Comment by vinceguidry

If it were my country, I'd have picked British rule over self-rule. A robust system of laws is nothing to sneeze at.

Look all over the former British Empire, and you'll see robust, healthy democracies peacefully trading with their former rulers. Countries that were never colonized got left out of the huge technological race that modernized the rest of the world after WW2.

The Anglosphere nations are among the most powerful on Earth.