Abstract
This chapter examines three sets of issues that present a challenge to state-building in Africa: the cost of expanding the domestic power infrastructure; the nature of national boundaries; and the design of state systems. Understanding the decisions made regarding each is critical, and there are profound trade-offs inherent to different approaches. Africa’s political geography helped structure the responses that leaders adopted to each set of issues just as European decisions were influenced by the structural features of that region. The chapter first compares the political geographies of Europe and Africa, focusing on the European experience of state consolidation and the nature of African politics, before discussing the extension of power in Africa. It also explores continuities in African politics and concludes with an overview of the analytic tools that are central to this study.
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