Comment by ekianjo

> was not to be colonized by Belgium but not to be colonized at all.

There was no such alternative if you were a weak, divided nation in the first place. Please look at what happened in other places with a similar situation (even China during a long time). Once the European nations stopped fighting each other they looked for other territories to conquer at the time - and this, by the way, not limited the the recent world history at all. Territorial conquest is something that started that was documented even in Antiquity, although we did not call it colonization then.

Most countries have been colonized many times and there's almost no connection nowadays between the actual "natives" and whoever is currently ruling.