The rise of democracy blurred the lines between the regime and the people it exploits. This was less of a problem under monarchs, whose interests were clearly separate from the public's.
While the current political narratives claim that only Europeans were involved in the infamous transatlantic slave trade, the Africans themselves were also major players in directing and overseeing it.
Economists often deplore the corruption in developing countries, but when institutions are corrupt, don't expect people to have the incentive to be honest.
While historians paint the enclosure movement in negative terms, it actually played an important role in developing agricultural entrepreneurship.
By compensating slave owners for the abolition of slavery, Great Britain ended the scourge of chattel slavery long before it was ended in the Americas.
The Mali Empire flourished as a trading center and gold-producing region from the late Middle Ages into the mid-seventeenth century.
Before it was destroyed by British aggression in 1755, the Acadian community in Nova Scotia provided a window into an anarcho-capitalist society that was cohesive and successful.
Much of modern history portrays the African slave trade as purely a European venture. But capturing and sending slaves abroad required both approval and aid from African elites.
When the Soviet Union dominated Eastern Europe, people there looked to the West—and especially the USA—in hopes of freedom. Today, it is the West promoting culture wars and collectivism.
In colonial America, "liberty" came to mean rights one possessed outside of government approval. In revolutionary France (and in modern Canada) it has come to mean participation in a political system.
