There's a direct relationship between present dominance/power and the amount of guilt you're supposed to feel. That's basically how it works.

Spain and Portugal are no longer powerful nations, in either a military or economic sense (Portugal ranks behind Slovenia in GDP per capita for example).

If Italy were a super power today, they would be endlessly targeted for derision for their past connections to empire/s. It would be proclaimed that their present status was a direct result of abuses from the past and that they should feel guilty about it all.

Britain lost its empire and has persistently reduced in importance the last century, so they're rarely targeted for guilt regarding that (save for a few exceptions). It's a chapter in history books now, like so many former empires.

The Ottoman Empire? Long gone. Turkey isn't a major world power. As such, most of the world simply doesn't care about its terrible past.

The Belgian Congo was a miserable episode in history by all accounts - often considered one of most terrible examples of recent colonialism. Something to bear in mind next time next time you are chomping down on a delicious Belgian chocolate what with that industry being a direct legacy of colonialism.

I will definitely keep this in mind and flog myself on a bimonthly schedule.

Luckily I havent seen any Belgian chocolate on sale here yet, ha. Hopefully the Swiss have stayed isolated long enough to not add in any more European guilt!

There is the whole Nazi gold thing.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/1996/12/14/world/swiss-acknowledg...

The Spanish and Portuguese empires have much to be ashamed of too... Whether you should personally be ashamed for that is up to you.

This is true; yet on the flip-side there is also a lot to be proud of.

People tend to forget all the good.

The same can be said for the Romans. They slaughtered and enslaved the native peoples of the Iberian peninsula, yet they also built roads, aqueducts, introduced new farming techniques and education.

Should present-day italians feel ashamed of what their ancestors did? I don't think so.

The "what about all the good Hitler did?" argument. Doing those things did not require the slaughtering and enslavement, there's no balancing act that makes those acceptable.

Yeah, but you have the luxury of judging the actions of people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago from the comfort of your living-room recliner.

According to your extremist logic, the following were all pretty much Hitler as well:

- Mayans

- Egyptians

- Chinese

- Mongols

- Romans

- Macedonians

- Persians

- Russians

- Omayyad Caliphate

- Ottoman Empire/Turkey

- All african tribes who sold their brethren into slavery

- French

- British

- Portuguese

- Spanish

- Dutch

- Germans

Pretty much any civilization that has ever existed has committed atrocities.

What they did was brutal and there's no excusing this, but they also did good. You can deny it all you want but this is a fact.

>Yeah, but you have the luxury of judging the actions of people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago from the comfort of your living-room recliner.

Yes. They have the luxury of my judgements having absolutely no impact on them. As their good acts do not compensate for the atrocities, we should be ashamed of what they've done, and try not to do the same in the future. Remembering the good without keeping that in mind leads to the same tragedies playing out again.

Different people, different time, different ethics. Also none of the things mentioned finance themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ

Be ashamed or worried about your own sins. You're not responsible for the sins of your father's father's father.

How many generations are required before you can enjoy the benefits without the guilt?

If you're not a competent party to whatever you are guilty about, 0.

The Spanish invaded, conquered, and enslaved most of South and Central America.

For the Portuguese, you probably have to look at Africa and Southeast Asia; I don't know much about them.