[Lurker]

“Ask the wretches in Zimbabwe or the Congo how horrible it was to be a European colony.”

You probably don’t want to go there with the Congo. The Belgians were beyond brutal during their reign.

L

[IronJack]

True, but how much better off are the Congolese now that the Belgians are gone? The mines are barely functional, the economy is in the tank (and has been for decades), and they change governments more often than Miley Cyrus changes her hair color.

I believe the western cultures would have eventually matured and become more humane -- most were already on the way -- and the relationship between ruler and "subject" would have become blurred and even symbiotic. Instead, the "liberated" countries have reverted to savagery and destroyed the vestiges of civilization the colonialists brought them.