Between the 15th and 20th centuries, just 10 European countries colonized nearly the whole world. Colonization brought technological advancement, infrastructure, education, and medical care even to the most distant places. Unfortunately, along with that came the massive theft of natural resources, death by unintentionally introduced diseases or deliberate genocidal practices, and a lasting legacy of economic inequality and resentment. But what if that had never happened? What would the world be like today if Europeans had just . . . stayed home?

24/7 Wall St. Insights

• A world without European colonization might have been colonized by non-Western empires instead.
• It might have greater cultural diversity and environmental sustainability, but a lower level of technology and standard of living.
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The Colonial Powers

10 European countries seized control of most of the world: Portugal, Spain, France, Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Russia. Some of them also held other parts of Europe under their control at various times. In fact, Sweden and Switzerland are the only two European countries that were never conquered by one of the other 10. 

Countries That Avoided Becoming Colonies

In Africa, only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Afghanistan were the only Middle Eastern countries to escape colonization. Japan adopted western technology, so it was able to defend itself and claim colonies of its own, including Korea and, during World War II, Thailand. The Chinese remained mostly free, though they had to cede some ports like Hong Kong and Macau. The landlocked countries of Mongolia, Nepal, and Bhutan were too remote and resource-poor to be of interest to colonial powers. 

How Did Europe Get Such a Head Start?

These were some of the conditions that gave Europeans the means and motivation to conquer the world :

• They had intense rivalries with one another and were searching for economic and military advantages.
• Their religious worldview gave them a sense of superiority and moral duty to export their culture.
• Muslims controlled and taxed the lucrative trade routes between Europe and China. European countries wanted to find ways to get around them.
• They developed military technology and navigational instruments and skills that allowed them to out-fight other countries on land and at sea.

But what if Europeans never ventured beyond their shores out of fear of sea monsters or falling off the edge of a flat Earth? What might that world look like?

Non-European Colonial Empires?

Here are 7 non-Western countries that might have become world colonizers if the Europeans had not.

• Ming China: Had already sent a fleet into the Indian Ocean as far as Africa.
• Ottoman Empire: Expanded into the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Europe.
• Safavid Empire: Based in Persia, highly cultured, and a major rival to the Ottoman Turks.
• Mughal Empire: A powerful Islamic Empire in India, responsible for building the Taj Mahal. 
• Songhai Empire: Centered in Timbuktu this wealthy and highly educated African empire dominated lucrative trans-Saharan trade routes.
• Aztec Empire: Based in Mexico, the Aztecs built sophisticated architecture, a road system, and traded broadly in the Americas.
• Inca Empire: A sprawling Andean empire that had masterful engineering and architectural skills.

It’s interesting to imagine that Europe itself might have been colonized by Africans and Ottoman Turks, and North America by the Japanese or Chinese, starting in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

Maybe Not an Improvement

Enormous non-western colonial empires are an intriguing thought experiment, but some of these countries may not have been an improvement on European colonizers. Most of them practiced slavery and many were intolerant of cultural minorities or religious or political dissenters in their countries. The Aztecs were particularly extreme, going to war against their neighbors to take tens of thousands of captives for human sacrifices to their gods. 

More Cultural Diversity

Europeans shared many aspects of a common western civilization. They were influenced by Greco-Roman culture, had similar technology and military strategies, and were all Christian of one sort or another. Had they not colonized, other religions might be more influential and spread to more parts of the world.

Cultural diversity in many areas might have produced original and creative approaches to government, education, cultural products, values, and lifestyles. The flip side of all of this is that Europeans also developed over time traditions of democracy and individual rights that are now standard in most of the world and have brought unprecedented freedom to many people. Otherwise, more of today’s world might be governed as controlling autocracies or superstitious religious theocracies.

Economic Development

European countries created a lasting global economic imbalance in favor of themselves and the colonies they settled with millions of their own people, like the United States, Canada, and Australia. At the same time, they also built transportation and communication networks, introduced new crops and agricultural tools and methods, connected the world in global trade networks, and improved healthcare and education over time. 

Without colonization, various regions of the world might be even more unequal, economically, than they are today, but there would be a different distribution of wealth and know-how. Who knows, Europe might still be a feudal agricultural continent while Incan South America could be doing astrophysics.

It could also be that the world’s economy would be more fragmented and less global. Countries would have continental trade networks dominated by a regional power but the volume of international trade and the variety of products might be more limited. This may be quite a bit better for the environment, but result in an overall lower standard of living in the world. 

Technological Divergence 

Technology may not have become as advanced in some areas as it did in fields like military and space technology. But some parts of the world might have become more advanced in areas that were not so motivated by conquest and economic exploitation, and if their people and resources had not been deported, killed, or diverted for the benefit of outsiders. 

For example, some societies may have applied themselves more to kinds of development that were more environmentally sustainable out of their views of the sacredness of the Earth. Asian cultures influenced by philosophies that seek enlightenment through meditation might have devoted their science to understanding mental functioning. Potential discoveries in these areas may have been set back centuries by the interference of Europe in other regions’ natural paths of development. 

Demographic Distribution

The racial composition of the world’s population would be different than it is today. Europeans exported millions of their people to the less-populated Americas and Australia where they were able to multiply at a faster rate than had they remained crowded in Europe and subject to disease, famine, and warfare with no place for excess population to flee. In an uncolonized world, there would be, frankly, fewer Caucasians and more indigenous people on the other continents.

Slavery might very well have still existed, as it did in most cultures since antiquity, but would not necessarily be racially-based. Africans probably would not have been enslaved in the millions and transported to the Americas. And Latin America would not have developed the multiracial European/Native American/African ethnic fusion it has today. This might all have added up to less of a multiracial mixture in very diverse places like Brazil and the Caribbean and more regional cultural homogeneity. 

A Mixed Legacy

From today’s perspective, colonialism as a whole was an atrocity that should have never happened. It brought some benefits in terms of technology, economic development, and building a global order with some widely-shared values that have formed the basis for international law and human rights standards. Had these things been achieved in a peaceful process of trade and cultural exchange, that would have obviously been more humane and respectful, and may have helped us avoid some of the world’s most difficult problems today.

Despite all this, the mixed legacy of colonialism shows us that human beings have a propensity for resilience, rising to the top again no matter how hard they are pushed down. And the specific mix of cultural and ethnic diversity we enjoy today in so many parts of the world is a beautiful and valuable thing, despite the often tragic historical circumstances that created it.

 

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