Ah yes, colonialism as the convenient blanket explanation for the West's advancement. If only it were so easy. More realistically, as maintained in the "Great Divergence" theory (i.e. Samuel Huntington), a variety of factors played into the emergence of Western modernity and prosperity and colonialism is only one of these. Others include the emergence and embrace of technological advancement, which was in many cases suppressed in more traditional cultures. Also, the West developed new ways of managing and accumulating capital, again in contrast to other areas of the world. But perhaps most important was the West's embrace of competition and democracy, which the divergence theory suggests was assisted by the cultural and political fragmentation of Europe. The West, as it turns out, abandoned traditionalism and became more dynamic. Colonialism certainly helped to offset resource deficiencies, but on its own is a weak explanation for the West's advancement.