If so, Thank God they did. Can one not make the argument that the average African, as an example, was much better off under European colonial rule than they are today?
Of course the counter argument runs that Africa's problems today are artifacts of colonial rule. But it's been what, fifty years since the Europeans departed. And Africa is still devolving.
Even if African issues today are result of colonial rule, how does one explain that when Europeans arrived in subsaharan Africa in the 1400’s, there was no technology.