- From Thomas Sowell and others I seem to have learned that originally sub-Saharan Africa didn't develop the kind of trade, urbanisation and technology that China and Western Europe had because of a serious lack of navigable waterways, sea harbors and overland communication. Also, that North-America has all of those in abundance (in fact, more than anywhere else in the world), but could only develop them after the introduction of animals for transportation and agriculture, and the cumulative knowledge of the Eurasian continent. So yeah, all a matter of (bad) luck.