Comments by "bart thomassen thomassen" (@thomassenbart) on "History Scope" channel.

  1. No, almost all of Africa (minus N. Africa) was physically and civilizationally isolated from the rest of the world until the Arab conquests in the 8th century and even then, the isolation was largely intact. Some trade occurred of course but this was rare and nothing like what we see between Europe and Asia. Complex mathematical theories???? Not true at all. No, slavery in Africa was not more benign than the slavery imposed upon them by the Europeans. This is mythology. Also, the Trans Saharan Slave trade alluded to earlier was longer, larger and more brutal than that of the Atlantic trade. Also, the African slave market prior to the Europeans was not small...again mythology. The Arabs and Berbers were heavily involved in slave trading for hundreds of years prior to the Trans-Atlantic trade. Slavery was endemic throughout the world, not only in Africa. Tens of millions were put in bondage in Europe, Asia and the Americas prior to the Age of Exploration. In the Roman empire for example, slavery was endemic and essential to most economic activity and this persisted for 2000 years. Crafts people were slaves and were engaged in all manner of labor. This also happened in the Ottoman empire, where slaves were employed up and down the economic system and with the Mamelukes and in China as well. You can't blame slavery in Africa for the lack of development in the continent. This is a lazy argument. The military expenditures of the European powers were enormous. They employed hundreds of thousands of troops, constructed massive fortifications, built large ocean-going vessels and factories and were constantly at war with one another. Again, blaming military employment for a relative lack of development, ignores how the rest of the world did the same thing but on a much larger and more expensive playing field, and yet prospered simultaneously. Africans could not invest in industries because they had no idea what industry was. They simply did not have the technological, philosophical, educational or cultural basis for doing such. I can't watch any more. This video is riddled with weak ideas and arguments.
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  2. Communism has a verifiable track record of death and mass poverty and enslavement. Hundreds of millions faced death and slavery and close to two billion poverty and potential if not actual starvation. Capitalism has created all of the wealth and most of the technology and progress everyone enjoys today. All one need do is look at the world post USSR and see what has happened in Eastern Europe, China, and India and now in Africa as all have abandoned Marxist/socialist/communist economic and political systems.
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