>>512633183 (OP)
French Colonization.
>but europeans colonized lots of places
No you don't understand. The French are still doing it.
There's a whole belt of african shitholes that are functionally puppet states of France. It keeps them trapped in a poverty cycle to maintain control, and forces its puppet rulers to import french exports at a premium to offset france's massive trade deficit.
France's economy is dependent on these countries remaining hell on earth. It provides all the policing for the regime, defacto controls their military and fights active wars against non-compliant regimes or anti-french revolutionaries which it frames as "counterterrorism" to its domestic audience. The french military has been engaged in active combat in the region pretty much nonstop since the 50s and is currently battling dozens of russian-backed coups spanning from coast to coast.
Obviously there are places in Africa outside of the french sphere of influence that are also shitholes but it cannot be overstated that the french are the niggers of europe and actively shitting on half a continent to prop up their failing economy.