European Imperial History

From the countless African wars to both of the world wars fought in the first half of the last century, the roots of many conflicts in today's world can be traced back to policies of, and decisions taken by the European "Empires".

There is a school of thought in some parts of Africa that the former imperial masters deliberately left behind states that had no hope of success in order to delay the industrial development of what could be rival nations in the future. I am not convinced that was the case but the other alternatives are blind arrogance or complete ignorance. Ethnic groups were often divided up placed on opposite sides of national borders while being trapped inside national borders with ethnic rivals. India and Pakistan I think are the starkest example of the latter. In West Africa, the Yoruba speaking people are spread across Nigeria, Togo, Benin and there are even some in Ghana. The borders drawn in the Middle East after the fall of the Ottoman Empire have been the direct cause of thousands of death from Israel to Iraq.


While the European people cannot be held accountable for what thier ancestors did, most still benefit from the results. If the current prosperity of Europe came off the back of others whose lives were diliberately or inadvertently messed up as a result, it is not unreasonable to expect that at least some lingering injustices are resolved. I hope to go into these into more detail as time goes by...