In 1483 the Portuguese explorer Diego Chao sailed up the Congo River and made contact with the kingdom of Bakongo. The following year 590 miles to the north of the Congo River another Portuguese explorer named Alvaro Camina built a Portuguese settlement on the isle of Sao Tomer. There were no indigenous people on this island, and it was first used as a prison colony. But since this was a volcanic island, its soils were fertile and conducive for the growth and harvesting of cash crops, primarily sugar. Thus, Sao Tomar became the world’s first plantation.
This changed the history of the world forever.
The first problem they needed to overcome was the impracticality of using expelled undesirable Portuguese (mostly Jewish children) as forced laborers. They solve this problem by sailing up and down the west coast of Africa kidnapping members of the indigenous populations from coastal villages and forcing them into slavery. Eventually, the kingdom of Bakongo - Congo - went on war raids deep into Africa to kidnap men, women, and children and to sell them into slavery to the Portuguese.
The Portuguese begin shipping slave labor to their plantations in their south American colonies, and the Spanish and other European nations copied their model. By the 1550s the Congolese formulated a military and economic alliance with the Portuguese.
This turned into one of the most lucrative trade agreements in human history. The plantation became the foundation upon which the first globalized economy was built.
The Congolese kings became very rich from this. They lived lives of unbelievable luxury and opulence. In the long run this proved to be disastrous for them.
In one of the most brutal ironies in history, the Portuguese introduced technological innovations to the Congolese such as the wheel, the plow and agricultural techniques, printing, engineering and navigation. But the Congo kings never adopted these technologies. Since their entire economy was built upon the slave trade, they saw no reason to do so. The Congolese were an integral part of the first modern global economy, but they failed to modernize themselves and develop their own kingdom.
The only technology the Portuguese gave the Congolese ever used were firearms. This made their efforts at kidnapping and selling slaves more efficient and also allowed them to subdue competition and assert control over rival kingdoms.
This politically destabilized the entire region. The Congo was an absolute hereditary monarchy, governed by an aristocratic class. The laws of the kingdom were what the king wanted it to be at any given moment. The corruption and degeneracy of this totalitarian monarchy would take several more paragraphs to describe.
Any society that is centralized in totalitarianism (whether through monarchy or an economic based ideology such as capitalism, communism, or fascism) inevitably becomes decentralized. Eventually people from all classes of society moved as far away from the cities as they could get, and inevitably West Africa de-urbanized and fragmented into segments.
The remaining European participants in the global economy that the slave trade fueled, while the Congolese fell into stagnation and decay. When the transatlantic slavery was abolished by the Congo kingdom’s European customers, the Congo state collapsed. Small states emerged and attempted to sustain their own existence by raiding their neighbors. Banditry became the model upon which the economy of the Congo was built. The raiding, in-fighting, and lack of a stable government and economy left them extraordinarily vulnerable. In 1885, King Leopold II of Belgium took advantage of this and established the Congo Free State - and committed some of the most horrific acts of genocide in all of human history. Other European powers carved up the region and took what they could get. Colonial rule had the effect of amplifying the chaos, poverty, and decay which the slave trade created. To this day, the Congo is unable to centralize, unite, or remove foreign exploitation and dominion. This is why European, and more recently, Chinese powers are able to so easily exploit the Congo.
The inflexible conservatism, and inefficient, greedy, corrupt, and oppressive rule of the Congo kings caused this to happen. The legendary wealth and opulence of the 15th century Congo kings is gone forever. The only thing that remains is the political and economic ruin of the Congo region and the institution of ideological racism.
Flash forward to February 14, 1945. Former US President Franklin D Roosevelt met with king Abdulaziz Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. They struck a deal. The Saudis would provide access to their oil fields to sell oil to the United States and its European and Asian allies. In exchange the United States would provide military aid and defense.
The wealth of hydrocarbons that were taken from Arabia in the surrounding states became the fuel used to build the global economy of the 20th century. The Arabs became astonishingly wealthy from this. And like the Congolese kings of the 15th century, they live in luxury and opulence - and they have failed to innovate or create any significant economic sectors outside of exporting hydrocarbons. Their palaces and luxuries are built, manufactured, and imported by foreigners. They use their enormous wealth to bribe their poor neighbors into submission and stagnate political development throughout the region. They manipulate prices to ensure their own wealth and crush outside competition.
They manufacture nothing, make no innovations and do not invest in industry or technology. Like the Congolese kings before them the only innovation they are willing to embrace are weapons. They use this to oppress anybody who displeases them. This has the effect of destabilizing the region. The neighboring nations are forced into becoming totalitarian dictatorships, many of whom wear masks of religious piety to justify their oppression and corruption.
Like the Congolese kings, their political systems are absolute authoritarian monarchies. The great wealth they gained only made those systems more absolute. Laws are arbitrary and civil liberties are an alien concept to them.
In short, Saudi Arabia is going the same way that the Congolese kingdom did centuries ago. Their end will be the same.