• severien@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    So, these days states forgo colonies only because they lack the resources? Does this apply to e. g. slavery as well? I don’t like this line of thought.

    • SheeEttin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Mostly because all land is claimed by some country or another, and the current occupants could raise enough of an international stink that people come to their defense.

      One might argue that what Russia is doing in Ukraine and Georgia is the modern equivalent of colonialism.

    • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      I mean the British had a huge role in ending slavery, not because it was the right thing to do but because other countries were doing it better and so it was better to invest in stopping others than doing it themselves

      The US and USSR similarly ended most colonialism because they were the most powerful nations in the world and yet couldn’t compete in that field

      As countries become powerful, they seek to destroy whatever the previous symbol of power was and replace it with whatever they’re good at until the next newly powerful country comes along

        • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          Yes pretty much really using the right definitions, however there’s different types of colonialism - the type where you make your own cities and push out the natives (eg Australia, most of the Americas) is gone, as is the type where you find a (nearly?) uninhabited area/island and use it to expand your influence in the area (eg. Mauritius and Singapore with 0 and 150 population at colonisation respectively) leaving only the type where you take over and control the administration of the existing population, eg in India, most of Africa, the USSR in Central Asia (among other places) and in neocolonialism

          It’s also hard to group them all together as “evil colonialism” too though as the 1st and 3rd are of course pretty evil, there’s not a whole lot wrong with the 2nd

    • kool_newt@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      There may be other reasons, but morality is unlikely to be one of them.

      • severien@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Morality is not a reason for e. g. civil rights movement? (not the same as colonialism, but coming from the same origin)