[IronJack]

I would posit that the end of "colonialism and imperialism" after WWII (and it arguably started before that) also marked the reversion of many of those "colonized" cultures back to barbarism, economic stagnation, and Dark Age ignorance.

Does anyone really believe that the Congo is better for having expelled the Belgians? Or that Zimbabwe has advanced now that those dirty white farmers are gone? In fact, name one former colony (the United States excepted) that is better off now that it has declared its "independence."

Now name one that has thrived without trading with the very "imperialists" it threw out.

[oh8eleven]

after WWII ... also marked the reversion of many of those "colonized" cultures back to barbarism
I was in school during the 50s/60s and I can still remember teachers preaching that "Africa was a sleeping continent" and would soon wake to greatness.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...