(World History) Why are African colonies in coastal areas?

1) There is a big gap in science and technology. Although there were some countries in sub-Saharan Africa during the European invasion, due to the isolation of traffic, science and technology have been lagging behind, especially in weapons, mainly cold weapons, which were hundreds of years behind Europeans who used hot weapons. Africa north of the Sahara has always been controlled by the Arab Empire, and it was still ahead of Europe in science and technology in the middle Middle Ages. However, these areas have always been under religious control, and there is no ideological emancipation similar to the European Renaissance in culture, and there is a lack of a strong research atmosphere for new science. After the Renaissance in Europe, the gap between Africa and Europe expanded rapidly. In the end, except Egypt was controlled by Britain, most other places were colonized by France and Spain.

2) Strategic gap caused by technology gap. In addition, the invasion of Africa by Europeans did not happen overnight. At the beginning, it is often only to establish some trading ports, and the strongholds are mostly placed on islands or peninsulas, using natural rivers and seas to increase defense capabilities. There are basically no navies in sub-Saharan African countries, so it is difficult to eradicate Europeans. On the contrary, Europeans can move easily at sea and attack land countries at any time. Even the Qing dynasty could do nothing about it, let alone African countries. North Africa has some resistance to European troops, but it is of no help because of the technical gap.

3) There is a big gap between social organizations. Most parts of Africa are still tribal. The so-called country is just a group of tribes. Tribes are very disunited, and tribal wars often occur. Europe trafficked slaves from Africa to America, and many of these trafficked slaves were prisoners of tribal wars. Moreover, tribalism in Africa makes Africa only have the concept of tribe and no concept of country, and it also lacks attention and negative treatment for Europeans' behavior that does not affect their tribes for the time being. Therefore, it is difficult for African countries to organize enough forces to resist prepared Europeans. Europeans often use "anti-non-rights" means to attack African rebels with African strength, and they are also much more strategic.

4) Even African dynasties existed in the form of countries, many of them were corrupt (such as the Ottoman Empire, which controlled North Africa), and of course they could not resist European attacks. But African resistance has always existed, and Europeans have paid a huge price. Only for the above reasons, only a few African countries (such as Ethiopia) can succeed.

To sum up, the most fundamental reason for the colonization of almost the whole continent of Africa is the backwardness of science and technology and social organizations.