This is how the West saw the world in 1827.
In 1827, American geographer WC Woodbridge published a map called "Moral & political chart of the inhabited World.
It classified the world into 4 groups - savages, barbarians, half-civilized, and civilized.
It classified the world into 4 groups - savages, barbarians, half-civilized, and civilized.
The civilized world included colonized North America, Colonised South America, Colonised Australia, and Western Europe.
The yet to be colonized regions were a mix of savages and barbarians - finding the distinction between the two was a bit of a struggle but discussions suggest that savages meant 'wild, untamed, culture-less' while barbarians meant 'inferior, primitive, uncivilized'.
The entire Indian subcontinent was labeled half-civilized.
Decade later, in the year 1837, an updated map was introduced. This time a new category was introduced called 'Enlightened'. USA and Western Europe were labelled Enlightened with pockets of enlightenment in East Europe.
The amount of damage, destruction, loot, and economic collapse brought to local industries brought by colonialism and the millions of lives wasted to fund the West's two wars that have been called "World Wars" rather egoistically, is now getting discussed and highlighted.
However, the process of decolonization will not be complete unless the psychological complexes enforced by colonialism are discussed.
It is important not only to discuss the economic damage brought by Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands on the world but also the racist pathological motivation behind such an imperialist mindset we now see in present-day China.
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