Unpopular opinion: it’s more of a coping mechanism for the third world countries.

Sure UK and much of Europe had big and terrible colonies but there were still many like sweden and norway which did not. Thus the assertion that developed countries all have built upon exploitation is not entirely true

Assertion 2: countries such as china have shown that economic development is possible when you have a terrible history of war, destruction or otherwise poor economic background. Sure personal freedom is a joke in China but to say it isn’t an economic giant is false. Poland after ww2 is another example, much of their intellects were killed and warsaw was everything but ruins at the end of 1945

Assertion 3: geography, the age groups of the people and culture all affect the development of a nation much more than their history from 80 years ago.

- from someone who has keen interest in history and lives in a third world country and seen corruption, bribery and every form of idiotic economic decision that a government can make to not let the country be a better place.