Don't let them fool you about civilized -this is what they did in Africa

[malaise]

http://www.siliconafrica.com/france-colonial-tax/
<snip>
14 African Countries Forced by France to Pay Colonial Tax For the Benefits of Slavery and Colonization
By: Mawuna Remarque KOUTONIN
Tuesday, January 28th, 2014 at 3:41 pm.
Africa-France- you know many African countries continue to pay colonial tax to France since their independence till today!

When Sékou Touré of Guinea decided in 1958 to get out of french colonial empire, and opted for the country independence, the french colonial elite in Paris got so furious, and in a historic act of fury the french administration in Guinea destroyed everything in the country which represented what they called the benefits from french colonization.

Three thousand French left the country, taking all their property and destroying anything that which could not be moved: schools, nurseries, public administration buildings were crumbled; cars, books, medicine, research institute instruments, tractors were crushed and sabotaged; horses, cows in the farms were killed, and food in warehouses were burned or poisoned.

The purpose of this outrageous act was to send a clear message to all other colonies that the consequences for rejecting France would be very high.

Slowly fear spread trough the african elite, and none after the Guinea events ever found the courage to follow the example of Sékou Touré, whose slogan was “We prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.”
Sylvanus Olympio, the first president of the Republic of Togo, a tiny country in west Africa, found a middle ground solution with the French.

He didn’t want his country to continue to be a french dominion, therefore he refused to sign the colonisation continuation pact De Gaule proposed, but agree to pay an annual debt to France for the so called benefits Togo got from french colonization.

It was the only conditions for the French not to destroy the country before leaving. However, the amount estimated by France was so big that the reimbursement of the so called “colonial debt” was close to 40% of the country budget in 1963.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. The atrocities committed by Colonialism make the Jihadists look like rank amateurs.

[malaise]

2. Tell me about it

The revisionism won't work with me.

[arcane1]

4. And it is entirely (and deliberately) omitted when discussing African countries today.

[Dont call me Shirley]

3. Colonization and imperialism have damaged the world, not benefitted the world. Time to end them.

[Warpy]

5. Their real atrocity was here in the western hemisphere

in the debt they placed on Haiti for daring to win its independence. Dead slave owners were apparently to be paid in perpetuity to compensate them for the loss of their human property. The most prosperous country in the Caribbean was turned into the poorest via debt to France.

The IMF should have stepped in many decades ago and declared "paid in full" for Haiti and a few of their former colonies elsewhere.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. yup

[malaise]

7. I started a thread on that yesterday

You are 100% correct. Sadly the IMF is as pro-imperialist as the worst of the European imperial monarchs.

[JI7]

8. yes, France should be fully funding the rebuilding of Haiti after the quake