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by afandian
3595 days ago
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Hm. Lots of people believed that the British Empire was absolutely fantastic. In reality, though it brought lots of trade to Britain, I don't think there was much interaction with the Empire for the normal person on the street. If they had actually known what atrocities had been committed in order to get them that rubber or cotton would they have been so happy about it? I think modern shame is very much the product of modern access to information. (To counter that point, most people can reasonably be expected to know where their bananas and palm oil came from and they still buy them) |
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Lets put the atrocities to one side for a moment. We should also consider the fact that in many cases colonial invasions put into place highly extractive political institutions and extractive economic institutions. That's relevant for the long term. In almost all cases, the colonial governments put into place winner-take-all environments. That meant, if you were willing to be the corrupt puppet native leader, and were willing to supress your other natives at all costs, then you got to be "King". The structures created in those colonial countries still maintain such winner-take-all society which results in authoritarian/dictatorial leaders.