Endogenous Borders: Geography, Precolonial States, and the Partition of Africa

• In Event: State Formation Through the Lens of Colonialism and Missionary Movements

Abstract

Many scholars attribute underdevelopment and political violence in Africa in part to bad borders. They argue that Europeans haphazardly drew lines in ignorance of local conditions, which partitioned numerous ethnic groups. To assess these claims, we analyze ethnic group-level statistical data and conduct a border-by-border qualitative analysis. Although we do not dispute that imperially drawn borders were harmful, we demonstrate that boundary drawing followed a systematic rather than as-if random process. To draw borders, European powers relied on focal points such as the rough boundaries of precolonial states and salient geographical factors. Europeans faced strong incentives to learn about the limits of precolonial polities to maximize their territorial claims, a process that usually preserved (rather than dismembered) precolonial states. Geographic factors that structure socioeconomic activity, such as rivers and lakes, also influenced borders and partition. Overall, precolonial states and physical geography determined most African colonial borders, thus demonstrating their endogeneity.

Authors

• Jack Paine, University of Rochester

• Xiaoyan Qiu, IE University

• Joan Ricart-Huguet, Loyola University Maryland