For four centuries, the Portuguese arrived everywhere in Africa; however, in 1900, the Africans had virtually remained in the Stone Age. They had not been tempted to copy us in what was superior about us.
By contrast, let us observe Japan. In 1853, the American captain Matthew Perry obtained, through force, an agreement in favour of some who had been shipwrecked. In 1856, Townsend Harris91
was the first Western envoy at Yedo.92
Nevertheless, up to 1865, the xenophobic Shogun clan persisted in wanting isolation. In 1868, a volte-face and from then on Japan was westernised at an extraordinary speed. The French engineer Ēmile Berlin created the Japanese war fleet; the English perfected it and, from the beginning of the 20th century, Japan was a modern power! The Japanese realised in 40 years what the blacks could not realise in 400 years. Inequality of races, there’s the explanation!