Prince Henry the Navigator, of Portugal, began to explore a new route in the 15th century towards what he desired to be another way to India — by escaping the Muslims who dominated the Mediterranean seas. They ultimately discovered, instead, the Americas that had been colonised by others for several millennia.

Christopher Columbus did not know where he was, but is credited for being a European adventurer who discovered the West. That trickling misadventure was the beginning of European colonisation of America — and, from there, the world.

At that time, China was still a power in the Far East, and most of West Asia was under the influence of Islamic governments. Eric Williams, former president of Trinidad & Tobago, made a famous speech around 1977 to a Muslim World League conference that was sponsored by Saudi Arabia and attended by all the Muslim clerics, regional heads and representatives. The topic question was, “Why weren't the Muslim nations that were stronger and more advanced at that time than the Europeans the ones who colonised the West?”

Dr Williams gave a lengthy dissertation; far too long to elaborate here, but I can summarise it as having been the result of edicts or fatwas of the Muslim clerics during that time, which prevented Muslim behaviour in certain ways that curtailed conquest. For example, before a scholar could embark on military studies, they needed to be a Hafiz of the Koran first. The Islamic civilisation was based on laws that defined the limits of social behaviour including war; therefore could not exploit the native indigenous people, justified by wanting their land. Because of the law of Aruf (local custom), they would have instead been compelled to assimilate.

That is a characteristic difference in all subsequent European expansion where they had no such constraints.

Settler colonisation is the trademark of European expansion. For several hundred years, the world's countries and populations have been dominated and subjugated. Their countries had their material and mineral resources extracted for little or no gain.

The colonisers’ goal was the land; they cared little to nothing for the people. Those whom they did not kill, they enslaved or subjugated by any means. In China, it was drugs and the Opium War of 100 years. It wasn’t all gloom and doom; it gave rise, albeit through savage compulsion, to a new industrial and now technological age.

Slowly, a change is occurring all over the world. Technology and the necessary education of the people is playing a role in shifting the dynamics of power. As the Western nations became more affluent, they needed more and more products made cheaply by lower-paid workers. China and the Far East became the world's manufacturing factories. People had to become educated to run the factories. Hence, countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have some of the best graduation statistics in the world. Graduating students in Iran want to get at least 98 per cent as a standard of achievement — it’s a typical expectation.

In the meantime, after 50 years of extravagant living built on habitual exploitation, America and the West have become consumer nations with comparatively less production ability. America is still the most powerful country on Earth, and maintains that position chiefly because the dollar is the world's currency. The US has the luxury of being able to print dollars endlessly, while the world pays its debts.

Military dominance was also the fulcrum of the dominance the West held for nearly 250 years. The British Empire was inherited by the US. The British and Americans created the rules-based order after the Second World War. While they presumed to follow the order, they created a stepchild that flaunted all the rules under their oversight or blind spot. Whenever they needed to do something knowingly illegal, they let the stepchild do it, but never condemned the stepchild for any breaches of law. The rest of the world had no such privilege; they had to follow the imposed order. Unfortunately, even the stepchild is a victim and has been used to foster the colonialist empire’s hegemonic agenda.

I tend to support the views of professor Noah Jonathan Efron, of Bar-Ilan University, and Jeffrey Sachs, of Columbus University, and would say that now is the time for the real Jews of the Torah to stand up and shake off this horrible beast from their backs that is destroying their good name. The question or challenge is, where are we today? This is not an ideological question; it is anthropomorphic. The universe is bigger than civilisation. Nations and empires will inevitably come and go, rise and fall. The arc of justice is slow but bends towards truth. The chickens will come home to roost.

The phrase “Do unto others as you will have them do unto you” will prevail. The world has experimented with all manner of philosophy and ideology. It is neither religious nor scientific as an argument; the global unfolding is organic. The Brics phenomenon is not a strategy; it’s a natural result of and reaction to hegemony. It remains to be seen where the world ends up, but what is clear is that this present geopolitical construct is set to change.