More like the other way, they looted other cultures and sent the gold home.
Thanks for the refresher. My highschool history (which wasn’t very good by the way, social studies ruined real history) from the late 70’s is pretty rusty today. And European history back then wasn’t high on my interest list.
I later learned from the national war college, that most if not all of the turning points in history were the result of conflict and war (winners and losers). Suddenly, history was not just some sequence of events to memorize, and the history of Europe and all its ridiculous wars became of interest.
Still, most of those studies are becoming distant memories now. As I get older and less active, I hope I find an interest to get back into book reading, which for the last 3 decades has been limited to mathematics and engineering topics mostly. Admittedly, I have become lazy enough that I prefer a good historical movie to a book, and I know that leaves a lot out.