Pros and cons of Colonialism?

[abaris]

If those other counties had had the means they'd have done the same or worse to the West. No one is innocent. Many of those cultures were brutalizing each other long before Europeans came along. The Sioux fought the Cherakee. The Navaho fought the Apatche. Winners aren't always bad and losers aren't all saints.

That's a classic. Pointing fingers and saying, they did it too. As if that would make it any better, even when leaving out the major difference between tribal scuffles and outright conquest, with the only goal of exploiting a region and it's inhabitants for national gain. The most abyssmal experiment of all being the Kongo, privately owned by the Belgian king. The rule there was outright genocidal.

Which, partly, is responsible for a lot of the troubles we see today. A look at a map of the Middle East or Africa tells the tale quite clearly. No nation has straight borders, if it has grown naturally. These states are the results of colonial bureaucrats, sitting in their comfy offices at London, Paris, Brussels or Berlin and dividing the loot between them. Or to determine monocultural regions and structuring the economy accordingly. Giving no regards to the different ethnicities, cultures, religions, being forced into one big boiling kettle.