Look, it's not that I expect indigenous people to say they are grateful for European colonisation. Of course, their experience is considered negatively. But does it really help the cause of modern indigenous descendants to refuse to acknowledge that some things out of a more technologically advanced Western culture were beneficial to them (at least, once they started being treated as people)?
These people need to learn more about history writ large than just European history. What they are ignorant of is that most cultures engage in invasions and occupations, often with much more shocking consequences than colonisation. They need to understand that conquest is a goal of all human cultures but unfortunately because there is so little written history about other cultures they make up fairy tales about how peaceful and loving other peoples are. What information we do have does not support the picture they paint.
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