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Direct, sourced answers to the questions people actually ask.
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Questions
Direct, sourced answers to the questions people actually ask.
- QuestionsDid Britain Cause the Bengal Famine of 1943?Yes. British wartime rule turned Bengal’s food crisis into a famine that killed about 3 million people through inflation, exclusion and failed relief.
- QuestionsDid France Use Torture in Algeria?Yes. French forces systematically tortured detainees during Algeria’s 1954–1962 independence war; military records, witnesses and officials confirm it.
- QuestionsHow Did the Berlin Conference Divide Africa?How the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference established rules for European conquest, accelerated Africa’s partition and excluded every African polity.
- QuestionsHow Did the Dutch VOC Rule Indonesia?How the Dutch VOC ruled Indonesia through monopoly, treaties, forts, forced deliveries, slavery and mass violence from 1602 until its collapse in 1799.
- QuestionsHow Does Debt Keep Former Colonies Poor?How colonial debt, interest payments, IMF conditions, capital flight and unequal trade transfer wealth from former colonies to richer states and creditors.
- QuestionsHow Is Racism Structured in the Present Day?Racism today operates through laws, institutions, markets and inherited wealth, producing measurable inequalities in policing, housing, health and work.
- QuestionsHow Many Indigenous People Died in the Americas After 1492?About 50–56 million Indigenous people died across the Americas after 1492, chiefly from epidemics intensified by conquest, slavery and displacement.
- QuestionsHow Many People Died in the Congo Free State?About 10 million deaths is the best-known estimate for the Congo Free State, but incomplete records leave a defensible range of roughly 5–10 million.
- QuestionsHow Many People Were Taken in the Atlantic Slave Trade?About 12.5 million Africans were forced onto Atlantic slave ships from 1501 to 1866; roughly 10.7 million survived the Middle Passage and disembarked.
- QuestionsHow Much Wealth Did Britain Extract from India?Britain extracted vast wealth from India through taxes, trade and transfers; one prominent estimate values the colonial drain at $45 trillion today.
- QuestionsIs the CFA Franc Still Colonial?Yes: the CFA franc remains structurally colonial in origin and governance, despite African central banks, euro pegs and limited French reforms since 2019.
- QuestionsIs the United States an Empire?Yes. Evidence from territorial conquest, overseas colonies, military bases, interventions and unequal power supports describing the United States as an empire.
- QuestionsWhat Are Reparations for Slavery and Colonialism?Reparations are remedies for slavery and colonialism, including restitution, compensation, debt relief, institutional reform, apology and guarantees.
- QuestionsWhat Did European Science Take From the Rest of the World?European science appropriated knowledge, specimens, data and human remains through empire, often erasing or underpaying Indigenous experts.
- QuestionsWhat happened during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya?How Britain fought Kenya’s Mau Mau uprising through war, detention, torture and village confinement—and how disputed death estimates compare.
- QuestionsWhat Is Neocolonialism and How Does It Work Today?Neocolonialism explained through debt, trade, corporate power, military influence and unequal financial flows, with evidence, estimates and sources.
- QuestionsWhat Is the Difference Between Colonialism and Imperialism?Colonialism imposes rule over territory and people; imperialism is the broader pursuit of foreign dominance through political, military or economic power.
- QuestionsWhat Sources Document Colonial Death Tolls?A source-critical guide to censuses, archives and demographic studies documenting colonial death tolls, disputed estimates and evidentiary limits.
- QuestionsWhat Was Apartheid and Who Built It?Apartheid was South Africa’s white-supremacist state system. Learn which governments, laws, officials and businesses constructed and enforced it.
- QuestionsWhat Was the Black War in Tasmania?The Black War was Britain’s colonial conflict in Tasmania, killing hundreds of Aboriginal people and driving survivors into exile from the 1820s to 1832.
- QuestionsWhat Was the Herero and Nama Genocide?Germany’s 1904–1908 genocide in Namibia killed tens of thousands of Herero and Nama through warfare, expulsion, starvation and forced labor.
- QuestionsWhich Countries Are Still Colonies Today?Seventeen UN-listed territories remain non-self-governing in 2026, while broader definitions identify dozens of dependencies and occupied territories.
- QuestionsWho Profited From the Abolition of Slavery?British slave owners received £20 million after abolition in 1833; enslaved people received nothing, while financiers and consumers also benefited.
- QuestionsWhy Are Museums Asked to Return Looted Artefacts?Museums face restitution claims because many objects were seized through war, colonial coercion, theft or unequal deals that denied communities consent.
- QuestionsWhy Do People Say Colonialism Was Not Unique?Why colonialism had historical precedents but remained a distinct global system of racial rule, extraction, settlement, forced labor, and mass death.
- QuestionsWhy Is Colonial History Missing from School Curricula?Colonial history remains limited in many schools because governments, exams and textbooks preserve national myths while teacher time and training remain scarce.