When you hear the term colonialism, the first images that pop up are usually grim—exploitation, oppression, and tragedy. Yet, digging deeper reveals a suite of unexpected benefits that continue to echo across societies. Below we unpack the 10 surprising upsides of colonialism, each with its own twist of history, culture, and progress.
10 Surprising Upsides Overview
10 Spreading Good Government
Most of us breeze through daily life assuming democracy and functional bureaucracy are a given. In truth, a world where governments resembled anything other than autocratic warlords was far from inevitable. For millennia, “government” meant a single ruler or a militaristic elite dictating everything from attire to battlefield deaths.
So why does the modern globe now at least nod toward democratic ideals? A big thank‑you goes to the European empires. Wherever the British planted a flag, they introduced parliamentary structures, a professional civil service, and a rudimentary democratic package. The French, on the other hand, folded conquered lands directly into France, spreading the credo of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.
When the wave of decolonization finally surged, many of those institutions survived the transition, providing a ready‑made framework for fledgling nations to build upon.
9 Creating Modern Medicine
For the imperial powers, tropical illnesses were a relentless nuisance. The jungles and savannas of Asia, Africa, and South America teemed with bugs that mercilessly felled both colonists and indigenous peoples, draining resources and stalling extraction efforts.
The answer? Unleash every ounce of contemporary medical knowledge on the problem.
By the 19th century, Europe stood at the forefront of medical innovation. The British uncovered quinine’s life‑saving antimalarial properties, a discovery that still underpins malaria treatment today. Meanwhile, the French cultivated a specialty in tropical medicine, spurred by their North African territories.
Even native populations reaped benefits: hospitals sprouted, new therapies were introduced, and public‑health practices advanced dramatically. It’s hard to argue that modern medicine didn’t owe a debt to the imperial push into disease‑riddled lands.
8 Economic Booms
Colonialism isn’t a relic confined to the dusty pages of history. Take 21st‑century Africa, where Chinese investment mirrors a new wave of imperialism. Economist Dambisa Moyo notes that this influx has sparked one of the continent’s most significant economic upswings in decades.
Her research shows that Chinese‑backed projects have generated millions of jobs, lifting vast swaths of the population out of poverty. The symbiotic relationship between Chinese capital and African labor has generated benefits that ripple across both regions.
That said, not every colonial experiment boosted economies—Spain’s New World exploits, for example, drenched its treasury in debt. Still, the African case illustrates that, when managed wisely, imperial ventures can deliver widespread prosperity.
7 Global Languages
Remember the biblical Tower of Babel story, where humanity’s linguistic diversity was supposedly scrambled to curb cooperation? Colonialism did something akin to the opposite, trimming a chaotic chorus of tongues down to a handful of global languages.
Today, 106 nations count English among their official or widely spoken languages, many of them former British colonies. Spanish holds sway in 31, modern standard Arabic in 58, and French in 53. Together, these six languages—English, Spanish, Arabic, French, Russian, Mandarin—cover virtually every corner of the planet.
Having a shared linguistic toolkit streamlines trade, diplomacy, and cultural exchange. While not a prerequisite for unity, a common language undeniably smooths the path toward mutual understanding.
6 The Creation Of Modern Art
Who doesn’t love Picasso, Art Deco skyscrapers, or avant‑garde sculpture? A surprising catalyst behind these movements was the influx of African tribal artifacts into European capitals, courtesy of French and British colonial networks.
When masterpieces from the Ivory Coast or Benin City arrived in Paris and London, they electrified artists like Picasso and Matisse, who wove those motifs into cubism and Fauvism. Architects, too, fell under the spell of the bold, geometric forms of African temples, feeding the rise of Art Deco and modernist design.
Without the colonial conduit that displayed African art on the world stage, many of the 20th‑century’s visual revolutions might never have materialized, leaving cities like New York looking markedly different.
5 The Development Of Infrastructure
Over recent years, swathes of Africa have witnessed a resurgence of rail and road projects. New tracks snake across Nigeria’s plains, Ethiopia’s highlands, and the lake‑bordered regions of Uganda and Kenya, promising to catapult local economies into a new era of growth.
These fresh arteries didn’t sprout from thin air; they’re upgrades to the rail lines first laid down by colonial powers. Ironically, the very infrastructure that once served imperial extractors now fuels indigenous development and job creation.
Across the globe, former colonies still rely on roads, ports, hospitals, schools, and universities built during the imperial era. While the original intent was to ease resource movement for the colonizers, today those same structures underpin modern nation‑building.
4 Removal Of Brutal Occupying Powers
The popular narrative paints the Spanish conquest as a purely villainous episode, yet it glosses over a crucial fact: the Aztec Empire was itself an expansionist juggernaut, already subjugating neighboring peoples when Cortés arrived.
Aztec practices were notoriously savage—captured foes were forced into death‑by‑heart‑extraction, prisoners endured forced cannibalism, and children were sacrificed to appease the sun god. In comparison, the Spanish, while certainly greedy and disease‑riddled, caused less systematic bloodletting than their indigenous counterparts.
This pattern repeats elsewhere. Before the British took over large swaths of India, the Mughal empire had repeatedly razed Delhi, constructing skull pyramids from its victims. Even at the height of the Raj, the scale of massacre never quite matched the earlier, native‑led carnage.
3 Increased Peace
Human history is riddled with endless skirmishes over resources, with tribes and city‑states locked in perpetual conflict. In Central America, for instance, Maya polities could spark war at the drop of a failed harvest.
Psychologist Steven Pinker argues that the emergence of nation‑states—many forged under colonial rule—has been pivotal in curbing such endemic violence. By bundling previously warring groups into a single political entity and demanding loyalty to a distant crown, empires inadvertently imposed a cease‑fire, birthing the modern nation‑state.
Admittedly, there are grim exceptions—like the spike in homicide rates under Belgian rule in the Congo—but the overarching trend points to a reduction in large‑scale bloodshed, making the world marginally safer than it would have been otherwise.
2 The Creation Of Modern Tourism
Before the 19th century, traveling abroad was a luxury reserved for the aristocracy or the scientifically curious. The average Briton’s idea of an exotic getaway was a night at the local tavern.
Enter the British Empire, with its tantalizing tales of India, Egypt, Jamaica, and the Australian outback. Recognizing the public’s hunger for adventure, entrepreneur Thomas Cook pioneered packaged tours to imperial outposts, effectively birthing the modern tourist industry.
Scholars from the Journal of Tourism History note that empires supplied the perfect conduit for a global travel market, rebranding places like Australia from “penal colony” to “Down‑Under paradise,” reshaping public perception forever.
1 It Saved Millions Of Lives
While European rulers were busy mapping the globe, the continent’s common folk endured relentless famines. France alone suffered forty nationwide crop failures between 1500 and 1800, leaving millions perishing.
Enter an unlikely hero: the humble potato, introduced to Europe by Spanish conquistadors returning from Peru. This tuber proved to be a resilient, nutrient‑dense staple that could thrive in diverse soils and produce abundant harvests.Thanks to the potato’s spread, Europe saw a dramatic drop in starvation rates. Populations in agrarian societies—most famously Ireland—exploded, and nutritional deficiencies like scurvy receded. Without Spain’s colonial transport of the potato, countless lives would have been lost, and modern demographics would look starkly different.