However, one of the biggest failures of European line drawing liesin the center of the continent, the giant black hole known as theDemocratic Republic of the Congo-the DRC. Here is the land inwhich Joseph Conrad set his novella Heart of Darkness and it remainsa place shrouded in the darkness of war. It is a prime example of howthe imposition of artificial borders can lead to a weak and dividedstate, ravaged by internal conflict, and whose mineral wealth con-demns it to being exploited by outsiders.
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