On the whole, a huge benefit. This is not to say that European rule was always beneficial or motivated by the highest standards. Rather it is to point out that the ideas that followed European rule were generally beneficial and certainly preferable to some of the ideas that permeated the rest of the world.
The Enlightenment, with its notions of "natural rights," "democracy" and the "nobility of man," came from Europe and followed Europeans into their empires. Indeed, it was these ideas that, paradoxically, inspired the natives of the colonized lands to seek freedom and ultimately independence. Prior to these ideas, most empires in what is today called the "third world" were merely, in the eyes of the natives, one set of rulers for another set of rulers. Their worth judged by the utilitarian standard of the prosperity and stability they brought, with no thought of freedom or of human rights.
In a way, paradoxically, the Europeans imported some of these ideas from what would become their empires. Judaism and Christianity, the latter of which came to dominate Europe, after all, were born in the Middle East. Their ideas of God's law and man's centrality as a a "child of God" becoming the unintentional foundation of which the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment would later be built.
Plus, it must not be imagined that European rule was an unmixed blessing. The Europeans did not always rule in full consistency with the ideas they espoused. Further, for as many good ideas came from Europe, some decidedly bad ones came as well. See also Marxism as Exhibit A.
However, on balance, and this is a matter of weighing the goods and the bads against a realistic standard of the limits and limitations of human imperfection, European rule of much of the world must be judged, by historical standards, a good thing. For alternative visions, see also the brutal rule of the Mongol hordes, the binding of women's feet and other such innovations.
Everyone colonized the world in different locations at different time periods throughout human history. Many wars were fought. Borders, cultures, and religions in specific regions fluctuated often. Europeans just had the most current empires and separated themselves from the rest of the world through rapid acceleration of technology and development of philosophy leading to overall dominance on Earth. That said, things can always change and generally do in time. Energy is running low. Economic dominance needs a steady supply of energy and those sources are finite.
s As someone who is black and is from a country that was colonized I think it was a series of misfortunes, lies, violence, injustice and evilness. There wasn't anything good about colonization.
Unfortunately no one who is alive today can change what happened but we all can learn from it so it doesn't happen again.
The deaths of 90% of the indigenous people in north and south america means it's an absolute tragedy
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I don't think anything of it. It's the history of humans - homo sapiens. It's the history of Homo erectus. For that matter it's the history of all animals and plants if you want to look at it that way.
Here in the Americas, there were at least three waves of colonization before the Europeans stepped foot on the continents. There is more and more evidence that there were more waves than that.
Humans were nomadic hunter gathers throughout most of their history. Every now and then they'd find a nice fertile place and stop. Some of them would break away and eventually do the same thing someplace else.
This is just how humans are. It's how all of life works. I don't feel guilty for being human. I also don't feel guilty for what other humans do.
A lot of the shit was going on before places were colonised.
also Empire is pretty much as old as man.
we need a new temple built, the people don’t want to build any more, okay let’s attack country xyz, they can build it for us.
one the main things that came along with colonisation was democracy, yes it took a while to get started, however nearly all countries colonised by Europeans are in some flavour, democracies.
Then there is technology, they had a boost to the industrial Revolution.
Right, because the Arabs and the Chinese and the Bantu and the Persians and the Hindis and the Mongols and the Aztecs and the Incans and the Lakota and the Cherokee and the Pawnee, yeah, none of them ever enslaved or ethnically cleansed or conquered anybody. Naw, white people invented that out of the clear blue sky lmao.
Nigga please.
Why limit it the Europeans? The Asians DWARF their colonial efforts, and China's continuing it to this very day; they'll probably own half oy Africa before they're done.
There wouldn’t be no USA, no Canada, no New Zealand, no South Korea, no Australia, etc.
They created and helped stabilize many countries creating places for people to live all around the world. I am thankful.
It happened. The world today is like it is because they did. My life is better for it as I live in a wealthy country. Others suffered. Tough one
Pretty sure people were enslaving others and forming empires through conquest long before Europe was even an idea.
Some cultures are better than others.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/MkEqI3_J4xg
they had the intellectual capability to do so and should do it again in many areas of the world. Everyone would be better off
Good for them. Indigenous peoples could have been doing the same instead of hunting and gathering. Europeans had ambition
It's funny that they got beasted on and lost all their American territories bar a few like French Guyana. The salt they feel about it makes me happy
The current world of the last 2000 years. you're leaving out a lot of other “colored” empires….
Colonialization is horrible, period.
Well now it is what it is
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