HPP #7 - THE END

Britain and India, France and Vietnam, Portugal and Brazil. These European countries hid their true motives behind a façade of superiority. They tried to convince themselves that it was their “White Man’s Burden” to colonize other countries. They persuaded their own people to believe that the other countries “needed” them to move towards a brighter future. But in all honesty, they were only lying to themselves. The European countries were greedy and wanted economic profit. They wanted to advance their own nations. This veneer of charity, used to disguise their hunger for power, was torn down by colonized lands who fought persistently for their rightful independence. As Martin Luther King Jr. famously stated, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”