&gt;<i>Really? You think colonialism is the main driver of economics growth?</i><p>Yeah, really. It was the big enabler for all the growth that later turned into the &quot;industrial revolution&quot;, and continued to provide a huge percentage of western GDP well into the 20th century, directly (as exploited and plundered places) and indirectly (as markets for example).<p>Cheap oil, for one, is always good to ensure for one&#x27;s country.<p>At some point it became economically inefficient to enslave countries with close to 2-3 billions of inhabitants, and the cold war had changed the political climate anyway, but not so much that countries won&#x27;t participate in post-colonial power games.<p>It&#x27;s no accident that it&#x27;s exactly the countries that did the plundering (the colonial powers) that rose up into prominence, and the ones that were plundered that got the short end of the stick.