On the colonizers
All of these colonies have brought European powers an economic
advantage from cheap raw materials and manpower, and as markets
for the Industrial Revolution. However, colonizing nations have faced
resistance from native peoples as they attempted to establish permanent,
settled colonies instead of just trade outposts, resulting in wars and
uprisings. Europe usually has prevailed because of its technological
superiority. There are also signs of friction between colonizing nations
as room for expansion dwindles.
On the colonies
Europeans currently dominate the governments of all their colonies, which
can be a source of friction between them and native peoples, and wars have
resulted several times. Colonial settlers often take land away from indigenous
peoples. While the British have felt a paternal urge to "civilize" these nations
and to introduce British culture, this policy has not always been successful or
well thought out, except in colonies where there has been much British
settlement, such as Canada, Australia, and South Africa, and even then there
is a great divide in most cases between British and native. In contrast, France
has striven to assimilate its colonies culturally as well as economically,
considering assimilated natives as Frenchmen. It is certainly true that the
colonies now have access to manufactured goods from Europe in exchange
for the raw goods they produce, but they do not yet have fully-developed
economies. And conflict between colonizing nations may place indigenous
peoples in danger. However, it is true that some former colonies, such as
Canada, now prosper on their own.