Believe it or not, I’m not against all conquest or imperialism. The main factor to me is that many (most?) empires in history were content to conquer and rule the natives. But European colonialism, on a huge part of territory it affected, went for extermination or mass enslavement instead. This unusual aspect, combined with the scale, is what makes it the worst atrocity to me.
I mean not all of it—British colonialism e.g. seems a lot more like Roman conquest (in fact a bit softer). At the other end of the spectrum is whatever the fuck was going on in King Leopold II’s rotten brain when he conceived of the Free Congo.
Believe it or not, I’m not against all conquest or imperialism. The main factor to me is that many (most?) empires in history were content to conquer and rule the natives. But European colonialism, on a huge part of territory it affected, went for extermination or mass enslavement instead. This unusual aspect, combined with the scale, is what makes it the worst atrocity to me.
I mean not all of it—British colonialism e.g. seems a lot more like Roman conquest (in fact a bit softer). At the other end of the spectrum is whatever the fuck was going on in King Leopold II’s rotten brain when he conceived of the Free Congo.
And yet Congo is now inhabited by its natives, while Australia after British “soft colonialism” isn’t.