WI: Scramble for Africa Never Occurs

Hey guys! This is my first thread on this website. I was inspired after seeing a thread about Scandanavians in Africa, and wanted to take it to the next level - what would happen if the Scramble for Africa in the 19th century never happened? What factors could stop this from occurring? How would Europe be affected? What would Africa look like today?
 
It was probably pretty much inevitable because European nations needed resources of Africa and show their power. You can get lesser coloniser Africa but I think that it is pretty difficult to avoid scrambe of Africa.
 
Well, the continent can be viewed as inhospitable to "civilized" life. Get enough people to bleeive it and it's a self fulfilloing prosphecy
 
"Never happened" seems a bit much, but in the end, it doesn't seem hard to have the "Scramble for Africa" resulting in only some trading posts and a bunch of indigenous client states of European nations. Just have European nations not seek much more out of Africa other than shutting down the Transatlantic slave trade and in general, trade with the continent.

Africa would be a mixed bunch compared to today. There'd be many regions with GDPs 3-5 times higher, but other regions very comparable to OTL's economic development.

Europe wouldn't have to sink huge amounts of income into maintaining colonial garrisons, fighting colonial wars, etc., and most African colonies never turned a profit for Europeans anyway.

Well, the continent can be viewed as inhospitable to "civilized" life. Get enough people to bleeive it and it's a self fulfilloing prosphecy

And explorers and missionaries, who paved the way for European dominance, can prove that blatantly false, in large part because of new-fangled European medicine (quinine, etc.). And why would Europeans be afraid of uncivilised people with all their new military technology?
 
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