My understanding is that the “imperialism was good” take is less about the merits of whether imperialism itself and the treatment of the colonized is “GOOD” (th

My understanding is that the “imperialism was good” take is less about the merits of whether imperialism itself and the treatment of the colonized is “GOOD” (they acknowledge it often is not throughout history) but that the spread of culture, norms, etc from the empire to the colonized was a Net Good for the colonized. It’s a glass half full take on the situation, otherwise we’re forced to think that nothing good having come from any imperial periods of history and that simply does not hold up to scrutiny. It reminds me of when historians say “yes war is obviously bad, but war accelerated and progressed the infrastructure of X country by decades.”