Colonization: good and ill
Colonization put European powers in a new position with regard to others.
Colonialism was generally brutally exploitative...but certainly no more so than the company control it often replaced...and often less so. Consider another incredible example: l'Association internationale africaine.
On the one hand, public pressure in Europe and on the ground caused a greater return to colonies than company control had given. Education, roads, railroads, etc.
On the other, colonialism involved ideas of "White Man's Burden," "Rayonnement," "La Mission Civilisatrice" that company rule did not. People were often forced, taxed, punished "for their own good."
However, good or ill, colonialism crashes after WW II, not the least because the US and USSR have no colonies (or do not admit to having any colonies). Other important factors include internal protest and moral debt owed as a result of colonial participation in European wars.