Africa In World Politics Chapter Summary

Africa In World Politics: Engaging a Changing Global Order by John Harbenson and Donald Rothchild gives an analysis of how Africa has changed from being a European ruled colonial nation to a nation that it creating a name for itself in the global sphere. Beginning with Africa’s politics during the colonial era through the present. The book provides not only details about Africa but also how the changing world has affected African politics. The main focus of this book is to show the growth Africa has had since its time of colonization. Africa has grown as the world has changed although it has had to deal with internal conflicts and demands for political change due to its authoritarian regimes. Chapter 2 begins with the Heritage of Colonialism. This is an important aspect for the remainder of the book. Without understanding where African politics started and how it related to the world, one would not be able to appreciate the growth the nation has had. The author of this chapter, Crawford Young begins to explain European

Although the authors within the chapters followed a chronological timeline, but the book as a whole did not follow the same timeline. For example as stated earlier chapter 2 explains European colonial influence in Africa and how it influenced African politics long after colonization. The following chapter begins to talk about “Africa’s volatile relationship with international capital” (35). The chapter then begins to describe the per capita relationship between Africa and other nations during the 1980s and 1990s. This timeline followed by the author leaves out decades worth of information on how the relationship became volatile. The following chapter then begins to talk about the conquerors and conquests of Africa. Not only did this not follow chronological order but this also changed topics from a topic of capital to a cultural topic. This could easily confuse