schmendeler said:
You don't have to hold the natives in high moral regard to think it was wrong to treat them like slaves and just an obstacle blocking your access to natural resources.
It was christians that did that.
Meh, atheists by far hold the higher body count in the last few centuries...congrats..
But counter to your statement, tens of millions of people exist south of our border that otherwise wouldn't...and in more advanced and civilized societies than would have otherwise existed...colonialism was a net POSITIVE. History is metal across the board, I just find it funny how euros are always the ultimate villains. With the information they had at the time, can you not kind of see how they would have viewed a bunch of people from across the world with bones and sticks through their noses sacrificing each other and drinking human blood and eating lice out of each other's hair as "not the same"?...Especially given the ignorance of an illiterate 17th century euro who had never been exposed to primitive peoples before?
You are probably 100% convinced you would have been the noble "voice of reason" or "conscientious objector" back then. That's kind of the main beef I have with liberals always blasting people from hundreds of years ago (well, really only white people)...how are you so convinced you wouldn't have followed the herd if you were born into it?