Introduction -- The importance of warfare -- Europe's urban rise -- Evaluating the safe harbor effect -- Evaluating the warfare-to-wealth effect -- Warfare to wealth in comparative perspective -- Epilogue

We show that the long-run consequences of historical warfare are different for Sub-Saharan Africa than for the rest of the Old World. We identify the locations of over 1,750 conflicts in Africa, Asia, and Europe from 1400 to 1799. We find that historical warfare predicts greater state capacity...