Why did centralized states developed in interlacustrine region and not in arid areas?
A state means the political unit with the centralize power to provide necessary services like security needed by the people as well as collecting taxes.
Interlacustrine regions fares to the areas around Lake Victoria. Basically, in interlacustrine region there was for motion of centralized states like Karagwe, Buganda and Bunyoro, which were influenced by geographical setting to the area.
The formation of these states was due to the influence of pre-colonial societies to create social, political and economic development.
The following are the central arguments on the reasons as to why centralized states developed in interlacustrine region and not in arid areas.
Development of agricultural activities like bananas, maize. This was the one of the factor that facilitated the formation of centralized state in intercustrine regions since the agriculture was developed as these areas received high amount of rainfall throughout the year compared to semi arid areas, which has a tendency of receiving low amount of rainfall in this case arid areas did not support agricultural development.
The emergency of large population influenced agriculture, which went hand in hand with the emergence of surplus population. The emergence of large population facilitated the emergence of centralized states in interlacustrine region since the population provided labor in production activities as well as acted as market contrary to arid areas, which tend to have low population due to poor production.
The emergence and development of trade especially long-distance trade. This was a contributing factor for the development of centralized states in intercustrine region since the trade facilitated the growth of population, which is contrary to semi arid region where the trade was not developed.
The emergence of good geographical location especially equatorial region. The regions around Lake Victoria had a tendency of receiving high amount of rainfall throughout the year, which is unlike to semi- arid region. Due to this reason, it contributed greatly to the emergence of centralized states to the intercustrine region since the geographical location encouraged population growth, which in a sense promoted the development of agriculture as well as development of of trade within these regions.
The presence of strong leadership like Rumanyika. The emergence of strong leaders like Rumanyika, Kabaka Mutesa motivated the formation of centralized states since they were able to encourage unity and solidarity among the people, which is contrary to semi-arid region.
Generally, the emergence and development of centralized states in intercustrine region verify (signifies) the development of political system in pre-colonial African societies as the European claimed that there was no development of any kind before the advent of colonialism which is not historically fact.
