How can we trace early African development? The share of rulers’ known birth year has been identified as an indicator of elite numeracy in African regions since 1400, and the share of murdered rulers allows us to gain insights into interpersonal violence behaviour of African elites. From this emerges a dynamic picture of quantitative African history: the absence of elite violence and high elite numeracy developed jointly in sub-Saharan Africa. Some African regions, such as today’s Ethiopia and Angola, took the lead in early development but also experienced severe declines. Development in Africa was, on average, later than in Northwestern Europe.

中文翻译：

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从公元 1400 年到公元 1950 年非洲的精英暴力和精英算术

我们如何追踪非洲早期的发展？自 1400 年以来，统治者已知出生年份的比例已被确定为非洲地区精英计算能力的指标，而被谋杀统治者的比例使我们能够深入了解非洲精英的人际暴力行为。由此出现了定量非洲历史的动态图景：在撒哈拉以南非洲共同发展了精英暴力和高精英计算能力的缺乏。一些非洲地区，例如今天的埃塞俄比亚和安哥拉，在早期发展中处于领先地位，但也经历了严重的衰退。平均而言，非洲的发展晚于西北欧。