• kool_newt@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    45
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’d imagine states without colonial pasts weren’t more moral, they just lacked the resources and/or opportunities.

    • severien@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      So, these days states forgo colonies only because they lack the resources? Does this apply to e. g. slavery as well? I don’t like this line of thought.

      • SheeEttin@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Mostly because all land is claimed by some country or another, and the current occupants could raise enough of an international stink that people come to their defense.

        One might argue that what Russia is doing in Ukraine and Georgia is the modern equivalent of colonialism.

      • kool_newt@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        There may be other reasons, but morality is unlikely to be one of them.

        • severien@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Morality is not a reason for e. g. civil rights movement? (not the same as colonialism, but coming from the same origin)

      • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I mean the British had a huge role in ending slavery, not because it was the right thing to do but because other countries were doing it better and so it was better to invest in stopping others than doing it themselves

        The US and USSR similarly ended most colonialism because they were the most powerful nations in the world and yet couldn’t compete in that field

        As countries become powerful, they seek to destroy whatever the previous symbol of power was and replace it with whatever they’re good at until the next newly powerful country comes along

          • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Yes pretty much really using the right definitions, however there’s different types of colonialism - the type where you make your own cities and push out the natives (eg Australia, most of the Americas) is gone, as is the type where you find a (nearly?) uninhabited area/island and use it to expand your influence in the area (eg. Mauritius and Singapore with 0 and 150 population at colonisation respectively) leaving only the type where you take over and control the administration of the existing population, eg in India, most of Africa, the USSR in Central Asia (among other places) and in neocolonialism

            It’s also hard to group them all together as “evil colonialism” too though as the 1st and 3rd are of course pretty evil, there’s not a whole lot wrong with the 2nd

    • febra@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      So going by that logic, countries that were colonised before by western powers would’ve done the same thing if they had the same resources? Not that I don’t agree with that, I’m just trying to figure out what you mean

    • Slotos@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s not about morality, it’s about having a damn clue. Shared traumas matter.