Western Europe seems to have a rather unique view of its own history. I get the feeling its frowned upon to be proud of any period of western European history that takes place after 1500. The most common sound we hear is that we were all just so awful in those days, references to things like ''VOC mentality'' are sneered at, statue's of colonial captains are removed, institutions like the east India trading company and the VOC are giving more people the image of slavery and genocide then of multinationals and seafaring and celebrations about persons or institutions related to the era are generally met with a decently sized group wondering why we aren't mentioning slavery more often even though we tend to focus on that much more then anything else these days. Actual involvement in slavery doesn't seem to be a requirement for these group to complain either, weirdly enough.
With an upcoming movie about a Dutch naval hero that was supposed to have very mild views on slavery attracting slavery related controversy i'm starting to think its getting a bit masochistic.
Why does western Europe have this unique desire to look away, if not down on its history? How are their overseas empires any different then the Roman empire, the Ottoman territories of Europe or any other empire this world has seen.
I rarely hear an Italian or a Greek lament the conquest of Rome and Alexander and I'm pretty sure the Mongol's don't look away in shame at the mention of the Mongol empire. You could argue its because Colonialism is much closer to our time but so is Napoleon who's person and empire are still looked upon with pride by the French and the Sovjet union is still sorely missed by a sizable group in Russia.
The feeling that a nations prior success, even if it came at the cost of the vanquished being something to feel ashamed of seems to be a largely Western European thing and I can't understand why.
Any thoughts on the matter?