The West was not to be identified solely with colonization

Dear Editor of I Paper, A good try by Afua Hirsch to identify Western values solely with colonialism (“Trump shows us what the “West” really is: a made-up history of white colonisers” 01.05.26) but I don’t buy it. Western values are built on the Latin tradition of individual free will and individual responsibility for their own behaviour which combines the best tradition of Roman virtues and Christian values. Western civilization was built on the cult of the individual long before any of those barbaric countries underwent the Renaissance or acquired any colonies. The more advanced Eastern civilizations indeed treasured Greek philosophy and Roman law, but they did not adopt it for themselves. The Magna Carta and the Rights of Man had no connection with colonialism. To take another example, Poland chose to accept the Christian faith from Rome, rather than from Byzantium. Its earliest history was written in Latin. By the XVIth century Poland had evolved into adopting the cult of Greece and Rome and setting up a parliamentary republic with a constitutional elected king. Western values for sure, but Poland had no colonies or imperial traditions and protected Jews from persecution in Western Europe. Yours sincerely Wiktor Moszczynski