Surely colonization was not a "minor factor historically", comparatively or not. Polities have engaged in conquest and oppression for sure, and the subjugated

Surely colonization was not a "minor factor historically", comparatively or not. Polities have engaged in conquest and oppression for sure, and the subjugated have always paid the price. Baghdad for example lost its glory after conquest too. But the scale at which Western colonialism happened after the 15th c. is commensurate with the scale of scientific progress that took place there. Industrialisation, I would submit, was something that accelerated the process via radically higher efficiencies, not what enabled the development of science and technology in the first place. Let's also remember that industrialisation itself was also used as a weapon of colonization and was hardly a morally neutral value addition to Western society.