러시아ㆍ유라시아

When European imperial powers expanded their actions to conquer new regions and grow their spheres of influence in the 19th century, Africa, due to its wealth in natural resources, became a prime location for colonial exploitation. While colonialization devastated traditional African societies and economies, European leaders cited the “white man’s burden,” a philosophy consisting of the “Three C’s of Colonialism: civilization, Christianity, and commerce,” as the moral justification. Using the church to justify exploitation, though, began well before the 19th century. Throughout the 15th century, the Roman Catholic Church, in a series of edicts, gave Europe’s Catholic nations the right to take control of other lands, to subdue their people, and convert them to Christianity. One of the most influential of these edicts, or papal bulls, was Inter Caetera, issued by Pope Alexander VI in 1493: one year after Christopher Columbus’s arrival in what became known as the Americas, giving Spain carte blanche to lands in the so-called New World. These new lands became known as terra nullius, Latin for “empty land,” a concept applied to any land not already occupied by Christians. This meant it was considered free for the taking by Christian-Europeans, regardless of the population already there or the level of advancement of their civilizations.