I actually meant it more in this vein: "Given that the current descent into barbarbarism -- enacted by an outlier minority of their population, in one tiny corner of their country -- is still but a tiny fraction of what the Europeans, Arabs and their local proxies did, and much more as a popular and broadly-supported effort across pretty much the entire globe, across literally tens of generations, from about 500 until about 50 years ago -- as a people and a culture they aren't looking so bad."
And not just "settlers" and miners acting on their own - but acting on the direct behalf of, and and funded by their local governments:
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/revealing-the-history-of-ge...