By MOHAMMAD AL-RASHEED

It all started with the search for spices and ended with colonization

Europe’s contribution to human progress is colossal. That is a fact. Just remember the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution and what followed and you get the idea. The other fact is that Europe has contributed immensely to human misery. It started with the search for spices to keep meat fresh, and ended with colonizing and ruining the world for indigenous peoples. Even the trip West was originally embarked on to find a way to India and the much-needed spices.

World War I was nothing more than a “family squabble” as one historian put it. Considering that most of Europe’s royal families, including the Kaiser, were a product of that extra-fertile Queen called Victoria (good thing her husband died early and rather young otherwise we would have had her progeny ruling Arabia itself) the family connection is obvious. Otherwise, I can hardly see in 1914 the ultimate ambition of a Russian peasant to be the desire to occupy Berlin.

Nevertheless, rule they did. Both France and Great Britain ruled the world under occupation. Germany was not a super colonial power. Germany wanted to rule the rulers. Germany wanted to rule Europe and, by default, rule the world. So within 20 years of the end of World War I, the second started and the world was plunged into darkness again.

Today we find Europe threatening the world again. This time economically. The euro zone’s financial troubles are now common knowledge. If the pen is mightier than the sword, we can safely assume that money these days is mightier than Russia’s defunct nuclear arsenal. Economics and dynastic ambitions are the major causes of wars.

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Note by the editor: We cannot blame Europe – or any one else – to try and dominate the world. It is the fault of the ‘rest of the world’ that they keep being dependent on Europe. If the Europeans cannot handle the Economy the Muslims should have found a way a long time ago to be economically independent. The dominance of the Dollar on the oil exports for instance was known to become a problem a long time ago, but the Islamic nations did nothing to change this dominance. May be it needs an economic disaster until the Islamic world – and the rest of the world – wakes up and takes corrective action.