@teratology @arcana @creamqueen @meso @phnt I dunno, the Turks had my people as slaves for 500 years and they couldn't build jack shit in comparison to Europeans. Maybe because slavery is in fact very inefficient and produces poor results in comparison to paid labor, not to mention stifling innovation. And it also leads to wealth being concentrated in the hands of oligarchs and royalty, who in turn don't really do anything to contribute to the civilization they're a part of.

Other than access to potatoes, corn, and precious metals, Europeans conquering the majority of Africa and the Americas did very little to build European civilization, it was still largely a poor backwater until at least the 18th century for the vast majority of people. It was the Industrial Revolution that changed everything and built everything, and non-Europeans had very little input in it until much later.