Why there are no large empire in Moanda, Congo?

by BeatriceBernardo

I was looking at this picture

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/s9fb4t/here_are_all_of_the_rivers_and_waterways_in/

and then I can clearly see why Egypt became an ancient regional superpower. Just look at size of the basin, all those waters and nutrients and minerals got funneled to the Nile river and delta.

But then I realize that there is an even bigger basin, and that is the Congo, which mouth is the city Moanda. So why weren't there any Moandan empire?

Or maybe is my understanding where water + nutrients = empire is wrong?

Iphikrates

Hey there,

Just to let you know, your question is fine, and we're letting it stand. However, you should be aware that questions framed as 'Why didn't X do Y' relatively often don't get an answer that meets our standards (in our experience as moderators). There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it often can be difficult to prove the counterfactual: historians know much more about what happened than what might have happened. Secondly, 'why didn't X do Y' questions are sometimes phrased in an ahistorical way. It's worth remembering that people in the past couldn't see into the future, and they generally didn't have all the information we now have about their situations; things that look obvious now didn't necessarily look that way at the time.

If you end up not getting a response after a day or two, consider asking a new question focusing instead on why what happened did happen (rather than why what didn't happen didn't happen) - this kind of question is more likely to get a response in our experience. Hope this helps!