Ecology, trade and states in pre-colonial Africa

James Fenske

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: I test Bates' view that trade across ecological divides promoted the development of states in pre-colonial Africa. My main result is that sub-Saharan societies in ecologically diverse environments had more centralized pre-colonial states. I use spatial variation in rainfall to control for possible endogeneity. I construct artificial societies and present narrative evidence to show the results are not due to conquest of trading regions. I also test mechanisms by which trade may have caused states, and find that trade supported class stratification between rulers and ruled.

Keywords: Africa; ecology; states; trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N57 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/27203/1/MPRA_paper_27203.pdf original version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/29202/2/MPRA_paper_29202.pdf revised version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/30753/2/MPRA_paper_30753.pdf revised version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/37372/1/MPRA_paper_37372.pdf revised version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/40968/1/MPRA_paper_40968.pdf revised version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/44754/1/MPRA_paper_44754.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: ECOLOGY, TRADE, AND STATES IN PRE-COLONIAL AFRICA (2014)
Working Paper: Ecology, trade and states in pre-colonial Africa (2012)
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