The wealth of the west was built on Africa's exploitation

[Dandelion]

Typical bitching thread by disgruntled ethnocentrics who come from civilizations that weren't better themselves.

One less bitter and more interesting thing. The end of slavery might have contributed to mechanisation (Industrial Revolution) and not vice versa.

[Dandelion]

Yep well said and it's the truth but many will deny this

Dude. Gulf Arabs still have slavery today. But fuck Europeans right? Your ethnocentric ass doesn't care about human rights.

[N1019]

The wealth of the West was built on the accumulation, transformation and exploitation of resources, like all wealth is. Those resources initially came from local sources in Europe but later all over the world, and the methods employed combined with the knowledge and intelligence at the disposal of Western folk made them very successful.

There's no nice way of saying it. Human life is effectively a competition all aimed at survival and reproduction. Some do it better than others, some have been luckier, some are more intelligent on average for whatever reason, etc. Nature has no sympathy for anyone or anything. Today's winner can be tomorrow's loser.

[XenophobicPrussian]

Those resources initially came from local sources in Europe but later all over the world

Still mostly from Europe though. British coal/iron minors contributed way more to the Industrial revolution than anything else.

[N1019]

Still mostly from Europe though. British coal/iron minors contributed way more to the Industrial revolution than anything else.

Yep. The local contribution would be downplayed by anti-colonialists with an agenda to push. But in terms of exploiting foreign resources, no-one has done it better than the peoples of the West. It's not the fault of those peoples that they ended up being more successful than everyone else.