When you benefit from an unjust system it can be difficult to recognize you’re living in one. It’s our job to continually point that out.
One would have to be completely isolated not to know the brutal legacy of conquest and enslavement that has accompanied over five centuries of Western global domination. Sadly, many leaders in the West’s business, political, and media sectors actively deny this reality.
Beginning in the late 1400s, Western colonialism has been defined by mass killings across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia, with ongoing conflicts such as in Palestine. This era involved the enslavement of millions and the plundering of natural resources that benefited colonial powers while devastating indigenous populations.
Those in power in the West have long claimed that colonialism ended once flags were changed in the 20th century. However, old imperial powers continue to exert domination over former territories, reacting angrily when expelled, as recent events in West Africa involving France demonstrate.
This form of neocolonialism, largely concealed until recently, is now openly embraced under leaders like Donald Trump. In his January 2025 inauguration speech, Trump praised the American Empire, signaling a revival of the era of territorial expansion reminiscent of William McKinley’s presidency. Although previous administrations maintained imperial policies, Trump has made no effort to disguise it.
He declared, “The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons,” extending ambitions beyond Earth: “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.” His tenure has been marked by attacks on Venezuela and Iran, along with threats toward Greenland and Cuba.
At last fall’s Munich conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio evoked the spirit of Cecil Rhodes, loudly affirming the resurgence of Western dominance.
“For five centuries, before the end of the Second World War, the West had been expanding – its missionaries, its pilgrims, its soldiers, its explorers pouring out from its shores to cross oceans, settle new continents, build vast empires extending out across the globe,” Rubio stated.
“But in 1945, for the first time since the age of Columbus, [the territorial expansion] was contracting. Europe was in ruins. Half of it lived behind an Iron Curtain and the rest looked like it would soon follow. The great Western empires had entered into terminal decline, accelerated by godless communist revolutions and by anti-colonial uprisings that would transform the world and drape the red hammer and sickle across vast swaths of the map in the years to come.
Against that backdrop, then, as now, many came to believe that the West’s age of dominance had come to an end and that our future was destined to be a faint and feeble echo of our past.
But together, our predecessors recognized that decline was a choice, and it was a choice they refused to make. This is what we did together once before, and this is what President Trump and the United States want to do again now, together with you.”
Rubio’s remarks earned a standing ovation from European leaders, who remain deeply engaged in the conflict against Russia via Ukraine and maintain lingering colonial interests in Africa and the Middle East. Still, Western nations continue to present themselves as champions of human progress, a false narrative they’ve upheld since the colonial period.
Figures in technology, such as Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, consistently express strong support for Western—particularly American—cultural, technological, and military dominance. Karp emphasizes that Western influence is grounded in organized force and technological might, not merely ideas or values, while endorsing Western ways of life as superior.
The clearest example of the direct link between historic Western colonial brutality and present-day actions is Israel’s ongoing colonial enterprise, marked by the same racism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide reminiscent of Leopold’s Congo, the Australian bush, and the American West.
Following their summit in Beijing last week, Chinese and Russian leaders issued a warning:
“Negative neocolonial tendencies such as unilateral forceful approaches, hegemonism, and bloc confrontation are on the rise. Fundamental, universally recognized norms of international law and international relations are regularly violated, and it is becoming more difficult for states to coordinate their actions and resolve conflicts within global governance institutions, many of which are losing their effectiveness. The global peace and development agenda is facing new risks and challenges, and there is a danger of fragmentation of the international community and a return to the ‘law of the jungle.’”
However, the communiqué concluded that the revival of Western supremacy is unlikely to succeed, stating:
“Attempts by a number of states to unilaterally manage global affairs, impose their interests on the entire world, and limit the sovereign development of other countries, in the spirit of the colonial era, have failed. The system of international relations in the 21st century is undergoing a profound transformation, evolving toward a long-term state of polycentricity and the emergence of a new type of international relations.”
One reader recently remarked, “You guys are really heavily invested in the failing West/U.S. angle on current affairs.”
The West’s continued supremacy relies on colonial exploitation, which is inseparable from its foundation. Benefiting from such an unjust framework often blinds people to the oppression embedded within it.
It remains our responsibility to expose this reality. Reporting with an international neutral perspective that aims for global equilibrium through a balance of power and détente necessarily challenges the persistence—and revival—of Western dominance.
This mission is central to Consortium News, a pursuit only possible with your backing. We invite you to contribute generously to support the longest-running independent online news source in the United States.
Original article: Consortium News
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