[Conscat]

This feels like a false dichotomy to me, and if anything, it might invert cause and effect. Europeans pillaged most of the countries that you're contrasting to, and under intense economic pressure, traditional values (especially misogynistic ones) usually emerge as a coping mechanism. Such as child marriage. Liberties are typically the result of relaxed economic conditions, like what Europe achieved after plundering the textiles of South Asia. As economic conditions worsen, we now see conservativism rising in the west.

[EnPissant]

Europe used to be a lot like other places a millennia ago (I typo'd century above): low-trust, dominated by extended kinship networks, different marriage patterns, etc. The transformation largely happened between the years 300-1500, before colonialism existed. The Church was responsible for much of this transformation. I guess you think Europe just robbed the world and suddenly they had liberal democracies?