general characteristics

The following features are typical for the economy of Africa: a) versatility; b) low level economic development; c) the agrarian nature of the economy of most countries; d) a sharp delimitation in agriculture of commodity-export production, subsistence and small-scale farming, which serves local needs; ґ) the spread of monoculture in agriculture; e) the predominance of the mining industry in industrial production; there is) the preservation of the colonial character in foreign trade.

Important features of the location of the economy of most African countries are the concentration of economic activity in several centers and a significant gap in the levels of settlement and economic development of individual territories and countries.

There are relatively economically developed territories in Africa that are adjacent to the capitals - a bridge that became important economic centers back in the colonial period, as well as to ports, because of which raw materials are exported and where they are partially processed (Casablanca region in Morocco, Lagos in Nigeria , Alexandria in Egypt, Mombasi in Kenya, etc.). Significant industrial and economic centers arose in the zones of extraction of mineral raw materials (the centers of the "copper belt" in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, industrial centers associated with oil and gas areas in Algeria and Libya, industrial areas of the PAR).

Agriculture

Africa is a world supplier of many types of tropical plant-growing raw materials: cocoa, peanuts, palm oil, spices, etc. population growth. More than 1/3 of the area of ​​the mainland is used in Africa's agriculture. Under arable land and perennial plantations, about 7% is occupied, under pastures - 24% of the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe continent.

The main crops in Africa are millet, sorghum, corn, rice, wheat, barley; root crops - cassava, sweet potato, yams, containers; fruit - bananas (equatorial and subequatorial zones), date (oases of deserts) and oil palms (tropics), olive (subtropics). plantation economy in Africa it is quite developed, but less than in Latin America and Southeast Asia. In the tropical zone, only separate scattered areas of plantations arose.

On the territory of Africa, a significant part of the world's livestock and pack animals is concentrated. There are about 192 million heads of cattle, 210 million sheep, 176 million goats, 14 million camels on the continent. The leading place for livestock belongs to the countries of East Africa. However, animal husbandry as an area of ​​the economy has very low output rates.

In northern Africa, the bulk of agricultural production is produced in the subtropical zone of the Mediterranean and in the Nile valleys. In Morocco, Algeria, Sudan large areas are occupied by pastures. The most plowed part of Africa is the zone of savannas and equatorial forests in West Africa. In Central Africa, agricultural conditions economic activity quite diverse: in the main zones of the equatorial forests, there were lands, and in the shrouds there are significant pastures that can be effectively used only where there is no tsetse fly. East Africa has a significant base for the development of animal husbandry: more than 1/4 of the pastures of the mainland are located here, in almost all countries of the region 40-50% of the territory is used for grazing.

In West Africa, the main export crops are cocoa, peanuts, coffee, bananas, palm oil, rubber; in Central Africa - palm oil, coffee, cotton; in East Africa, cotton, tea, coffee, sisal, vanilla and cashew nuts; in North Africa - olive oil, citrus, wine. In Egypt and Sudan - mainly cotton.

The main reason for the backwardness of animal husbandry is the low level of livestock technology and the low marketability of production, which is largely due to the peculiarities of the customs of pastoral tribes.

African industry

A particle of Africa in the industrial production of the countries of the world is close to 2%. In Africa, the mining and timber industries, the areas of primary processing of raw materials (mineral and vegetable) have gained development. AT recent times enterprises of mechanical engineering, chemical industry, ferrous metallurgy, industry building materials. An important place in the economy of African countries is occupied by foreign capital. In most of the farms, the gross output of foreign and general enterprises represents close to half of the gross national product (Botswana, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Kenya, etc.).

The mining and mining and metallurgical industries are most developed in the African industry. Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo occupy a significant place in copper production, where the mines are concentrated in the "copper belt". In addition to copper, ores of other metals are mined in this belt, zinc, lead, cobalt, gold, silver, and uranium are enriched. In general, the mining industry is developed in 1/4 of the juveniles: but the main part of the production and extraction of the most important types of mining raw materials falls on the PAR, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Energy in Africa is underdeveloped. Africa has 1/10 of the world's oil and 1/5 of the world's water resources. There are large deposits of coal. The main fuel resource in African countries is oil, the deposits of which are concentrated in Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Egypt and the shelf. West Africa. The rivers of the Congo, Zambezi, Niger basins have a significant energy potential, but it is not used enough. The largest existing hydroelectric power plants are Aswan on the Nile, Caribou on the Zambezi, Kuindzhi on the Niger.

The manufacturing industry in African countries has not acquired much development. There are three forms production activities: 1) primary products, processing of export agricultural raw materials (cleaning of cotton, processing of coffee, cocoa, production of butter, sugar, wine juices) typical for those who export products Agriculture; 2) production of consumer goods; for local needs (handicraft production of fabrics, subject: home use, local food semi-finished products, drinks and products modern enterprises light and food industries. The textile industry belongs to the relatively developed regions (PAR, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia); 3) difficult industry (except for mining and smelting), poorly developed. The most common oil refineries and cement plants. Large enterprises of the mining and metallurgical industry concentrated in the PAR, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Egypt.

Foreign economic activity

The leading role in the foreign economic relations of African countries belongs to foreign trade. Exports are dominated by coal and agricultural raw materials, while imports are dominated by finished products. Oil is exported by Algeria, Nigeria, Libya, iron ores - Liberia, Mauritania, diamonds and gold - STEAM, copper - Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, STEAM, phosphates - Morocco, uranium - Niger, Gabon, cotton - Egypt, Sudan, Tanzania, coffee - Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Angola and others, peanuts - Senegal, Sudan, olive oil - Tunisia, Morocco.

Maritime transport mainly provides external relations of the countries of the region. Of great importance for shipping are the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates Africa and Europe (its distance is only 14 km) and connects the Suez Canal.

If we consider the economies of the countries of the region, it should be noted that after gaining independence, the share of industry and non-production spheres in their sectoral structure increased, but nevertheless, in most countries, the colonial type of sectoral structure of the economy remains. Its distinguishing features:

• the predominance of low-commodity, low-productive agriculture;
• weak development of the manufacturing industry;
• a strong backlog of transport;
• limiting the non-productive sphere mainly to trade and services;
• one-sidedness of economic development.

In many countries, the one-sidedness of the economy has reached the level of monoculture, which is understood as mono-commodity specialization ( narrow specialization in the production of one, as a rule, raw material or food product intended mainly for export).

Monoculture countries in Africa:

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Economy of Central Africa

In the countries of Central Africa, the contrasts in the levels of economic development and development of territories are no less great than in the distribution of the population. The inaccessibility and lack of development of some areas, the rapid development of others, where large foreign concession companies operate, have led to the extreme unevenness and fragmentation of economic development in many countries. Noticeable shifts in the recovery of the economies of the countries of the region began (with the exception of Zaire) only after the Second World War, especially after 1960, when national governments began to organize major works on the development of the network of means of communication and the technical equipment of transport, on the introduction of intensive commercial agriculture, on the exploration and development of mineral deposits.

Nevertheless, traditional occupations - agriculture and cattle breeding continue to be the main source of livelihood for 80% of the total population. The remoteness of the vast inland regions from the ocean and from the main transport routes makes it difficult to overcome their isolation and leaves little opportunity for their involvement in trade and in the system of territorial division of labor. This is one of the factors intensifying the migration of the rural population to the cities and other enclaves of the modern commodity economy. The depopulation of already sparsely populated areas where traditional consumer production dominates is one of the characteristic and very acute socio-economic problems in Central Africa, due to its pronounced division into zones of commodity and consumer production.

At the heart of consumer agriculture is the slash-and-burn system associated with the use of the natural fertility of the land. The main products of peasant labor in the northern savannas are millet and sorghum, in the forest areas - cassava, floury bananas (plantin), taro, and in some places rice, in the southern savannas - corn, peanuts, yams, cassava, beans, millet, ground peas. Although this production provides for the needs of the rural population, it does little for the cities, which have to import the bulk of the food they need.

Commercial production in agriculture is concentrated on large plantations established back in the colonial era (for example, the huge oil palm plantations of the Unilever company in Zaire), and is also carried out by small African farms cultivating both consumer and cash crops - coffee, cocoa, cotton. Among the suppliers of marketable products there are also European farmers who use modern agricultural practices. In a number of countries, the plantations of foreign firms have been nationalized.

Forest areas provide the most diverse and profitable cash crop products - palm oil, rubber, bananas, sugar cane, coffee, cocoa. In savannah areas, the range of crops targeted for sale is much more limited. The main place among them is occupied by cotton; tobacco and peanuts are also cultivated, and sugar cane is cultivated on the irrigated lands of low-lying coastal Angola. In terms of exports of agricultural raw materials and products, Cameroon and Angola occupy the leading places in the region.

In addition to agricultural products, forest areas also provide valuable timber, which is one of the most important resources of Central Africa. Central Africa supplies slightly over % of all tropical timber harvested on the continent. Local wood species such as okume mahogani and iroko are in great demand on the world market. The main suppliers of timber are Gabon and Zaire. Logging is carried out mainly in areas adjacent to the sea coast; huge forest resources in the deep regions of the river basin. The Congo remain undeveloped due to export difficulties. The timber industry is dominated by European companies, but the share of African entrepreneurs has increased significantly since independence.

For climatic reasons, pastoralism has become widespread only in the northern and southern savannahs. It's underway traditional methods as part of the consumer economy in Chad, in the Adamawa highlands (Cameroon), where the fulbe is bred a large cattle, on the highlands and plateaus of the regions of Zaire - Kivu, Shaba, Western and Eastern Kasai, as well as in the southern regions of Angola (cattle, sheep and goats). However, there are also limited areas of intensive animal husbandry that have arisen around the main industrial centers in the south of Zaire and around the capitals - Kinshasa and Brazzaville. Nevertheless, almost all Central African states import significant amounts of meat (mainly from Chad).

The coastal sea waters of Central Africa south of the equator abound in fish that find a favorable environment here (the cold Benguela Current). Fishing is one of the important sectors of the Angolan economy (annual catch exceeds 300,000 tons on average).

With the densest and richest river network on the entire African continent, Central Africa has colossal reserves of hydraulic energy. According to very incomplete data (only some of the most promising river sections have been studied), the hydropower potential of the region is 850-900 billion kWh per year. i.e. more than half of the hydraulic energy reserves of all of Africa and 17-18% of the world's potential (with only 1% of the world's population). Only on one river Congo in its lower reaches, you can build a cascade of power plants with a capacity of 25-30 million kW. However, the implementation of such a project would be economically justified only with the simultaneous creation of an appropriate network of electricity consumers - primarily the largest energy-intensive enterprises of electrometallurgy and electrochemistry. There are not yet sufficient prerequisites for the deployment of such a grandiose construction. In the meantime, very modest, although important on a local scale, hydropower construction projects are being implemented.

Oil resources are available in the coastal strip of Angola (in Cabinda) and in Gabon - in the area of ​​Port Gentil and in the zone of coastal lagoons, where relatively large deposits were discovered in 1956 (oil production in each of these countries is 10-12 million tons per year ). Natural gas deposits are exploited in Gabon and Zaire, where they supply fuel to local power plants.

Central Africa has large reserves various kinds mineral raw materials. Most important deposits metal ores are found in the southern regions of Zaire and in the plateau zones of the Central African Empire and Gabon. The main mining region of Central Africa is the southern part of Shaba (Zaire), where copper ore and ores of associated metals - cobalt, zinc, lead, etc. are mined. The diamond mining region in the south of the Western and Eastern Kasai (Zaire) regions is the world's largest supplier of industrial diamonds (70% of world exports). There are also significant diamond developments in neighboring Angola.

After the Second World War, new mineral deposits were discovered and developed - tin ore and gold in the eastern part of the Congo, manganese and uranium ores in Gabon. The latter took the third place in the world in the extraction of manganese ore. Angola ranked third in Africa in terms of iron ore mining. underway preparatory work and projects are being developed for the development of newly discovered large deposits of uranium in the Central African Empire, potash salts, oil and iron ore in the Congo, high-quality iron ore in Gabon, bauxite in Cameroon.

The exploitation of mineral resources creates the basis for the development of the most important industrial centers of the region. Particularly stands out the southern region of Shaba, where non-ferrous metallurgy is concentrated. Plants for the smelting of copper and zinc process all the ore of these metals mined in the region. The presence of numerous work force near metallurgical centers gave impetus to the growth of a number of other industries (especially textiles). In Edea (Cameroon) there is a large aluminum plant that processes alumina, which is still imported from Guinea. Oil refineries have been built in Port Gentil (Gabon), Matadi (Zaire) and Luanda (Angola). Having relatively large centers of heavy industry, Central Africa, however, cannot yet use them as a basis for the comprehensive development of the manufacturing industry. The absence of the necessary intermediate links does not allow, with a few exceptions, to organize complete production cycles - from the extraction of raw materials to the production of finished products. The region's heavy industry is almost entirely export-oriented.

Among other branches of the manufacturing industry, the most important are the woodworking, textile and food industries, serving both external and internal markets (mainly cities); The processing of timber and agricultural raw materials has a predominantly export orientation. The textile industry is the most developed, where a full cycle is carried out - from the primary processing of cotton to the production of fabrics and ready-made dresses. food industry largely associated with the processing of products destined for export (primary processing of cocoa beans and raw coffee, oil mills, fruit juice factories and canning factories). To meet the needs of the urban population in the countries of the region, sugar factories have been built (in Zaire, Congo and Angola), tobacco factories, new breweries are being built and existing breweries are expanding.

As in other regions of Africa, due to the policy of import substitution own production there is a growing number of enterprises producing finished products from imported parts and semi-finished products (car and bicycle assembly plants, plants for assembling transistor radios, electrical and electronic equipment, enterprises for the production of plastics, household chemicals, etc.).

The expansion of the production of consumer goods is constrained by extremely narrow domestic markets, the distance of communications, the underdevelopment of transport and trading network which hinders the exchange of goods not only between the countries of the region, but also between separate parts of the same country.

With the exception of port cities, where the production of consumer goods predominates, the industrial centers of the region suffer primarily from the long distances that connect them to the sea coast. Particularly unfavorable in economic and geographical terms is the position of the Shaba region in the south of Zaire: mineral raw materials have to be exported from here through the Angolan port of Lobito (about 2 thousand km by rail) or at least a long transit route through Zambia, Southern Rhodesia and Mozambique (the port of Beira) , or through the territory of Zaire, but with even greater difficulties - a mixed railway-water route going through Ilebo and Kinshasa to the port of Matadi. From the Central African Empire, goods are delivered to the sea in a mixed way, by road, water, and rail. In Gabon, the development of a large iron ore deposit could not begin until the completion of the railway linking it with the new ore port of Owendo near Libreville.

The bulk of all foreign trade traffic in Central Africa is carried out through 6 seaports: through the port of Douala, all cargoes related to the overseas trade of Cameroon, and a significant part of the foreign trade cargo of Chad and CAI, pass; oil and ore are exported through Port Gentil, which account for the predominant part of Gabon's maritime cargo turnover; Pointe-Noire is a port of the Congo and a transit port for the Central African Empire; Matadi serves the overseas trade of Zaire, Lobita serves the trade links of the central and southern parts of Angola. The port of Luanda provides an outlet to the overseas market for products from the northern and central parts of Angola. Due to the inaccessibility of the interior regions of Central Africa big role in the transportation of goods, air transport plays for them.

About 75% of all foreign trade Central Africa falls on Western Europe, and the main trading partners of the countries included in the region remain their former mother countries - France, Belgium and Portugal. Mineral raw materials and fuel account for 50% of exports, agricultural products - 40%, timber - 10%. Imports, coming mainly from the EEC countries and the USA, are dominated by industrial and transport equipment, semi-finished products, spare parts for machinery, finished consumer goods and food products. Trade between countries in the region remains very limited. A prominent place in it is occupied by oil products and timber from Gabon. The Republic of Chad supplies its neighbors with cotton, live cattle (for slaughter) and meat. An important source of income for Angola comes from transit traffic for some neighboring countries.

Since 1964 there has been a Customs and economic union Central Africa, uniting the Central African Empire, Gabon, Congo and Cameroon (until 1968 also Chad). The member states of the Union are planning the gradual creation common market, within which their citizens, goods and capital will move freely. The tax policy of the member states of the Union is being coordinated, attempts are being made to coordinate individual projects of economic development.

In 1968, another organization was created with similar goals - the Union of Central African States, which included Zaire and Chad.

If there is a row common features The countries of Central Africa also have significant differences related to their geographical position, the degree of population and distribution of the population, and the nature of the exploited resources. As elsewhere in Africa, remoteness from the sea coast creates additional obstacles for the economic development of the deep territories of the region. True, two countries - the Central African Empire and Chad do not have access to the ocean here. However, some large areas of Cameroon, Congo and especially Zaire are also experiencing great inconvenience due to difficulties in communicating with overseas markets. But proximity to the ocean does not always provide sufficient incentive for the development of potentially rich subsoil resources, tropical forests and marine waters. Gabon, for example, until the completion of the trans-Gabonese railway can only make little use of the natural resources of the hinterland. This factor is less pronounced in neighboring Congo: although the average population density is only slightly higher here, the majority of the country's inhabitants (more than 75%) are concentrated in the zone of the southern savannas between Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. The relative concentration of the population near the sea coast, along with other reasons (in particular the degree of urbanization), has allowed the Congo to advance significantly further in some important indicators of socio-economic development.

But perhaps the most important factor in the economic shifts in this region was the development of large deposits of valuable metal ores. It is the countries that occupy key positions in the extraction and processing of these ores that are leading in the field of urbanization and increasing the marketability of their agriculture. These include Zaire, Cameroon and Congo. Of course, each of these countries is characterized by the strongest contrasts between individual regions, like the whole of Central Africa as a whole, but large industrial, transport and trade hubs have developed here, which in the future can become the nuclei of a broader process of socio-economic transformation. This applies primarily to the Shaba region in Zaire. The specificity of the mineral resources exploited here (their scarcity in the world) is such that even a great distance from the ports of export did not interfere with their development (which is very unusual for Africa). Moreover, paradoxical as it may seem at first glance, the difficulties of communication with overseas countries - consumers of raw materials and suppliers finished products- contributed to the development in this mining region of a relatively diverse set of industrial facilities that process local raw materials for export and for domestic market: significant costs of transportation over long distances led to the creation on the spot of large enterprises of non-ferrous metallurgy (mainly for the production of blister and refined copper), oriented to overseas markets industrial countries; on the other hand, various enterprises designed to satisfy also local demand (metalworking, chemical, textile, shoe, food) experience less sensitive competition from imported goods than in coastal areas.

Thus, one of the main features of the originality of Central Africa in comparison with other regions of Tropical Africa is the presence on its periphery, in the depths of the mainland, of a relatively powerful commercial and industrial region, surpassing the coastal regions in its importance. This creates relatively favorable prospects for the economic development of the region as a whole.

Economically, North Africa is one of the most developed regions of the continent. It accounts for about 40% of the combined gross domestic product of all African countries excluding South Africa.

In terms of the level of industrialization, North Africa has significantly outstripped the regions of Tropical Africa. Significant oil reserves and its relatively low cost have allowed the region to become one of the most important suppliers of "black gold" to the world market. Until the 1970s, the oil wealth of the North African countries remained largely usurped by foreign monopoly companies. The broad development of the national liberation movement in these countries allowed them to establish national sovereignty over their oil wealth. In addition to oil, the region has large reserves of phosphorites and is a major supplier of this valuable raw material to the world market. There are also other minerals ( iron ore, polymetals, raw materials for aluminum production, etc.), which every year are increasingly involved in production and partially exported.

The manufacturing industry relies heavily on widespread handicraft production. Metal, stone processing, weaving, manufacturing jewelry originated here many centuries ago, as evidenced by the preserved monuments of material culture. The products of Arab craftsmen made of gold, silver, copper, carpets and other goods have always been highly valued in international markets due to the taste of craftsmen and the subtlety of work. Among the export items and today a prominent place is occupied by handicraft products.

By the time the countries of North Africa gained independence, the majority of their industrial production consisted of handicrafts and a small number of factory enterprises in the food processing, textile and mining industries. During the years of independence, new factory productions have appeared that were previously absent here in the industry (electric power, engineering, petrochemistry).

In the construction of a number of enterprises of heavy, as well as light industry The Soviet Union and other socialist countries provided substantial assistance to the North African countries. Almost all countries in the region employ local specialists trained in the socialist states.

Most of the region's population derives its livelihood from agriculture. Many modern methods agriculture and land reclamation originated in this region in distant historical epochs.

The lack of water resources to a large extent limits the development of the vast expanses of North Africa, and largely determines the geography of agriculture. An important feature of the territorial specialization of the economy is the concentration of production of export crops on the coastal Mediterranean and partly Atlantic plains, as well as in the Nile Delta and Valley. In the same areas, the manufacturing industry developed, large cities grew up - trade, transport and industrial centers. At the same time, the mountainous and semi-desert regions of the Atlas and the Atlas foothills, the Sinai, the Sahara, and the Libyan Desert remained centers of semi-subsistence farming. Only in those zones where large reserves of oil, gas, phosphorites and other minerals were discovered did large mining enterprises grow, connected to ports of export on the Mediterranean Sea by a network of oil pipelines and other transport routes.

Most countries have a predominantly backward agrarian economy with a relatively developed mining industry. The commodity sector of the economy, focused on the production of products for the foreign market, is weakly involved in meeting the internal needs of these countries. The semi-natural sector is dominated by grain farming (cultivation of wheat, barley, corn, legumes), distant pasture and nomadic cattle breeding (mainly small cattle breeding), the products of which are used to satisfy the domestic market.

Due to historical reasons, including long-term colonial exploitation, agriculture in a number of countries is very backward, and the peasantry is the poorest part of the working population. The bulk of the fellahs (peasants) lead a semi-subsistence or small-scale economy, and are subjected to oppression by the landowners, kulaks, and usurers. Hundreds of thousands of peasants do not have land and are forced to work for hire from wealthy landowners. At the same time, the predominant part of the fellah landowners has such small plots of land that they are unable to feed their families.

Overcoming the heavy legacy of colonialism, a number of countries in North Africa have embarked on the path of important socio-economic transformations. Foreign monopolies are increasingly losing key positions in the economy, primarily in the financial and banking sector, trade, and industrial production. Command positions are moving predominantly into the hands of the public sector, which makes it possible to concentrate significant financial resources and direct them to the development of national production.

Independent Algeria has set as its long-term goal the building of a socialist society. Many progressive socio-economic transformations were also carried out in Egypt in the 1960s, but later imperialism, in alliance with internal reaction, managed to turn the country onto the path of capitalist development and eliminate the progressive gains of the Egyptian revolution.

French and Italian colonists were expelled from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, who seized the best lands there and founded capitalist farms on them, in which the cheap labor of the local population was used. After gaining independence, these farms in Algeria were nationalized. State self-governing and cooperative farms arose in their place. In other countries of the Maghreb, either privately owned or cooperative farms were created in place of foreign farms. In Egypt, during the era of revolutionary democratic transformations (1952-1970), tens of thousands of landless and land-poor peasants acquired land allotments as a result of the transfer of state and part of the former landowners' lands to them, etc.

During the years of independence, the peoples of North Africa have taken a significant step forward along the path of socio-economic transformations, but the tasks that they have to solve on the way to eradicating the backwardness and poverty of the bulk of the population are enormous. After all, the remnants of semi-feudal and usurious exploitation still remain. The development of capitalism leads to the ruin of the peasants, the growth of the army of the unemployed. The main tools of the peasants' labor are a wooden plow and a heavy hoe. Bulls, cows, donkeys, camels and mules are the main draft force. Due to the lack of water for irrigation of fields, fertilizers and pesticides to control agricultural pests, agricultural productivity is low. Frequent droughts systematically lead to crop failures and starvation of the local population. However, even in good years, food is scarce.

Grain and other agricultural products are imported from the USA, Western Europe and Australia. Food imports require significant expenditures of hard currency, which is sorely scarce for the countries of North Africa, and is one of the most important reasons for the deficit in their trade and payment balance. In addition, foreign monopoly circles often use food shortages as an instrument of political pressure on the countries of the region.

In the international division of labor, North Africa acts as one of the most important suppliers of energy fuel, phosphorites, high-quality long-staple cotton and cotton products, as well as a number of subtropical agricultural products.

Imported by North African countries mainly industrial equipment, semi-finished products and food products, as well as a number of consumer goods. The main suppliers of these goods are the Western European capitalist countries, the USA and Japan. During the years of independence, there has been a significant trend towards the purchase of many industrial goods in the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.

The countries of North Africa carry out international economic relations by sea and air routes of communication. Most of the transportation of goods and passengers is carried out vehicles foreign monopoly companies. However, in recent years, national transport enterprises serving international transportation have been developing more and more.

The internal transport network of the economically developed territories is relatively well developed. In the coastal regions of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, in the delta and the Nile Valley, automobile and railway transport. In Egypt and Sudan, a significant addition to them is the transportation of goods and passengers along the Nile. In the era of colonialism, the development of infrastructure in the countries of North Africa was carried out mainly for military-strategic purposes. The created transport network was supposed to ensure the export of valuable raw materials from the North African countries to the capitalist states of Western Europe. During the years of independence, the infrastructure of the North African countries has been significantly modernized, railways were switched to diesel traction, new highways, airfields, sea and river ports appeared, new oil pipelines were built.

In general, the following main zones of economic activity can be distinguished in North Africa: 1) the oil and gas producing zone of the Central Sahara and the Sinai Peninsula; 2) phosphorite-producing zone of the Atlantic plains and the coast of the Red Sea (in Morocco, Egypt); 3) zone of irrigated agriculture, specializing mainly in the production of long-staple cotton in the delta and valley of the Nile; 4) the zone of rainfed agriculture of the foothills of the Atlas and the Mediterranean plains, where mainly grain crops are produced (barley, wheat, corn, sorghum); 5) a zone of subtropical fruit and vegetable growing in the foothills of the Atlas, the coastal plains of the Mediterranean, where mainly grapes, olives, and citrus fruits are cultivated; 6) the zone of oasis agriculture of the Sahara, where dates, rice, citrus fruits are grown; 7) the zone of nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralism of the Sahara, Atlas and Sinai, where small cattle and camels are bred, etc.

Africa covers almost a quarter of the earth's land surface, is the second largest continent, second only to Eurasia in area, and includes 55 states. African land is attractive in industrial plan, because it has many mineral deposits, and is interesting from the point of view of science, because it is supposedly the source of the origin of mankind.

Population

More than a billion people live on the African continent, which is 1/7 of the world's population. This is a multi-ethnic land: several hundred peoples coexist on it. Some of them number more than 5 million people (for example, Egyptians, Algerians, Moroccans), others are on the verge of extinction (such as the Mursi tribe from Ethiopia, the nomadic Masai people from Tanzania, etc.).

The division of state borders in Africa was not the same as on other continents: ethnic characteristics were not taken into account. Ultimately, this led to interethnic conflicts, which still happen today.

Many African countries use the official languages ​​of the former colonizers: French, English and Portuguese. Along with them, the Arabic language has state status (excluding South Africa).

The local population has a unique feature:

• almost everyone living in Africa knows several languages ​​and dialects (local for everyday communication, interethnic for contact with other tribes and European for communications with government agencies);
• the literacy rate is only 50% according to 2007 data (northern lands are not taken into account).

Africa has the largest percentage of population growth in the world. According to published statistics, the number of inhabitants of this continent will double by the middle of the 21st century.

The industrial economy of Africa has two key points on which the entire production of the continent is based.

The first is the Witwatersrand, a mountain range. According to ongoing developments, in the rocks of these mountains, there are about 10 g of gold per ton of "bare" land. Pass through the Witwatersrand transport routes communications between the cities of South Africa. The same zone includes the so-called copper belt, which links Angola, Mozambique and Tanzania by rail.

The second key branch unites Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon and Côte d'Ivoire. Oil and other minerals are mined here.

Thus, the mining industry occupies a leading position on the African continent. In terms of this industry, the mainland is on a par with other states, and monopolizes some markets (for example, gold or diamonds). Despite the impressive success in mining, the manufacturing industry in Africa is in a difficult position: it is represented only by light and food industries.

The continent is also experiencing minor problems with the production of transport: the engineering industry is developing poorly.

African agriculture

Due to the hot climate, low supply of water resources and a large area of ​​desert lands, Africa in the share of world agriculture takes only 3-5%. Although the position of the continent in the production of some crops is very impressive:

• 67% cocoa beans;
• 46% sisal;
• 39% cassava;
• 33% coffee.

On the territory of African states, corn, wheat and rice are actively cultivated. Fiber crops are grown in Nigeria, Egypt and Sudan, and tropical Africa- oil palm.

Fishing is completely undeveloped on the continent: it accounts for 1-2% of all agriculture. Animal husbandry is also in a difficult situation. This is partly due to the spread of the tsetse fly on the lands, which infects cattle and small livestock.

The agrarian system of African lands is curious. Communal landholdings successfully coexist with feudal, cooperative and plantation orders. And despite the small share of agriculture in the world, on its mainland, this industry occupies about 80% of the total GDP.