ABSTRACT

Christian missionaries spread across the African continent in the early twentieth century following the expansion of colonial control, and invested in various areas of African societies in order to gain converts. This paper describes the recent literature in economic history that attempts to document and estimate the long-run impacts of Christian missions, including outstanding issues in the literature. The paper summarizes recent studies that attempt to tackle these issues. One conclusion is that more micro data is needed on the evolution of African societies as a result of missionary activities in order to fully document the mechanisms behind the long-run impact of missions.

摘要

二十世纪初，随着殖民控制的扩大，基督教传教士遍布非洲大陆，并在非洲社会的各个领域进行投资，以获得皈依者。本文描述了近期经济史上的文献，这些文献试图记录和估计基督教宣教的长期影响，包括文献中的突出问题。本文总结了最近试图解决这些问题的研究。一个结论是，由于传教活动，需要更多关于非洲社会演变的微观数据，以便充分记录传教长期影响背后的机制。