Empires are made up of people - both good and bad. Empires have both good and bad impacts as they expand. Its the people (colonizers, colonized) who make the

Empires are made up of people - both good and bad. Empires have both good and bad impacts as they expand. Its the people (colonizers, colonized) who make the difference in many cases. Prior to the British Empire, slavery was ubiquitous, as was piracy. It was widespread in Africa, the Middle East, and other areas. After the British Empire, these scourges were pretty much gone, primarily through the efforts of the British Empire. That is not to say that slavery and piracy were not actively encouraged, and used as instruments of the British state. In fact, slavery and piracy greatly expanded for a time due to British policies. The British state, and powerful companies and people achieve great wealth and power because of slavery and piracy. Nonetheless, they were eventually ended decisively through the efforts of the British Empire, which banned slavery in 1807. What happened? People changed, and fought for change. Their efforts changed the machinery of the British Empire for the better. Consider John Newton. He was a slave trader, who eventually became an abolitionist (a person who fought against slavery). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton Or William Wilberforce, who spent a large part of his life facing ridicule for opposing slavery, and fighting the powerful slave interests, finally winning that fight in 1807. So, yes, a large government apparatus such as the British Empire can have an enormous impact on people, both good and bad. Simplifying the complexity to "without colonization, we would be fine" or "colonization provided all of these great benefits" - both of those gloss over the reality, and make it likely we'll repeat the mistakes of the past.