Slavery’s advantage, not intrinsic superiority, let European nations become capitalist superpowers.

Evidence

The economic development of the West cannot be understood without slavery, although this reality is neglected in the standard histories of capitalism. As late as 1800, other nations such as China or Japan could have emerged to occupy the place that Europe and the United States did in global capitalism, but it was the advantage provided by slavery that allowed the colonizer nations to emerge as superpowers. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 253

Categorization

• XREF: Challenges standard Whig histories of Western capitalism; resonates with the data-colonialism claim that extraction — not innovation alone — built lead economies. — connects to: Slave labor underpinned the political and economic power of European empires; Slavery was systemic to modern capitalism, not an historical aberration. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 937; The slave trade advanced European capitalism while underdeveloping Africa’s economies. (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• European global hegemony resulted from economic advantage, not cultural superiority. #corroborates (0.93)
• Slave labor underpinned the political and economic power of European empires #corroborates (0.92)
• Slavery powered European merchant capitalism and American expansion #corroborates (0.90) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 19
• Slavery was central to capitalism, not a mere primitive precondition #corroborates (0.90)
• Slavery was a critical foundation for early capitalism #corroborates (0.88) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 584
• Slavery was systemic to modern capitalism, not an historical aberration. #corroborates (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 937
• Slave labor sustained the extra-European market that industrial capitalism built on #corroborates (0.85)
• The slave trade advanced European capitalism while underdeveloping Africa’s economies. #corroborates (0.80)
• Ottoman expansion, sugar cultivation, and Genoese-Iberian alliance made slave labor central to capitalism #corroborates (0.78) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 556