From the times of military conquest countries that had a strong military became rich and other countries have to pay tribute to them then to the time's of agricultural age which culminated into slave trade because those who owned the farm/ Lands wanted people to work for them and again they became the economic super powers and because slave trade was not sustainable a new era was introduced and that was colonisation and those who had colonies became the economic super powers and because colonisation was not sustainable it was again dropped
A strong military is still a key determining factor in the wealth of any nation. Nations with advanced weapons can easily manipulate the economy of other nations and benefit from it. It is also common for these militarily strong countries to sell these sophisticated weapons to other nations and make a whole lots of profit. Almost all economically stable nations are major supplies or weapons.
This lead me to make some study and I have come up with a conclusion that every generations that passes has a gold mine for any country that has the foresight to see and tape into it and become the powerful nations of the world
I have come to conclusion that we are now in the knowledge Economy and any country that has invested into it knowledge Base are again the super economic power house of the world, it's a common saying that ideas rule the world and that knowledge is power of recent china is becoming a economic threat to the us, UK and their allies it's because they have invested into their knowledge base and what they get in return is what is seen in their rise in world economy
STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education is the right kind of education which can lead to meaningful development in any country. Days are gone when oil and gas firms are the richest in the world. Today technological firms are more richer than these firms that deal on extractive production. We are seeing the artificial intelligence industry developing and becoming more profitable and these advanced nations are taking advantage of it.
China was a struggling nation few decades ago but they were able to give the population the right education which made them productive. They also sent some students to the US and other Western nation to study relevant course . These students where able to learn and steal some technical skills from the US and others who which was used to improve the science and technology industry of China.
I want to conclude my assertions that developing countries especially Africa can't make any progress with out making a considerable investment into it knowledge Base
It is sad to see the government of my country sending students abroad on scholarships to study the Arabic language or Latin language. Africans have not gotten the right education and the leaders are making no effort to make it happen. Education in Africa is a total failure because they don't reflect the current global needs. Most science schools in Africa don't have a library, electricity, or even a laboratory for experiments. Until Africa leaves theoretical education and channels more efforts to practical education, the continent will continue to be backward scientifical and economically.