I think even Marx recognized that capitalism was a relatively recent invention, seeing it as a descendant of feudalism which he did consider a different economic system. While his view of history still sees the lords and kings as the owner class compared to the working class, it doesn't claim capitalism is something that's always existed or been the dominant economic system.
As I recall, colonialism in some cases was definitely not capitalist -- the Spanish were generally centrally planned mercantile economies, not capitalist in the way we consider it today.
Arguably, one of the reasons that North America thrived more than South America is that the colonists who came over were more capitalist in most of North America and so ended up necessarily being less exploitative (which admittedly is relative) because under capitalism you need to provide something of value for the people you're asking to do things, whereas under strict government central planning you only need provide the threat of violence against people you're asking to do things.
Of course there were African slaves in America and that was a big problem, but under Spanish colonialism it isn't like the commoners in South America weren't slaves, they just weren't chattel slaves such as those bought from Africa.
And it's notable that some of the major problems in the US are ripples through history of chattel slavery, suggesting that things would be even better had they not made use of the unfree system of labor.
Unfortunately, we have a large group of critics of modern society that don't understand what society may have looked like in the past, and so make arguments lacking a firm foundation in reality. "Capitalism is the cause of all the world's problems" or even better "capitalism is the cause of colonialism" are ahistorical statements but quite popular among pop critics.
As I recall, colonialism in some cases was definitely not capitalist -- the Spanish were generally centrally planned mercantile economies, not capitalist in the way we consider it today.
Arguably, one of the reasons that North America thrived more than South America is that the colonists who came over were more capitalist in most of North America and so ended up necessarily being less exploitative (which admittedly is relative) because under capitalism you need to provide something of value for the people you're asking to do things, whereas under strict government central planning you only need provide the threat of violence against people you're asking to do things.
Of course there were African slaves in America and that was a big problem, but under Spanish colonialism it isn't like the commoners in South America weren't slaves, they just weren't chattel slaves such as those bought from Africa.
And it's notable that some of the major problems in the US are ripples through history of chattel slavery, suggesting that things would be even better had they not made use of the unfree system of labor.
Unfortunately, we have a large group of critics of modern society that don't understand what society may have looked like in the past, and so make arguments lacking a firm foundation in reality. "Capitalism is the cause of all the world's problems" or even better "capitalism is the cause of colonialism" are ahistorical statements but quite popular among pop critics.
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@sj_zero true and interesting. But the real problem is that nowdays "uncontrolled" capitalism is causing too much problems, because we entered in a mass-extinction era, so we will loose all the benefit gained in the past.
So the assertions "Capitalism is the cause of all the world's problems" is not 100% correct, but it is more true than false.
We need to reform/improve capitalism and/or democracy rules.