A lot of countries have had (and still have?) empires.
How many are looking back on the not-so glorious times?
If we look at what the British did to India and elsewhere in the British empire things still have to be looked at a little more - and that is happening, whether it's as adventures in art at the British Museum, or considering the British empire past and present, or teaching empire in British schools.
There is much more thought being put into the idea of "decolonizing" - whether it's Britain... Israel... Russia... Canada... Australia... India....
All of these countries are 'big' or have had 'big empires' - but what about the 'smaller' countries?
The Dutch are facing up to their imperial past - although things are rather mixed up in the country: What Is New about Dutch Populism? Dutch Colonialism, Hierarchical Citizenship and Contemporary Populism.
What about their neighbours in Belgium?
The Belgian empire in Africa was particularly brutal:
How extraordinary it was to discover, then, that one of this small state’s kings was also one of history’s greatest mass murderers. Leopold II (1835-1909) wanted his country to join the league of European empires, but the Belgian state refused to finance its part in western Europe’s expensive scramble for Africa. So they outsourced the task to Leopold, who used personal diplomacy to convince the European powers to grant him control of a large portion of the Congo basin. He promised to bring civilisation to the so-called dark continent.Belgium's Heart of Darkness | History Today
This even has a separate entry in Wikipedia:
Atrocities in the Congo Free State - Wikipedia
Belgians are facing up to this imperial past:
Confronting Belgium's Colonial Legacy in Congo
Leopold II: Belgium 'wakes up' to its bloody colonial past - BBC News
An extraordinary documentary looks at how the Americans took over from the Belgians in 1960 - as the Brussels Times points out:
The murder of Congo’s first post-independence leader Patrice Lumumba took place as famed jazzman Louis Armstrong was touring the country. The two events were not a coincidence, as the acclaimed documentary, ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’, reveals.
How jazz played out over Congo’s chaotic coupWith more from Wikipedia:
To retain control over the riches of what used to be Belgian Congo, King Baudouin of Belgium finds an ally in the Eisenhower administration, which fears losing access to one of the world’s biggest supplies of Uranium, a mineral vital for the creation of atomic bombs. Congo takes center stage to both the Cold War and the scheme for control of the UN. The US State Department swings into action: Jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong is dispatched to win the hearts and minds of Africa. Unwittingly, Armstrong becomes a smokescreen to divert attention from Africa’s first post-colonial coup, leading to the assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected leader.
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat - Wikipedia
The filmmaker is Belgian:
Johan Grimonprez (born 1962) is a Belgian multimedia artist, filmmaker, and curator. He is most known for his films Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997), Double Take (2009) and Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade (2016), based on the book by Andrew Feinstein. Grimonprez wrote and directed the documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat about the promise of decolonisation, the hope of the non-aligned movement and the dream of self-determination.And another couple of reviews:
Here's the trailer:
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat – Official Trailer - YouTube
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