white people are the most unoriginal, uninteresting bunch - and they still wanna act superior

First of all, the only reason Europeans wanted to “explore” in the 15th century is bc they were the weakest group. Asia and Africa had the best goods to trade with, and the Americas and Pacific Islands were already self-sufficient and had working systems.

you would think that China would’ve been first to explore bc they were wealthiest (as well as India), but they were doing just fine with their mega empires = no need to find an area to conquer

Bc Europeans didn’t have much to trade with, they had to find a way to acquire rice, silks, cotton, porcelains, spices, and horses (among other things)

so how did Europeans manage to explore? well they didn’t know how to do it themselves actually, so they did what they do best and stole

They got compasses from China. Their vessels were trash, so they stole dhows from the Middle East and junks from China to combine them, as they hadn’t yet figured out how to go against the current (which meant that if they went to Africa, they couldn’t get back through sea).

so then Portugal became a seaborne empire, but they didn’t know how to grow anything there and it’s expensive. so they stole people from Africa and enslaved them so that they could farm for them

Then the Catholics (Portugal and Spain) started pushing into Northern Africa, trying to make everyone else Catholic.

Then Portugal and Spain started conquering the Americas. They saw that the Inca were able to turn non-farmable land into farmable land through step farming and that they were a sophisticated empire, so Francisco Pizarro (Spain) attempted to conquer them.

Pizarro made a deal with Atahualpa (Inca Emperor) that the Spanish would leave in exchange for 6.5 tons of gold. After taking the gold, Pizarro killed Atahualpa.

Pizarro then used the mita to basically enslave the Inca into mining silver in Potosí, Bolivia. They also did the other thing they do best and exploited the land by deforestation to use wood to furnace silver.

The Spanish also used obrajes to enslave indigenous people into making textiles for them

Once Spain and Portugal conquered the Americas, they were then able to trade hot peppers, tomatoes, cocoa beans, corn, tobacco, and potatoes with Africa and Asia. They were also then able to make silver into a currency (before this, Japan produced 60% of silver).

Oh but they needed more silver so they also colonized Manila, Philippines

Then they all started fighting each other (Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, Dutch) for control of the colonized lands and stolen peoples

Then we have the Puritans (English Protestants) who didn’t know how to farm or do anything so they started stealing from Native Americans

Then the French decided to just go find different land to steal so they went to North America (to not compete w Spanish). This is where Samuel de Champlain used the Huron-Wyandot People to show him how to get around.

This is also where they started exploiting beavers and killing them for the fur trade, and this led to the decline of the Algonquian and Iroquois People.

Then Europeans created American and Caribbean slave plantations to produce sugar and tobacco. They deforested entire islands, and stole Black people from Africa.

This whole time, Europeans are actually trying to catch up to the rest of the world hundreds of years later.

Islam had already had the Islamic Scientific Revolution, where al-Battānī had already figured out the solar year. The Maya had also already figured out that the sun is the center of our solar system. Chinese and Koreans had already created a printing press.

However, in the “Enlightenment” the Traditional Eurocentric Narrative was born and this belief has been carried for many years (to present day) into textbooks, media, social media, etc

There are sooo many more things and this is literally ONLY the beginning, but basically my point is that white people have only gained things through theft, murder, enslavement, torture, and oppression since literally the beginning of globalization

So this idea that white people think they’re “the superior race” is bullshit - nothing they have was self-made.

AND even after all the pain white people have caused, Native Americans, Asians, Latin Americans, and Black people (among others) have STILL managed to develop beautiful cultures rich with music, dress, dances, art (that is also constantly stolen by white people).

I appreciate white allies - but if this thread offended you, you are not an ally