which in many cases had not yet achieved much political
centralization in any case, crumbled in large parts of Africa,
paving the way for persistent extractive institutions and the
failed states of today that we will study later. In a few parts
of Africa that escaped the slave trade, such as South
Africa, Europeans imposed a different set of institutions,
this time designed to create a reservoir of cheap labor for
their mines and farms. The South African state created a
dual economy, preventing 80 percent of the population from
taking part in skilled occupations, commercial farming, and
entrepreneurship. All this not only explains why
industrialization passed by large parts of the world but also
encapsulates how economic development may sometimes
feed on, and even create, the underdevelopment in some
other part of the domestic or the world economy.