. [Slaves appear in Plantation owners bedroom]

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The slave industry was Godzilla-huge.

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It relied on slavers, European governments, and some African kings all being in cahoots.

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It also required a massive and complicated infrastructure.

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In order to export millions of people, forts and dungeons needed building… [Ship carrying cargo]

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Political systems needed reorganizing…

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Shipping lanes needed finding…

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And somebody had to find those vulnerable populations to exploit, right?

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There’s a summer job we could take a pass on… [Man inspects summer job adverts]

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The slavery industry was so colossal that it totally transformed West Africa.

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And it seriously influenced how later West African history went down. [History of West Africa appears]

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Despite what many people still think to this day, West Africa wasn’t particularly disconnected

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from the rest of the world.

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Though maybe it would’ve been better if it had a no talking to Europeans policy… [African man walks away from European man]

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Also, West Africa wasn’t particularly backwards, primitive, undeveloped, or low-tech.

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OK, it was no Silicon Valley.

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But by the year 1400, African kingdoms were basically the twins of European kingdoms. [Africa and Europe in a room]

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Seriously, Europe and Africa had all the same stuff.

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Feudalism…

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Bureaucrats…

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Divinely appointed kings…

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Armies of pikemen and knights…

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It was the whole medieval shebang—just with more bananas and… fewer sheep. [Knights and sheep cross a road]

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The reason that West Africa later came to be seen as primitive wasn't because of West

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Africa's own development.

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It was because the slave industry broke down settled states and laid waste to farmland.

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On top of that, it stole talent and bankrupted consumers. [Slave kidnaps girl contestant]

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Much of the rest of the world had excess people and wealth to develop and buy technologies.

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But West Africans were struggling just to hold onto their kids.

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In colonial times, anthropologists took a look at the mess that was West Africa and [Anthropologist working in a lab]

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assumed it’d always been some kind of primitive wilderness.

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Based on what they saw, it was inconceivable that Africa could’ve produced complex, developed

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societies anywhere close to those in Europe.

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But that would be like a guy walking into a house, dumping garbage on the floor, and [Man throws garbage on the floor]

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saying…

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…eh, guess it always stank in here…

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