The history of Africa has long been relegated to the remote outskirts of our global story. What if, instead, we put the continent at the very center of our thinking about the origins of modernity? In a sweeping narrative spanning more than six centuries, Howard French reframes the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in the West, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe's engagement with the "dark" continent.