re: That is exactly what colonial countries said
Western Europe had lots of good intentions towards the lands they colonized.
But the locals saw a very different matter:
Humiliation, money not for them, left out....
Then we left the newly independant countries...Unfortunately, they most of the time chose pre-war Italian-like dictatorships rather than democracies...
I remember seeing Zaire citizens saying over and over again they would rather be 10 times poorer than be colonized.
Dignity, autonomy are much stronger than democracy and freedom.
Besides, when a country imposes any kind of society on another, even if it's based on what we call "freedom", it certainly not is the case in their eyes, because it precisely is imposed.