> Energies are better used to build a prosperous and well-governed country rather than dwelling on who took what from whom in the past (everyone took whatever they could from everyone else).
Fair enough, but in today's age of liberal democracies, we can maybe take lessons from the past and use that to inform decisions that our countries take in the future. Perhaps a population better educated on the atrocities of colonialism may be less willing to support unjustified wars and exploitative projects in the future.
Yes, in today's age of liberal democracies, we can take lessons from the past, like the value of free speech, innocent until proven guilty, not being deprived freedom without due process of law / habeas corpus, abolishment of debtors prisons, private property / not being deprived of property without due process of law, etc.
It seems like we have a lot of infringements of basic and fundamental rights in which we are forgetting history and how we got here. However, I haven't seen a significant effort to revive colonialism. So perhaps this isn't the highest priority example of where we need to learn from history at the moment?
Even America's expeditionary wars don't have the intention of changing the lines on maps. The only nation that has done that recently that I'm aware of is Russia. Trying to fly today's wars and examples of exploitation of peoples under the flag of colonialism seems rather forced to me. Why not just say "bad stuff" and tie that to colonialism?
Fair enough, but in today's age of liberal democracies, we can maybe take lessons from the past and use that to inform decisions that our countries take in the future. Perhaps a population better educated on the atrocities of colonialism may be less willing to support unjustified wars and exploitative projects in the future.