This thesis examines the fundamental role of natural resources in African state-building and development. I show how the economic organization of the colonial state around a limited number of cash crops and minerals continues to affect subnational variation in important political outcomes. More specifically, I examine how colonial resource extraction continues to shape spatial inequality, unequal ethnopolitical representation, ethnic identity salience, and armed conflict. I propose a macro-historical political geography framework that accounts for the dynamic interplay between geographic endowments, external demand and technology shocks, and political institution building. I apply this framework to the colonial age and derive specific imp...