>>511264568
This is actually partially true, but not in the way the artists thinks. Colonizing Africa cost significantly more than it gave them back, and colonies were mostly just an international status symbol. Once colonialism stopped being fashionable, this freed up European resources that otherwise would have been wasted on propping up their colonies.

https://iea.org.uk/publications/imperial-measurement-a-cost-benefit-analysis-of-western-colonialism/