UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN THE TROPICAL COUNTRIES: GEOGRAPHY, RACE AND IMPERIALISM AS MAJOR DETERMINANTS

Many factors account for the underdevelopment of most of the tropical countries so referred to as third world countries. The underdevelopment of these countries was not and is still not connected with their scarce resources in both human and material, but some detrimental factors that to undermine the economic and political progress of these countries. It is an open secret that tropical countries are well endowed economically with natural resources. However, these factors which are imbedded deeply in geographical analysis impacted heavily on the overall affairs of tropical countries. It was perhaps deemed that the peoples of the tropical countries, could not on their own volition utilize their resources for any meaningful economic development, let alone engage in capital accumulation. The concomitant effect of this is the entrenchment, to the maximum, of a deep, long rooted development disparity between Europe, America and the countries in the tropics. It is on this premises that this paper will seek to examine the bane of geographical factors, race and imperialism as they militate against the socio-economic and political development of tropical countries in order to provide for more understanding of the causes of the underdevelopment of the tropical countries.