It wasn’t.
With rare exception, colonies were unprofitable, meaning more was spent building infrastructure like roads, railways, buildings, etc. than was exported.
And look at places like Singapore and Hong Kong. Both were colonies for a long time and yet they are extremely prosperous.
Elon Musk
npub154…9vsgf
2026-06-08 21:01:17 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…4rec
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