I was reading about the history of the Island Republic of Mauritius for unrelated reasons, which led me down the colonization rabbit hole.
What a crazy period of history. A handful of European nations sailing around the world saying “this is ours! and this is ours! and this too!”
With the people who already living there going, “um… excuse me ☝️”
it’s ridiculous.
What’s crazy is not only the manifest destiny bs but the “we are helping the impoverished savages” take as well
it’s an interesting phenomenon… the creation of narrative and ideology to achieve a goal, at the expense of conscience, and other people.
and there is always peer pressure momentum involved. to support the collective, and not question the goal.
but this kind of self hypnosis occurs to this day.
ironically, it halo frequently in the people who want to “undo the colonizers”. who really are not much different than they were, and are not much more than angry racists, with just another ideology that favors one group, and excludes another.
Yes! Love your thoughts.
One other spicy take, the alternate viewpoint that is, is that there was a huge discrepancy in quality of life in one part of the world than the other, and the process was an attempt to equalize things.
However, no deal was fair it seems, as influence or control in exchange for “assistance” in development seemed to purvey.
I always remind myself that we remember the bad actors more than the good when looking back as well.
Cheers to your studies! 🥂🍻
Funny but it's not. Yeah, crazy how that whole era went down, once you understand what the incentives and collateral effects were.
