Where steppes were moderately distant from sedentary communities, as in eastern Eurasia, there was space for both nomads and sedentaries to scale up their offensive and defensive capabilities, allowing both groups to engage in conquest. Where steppes are located in and around sedentary development, as in the Middle East and North Africa, there was less scaling up and more localized conquests in which the nomadic/sedentary distinction is less critical. However, if sedentary communities are both poor and relatively weak, as in sub-Saharan Africa, slave raiding became a particularly pronounced motivating factor for raiding and conquests and was not necessarily restricted to nomads. In Africa, locals, Arabs, and Europeans ultimately competed as slave raiders.