| For 150 years, the AppalachianMountains acted in people's minds as a barrier to westward expansion. | For over 200 years the interior of Africa acted in people's minds as a barrier to exploration and development. |
| Early American beliefs and attitudes towards Native Americans. The perceived need to pacify, educate and "civilize" them and the "unequal treaties" they were forced to sign. | Colonialist attitudes and beliefs about Africans and the "White Man's Burden." The perceived need to improve their lives and "civilize" them and the "blank treaties" they were forced to sign. |
| Endless conflict between the ranchers and the farmers in the early American West. | Similar conflicts between nomadic herdsmen and sedentary farmers in parts of Africa throughout history. |
| Early exploration of North America (routes, distances, hardships, accounts and myths). | Similar early exploration of the African continent. |
| Native Americans being forced off their land and onto "reservations." (Native Americans were not granted full citizenship until 1924.) | Africans in many areas being forced off their land and onto Bantu "homelands" in South Africa today. |
| Our "War for Independence" from colonial rule, and the difficulties faced in developing national unity once the British "enemy" was gone. | The similar wars of African nationalists for their independence, and the difficulties they faced in developing a sense of "nation" once the common colonialist "enemy" was gone. |
| Our Civil War (after 75 years as a nation) to assure national consensus. | Africa's 20th Century "civil wars" (after only 30+ years as nations) which continue even today for similar purposes. |
| Colonial-period restrictions on American trade and industry under the British-dominated mercantile system. | Similar conditions in Africa before independence and today, where in many cases, political colonialism has been replaced by economic colonialism, i.e., neo-colonialism. |
| The U. S. remained a net importer of development capital until World War I. | The need of African nations today for development assistance. |
| Rapid urban growth and the move to cities with its accompanying problems (in 1790 the U.S. was only 5% urban, in 1880 still only 28% urban, and not until 1980 had it reached 78% urban, and even greater today). | African problems with the rapid "drift to the cities" and the accompanying problems in African nations today. |