UNITED States President Donald Trump has been talking of various plans to evacuating the Gaza Strip of native Palestinians for its rebuilding. Such an approach springs from the roots of the white fantasy of an imagined entitlement of Western whites to other peoples’ land.

Doctrines like ‘white man’s burden’ and ‘effective occupation’ were nurtured by half a millennium of European colonialism and imperialism. Behind these euphemistically fancy phrases, the malicious intentions were looting and exploiting natural resources and people.

Such white fantasies can be traced as far back as the 15th century. First, the 1479 Treaty of Alcacovas established the principle that an area outside of Europe could be claimed by any European country. Similarly, under the Treaty of Saragossa, Spain and Portugal purported to divide the globe between themselves.

The infamous ‘Scramble for Africa’ was the result of the Berlin Conference (1884-85), also attended by the US, which established the legal claim by Europeans that all of Africa could be occupied by whoever could take it. The British Empire, indeed, was the worst case of colonialism.

Zahid Ali Zohri
Gilgit-Baltistan

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2025