Europeans sure did a lot to transform the world in the last few hundred years. As the rulers and managers, sure. There's little dispute there, but that begs the question "who did the work?" And the answer is often: enslaved people.
Howard French, a journalist with experience around the world, takes up the issue in his book Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War.
He makes the case that the modern world as we know it rests largely on the shoulders of people taken from Africa against their will. French argues further that the teaching of history needs to include this.
The author visits the JX to add details.