H.L. Wesseling > Quotes

“Europeans had been colonizing America, Asia, and the antipodes for centuries before they set their sights on Africa. This was because the continent was so disease-ridden, and because the only useful things it produced — ivory and slaves — could be had by trade. Until the mid-nineteenth century the interior was as unknown to Europeans as the surface of the moon.”
― H.L. Wesseling, Verdeel en heers: de deling van Afrika, 1880-1914