>Looking back historically, many of the European powers of the 1500s-1800s were literally millennia ahead of the people they colonised in terms of technological

>Looking back historically, many of the European powers of the 1500s-1800s were literally millennia ahead of the people they colonised in terms of technological prowess. I don't think this is true. India was colonized, and it had very comparable technology - perhaps 50 or 100 years behind. There are cases of very primative people being colonised of course, but often the capabilities of other civilisations are minimised in our history - for example north american natives are seen as hunter gatherers whereas there was extensive farming and land exploitation in many places in the USA - along with pottery and settled living.