You should perhaps begin by educating yourself to the actual role that Germany did play in the colonization of the African continent in the late 19th and early 20th century: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_colonial_empire . I would not call this particularly far in history since it only ended in the 1910s.
> But it doesn't really matter, as I said. Nobody who was around back then is still alive today.
Did the people that were alive then give back their ill-gotten gains to the exploited, or did they retain and pass on their advantaged position to their heirs who leveraged them for further gains?
My point here was to demonstrate the way in which your nation's present day wealth was bolstered by its historical oppression. The labor value that European nations were able to extract from their colonies was extremely high. The nation you currently live in benefitted materially from this. You benefitted from this. That probably doesn't feel good to hear but it is not a fact you can choose to accept or not.
It's also important to remember that when comparing the magnitude of atrocities, both things were still atrocities.
I think history is far more messy than you make it out to be. There are not always easy black and white answers.
I don't think the brief colonial episode simply explains the wealth of my country (or many others) - especially as in between it had been completely destroyed.
But that's also, again, besides the point. History was complex. All sorts of people made war with each other, murdered and enslaved. Including people in the African continent. That's what humans were and are. Maybe those warmongering people simply earned their exploits, "fair and square" so to speak - we may not like it, but who is going to take it away from them, and on what grounds?
But the theory that wealth is only a result of exploitation is completely wrong. Our wealth in the modern world is mostly the result of technological progress, not of exploitation.
> I don't think the brief colonial episode simply explains the wealth of my country (or many others) - especially as in between it had been completely destroyed.
The fact that your nation lost stolen wealth does not absolve it of the crime of theft friend.
> But the theory that wealth is only a result of exploitation is completely wrong. Our wealth in the modern world is mostly the result of technological progress, not of exploitation.
I did not say that, you are straw manning my argument. I am saying that THAT wealth creation, incontrovertibly, was exploitative.
It's all besides the point. As I said, you will find violence, slavery and murder in every person's ancestors history, if you go back far enough.
But also, I don't feel guilty for the deeds of my nation, as they happened before my birth. I feel we have a duty to learn from history to prevent bad things from happening. That's it.
If you really want to go down that route - you are aware that the USA was taken away from native Americans, who died by the millions?