"One conclusion to be drawn is that many countries were better off under colonial rule"<p>Umm no. That depends on defining "better off" as "ruled by invaders from another country but with some economic or social benefits(probably)".<p>Just try offering colonial rule to former colonies, who have experience of being "better off". People might <i>joke</i> about that, but an independent country's citizens would fight to the death against any attempt at colonization. Which means they do think they are better off without colonial rule. Unless you think millions of people don't know what is "better off" for them, your notion is hard to sustain logically.<p>Unless you want to volunteer  to be colonized  by China (say)? They seem to be good at economic development, which seems to be your metric for "better off".