be a good thing provided that they are "liberal empires". He cites the British Empire as being the only example of a "liberal empire" and argues that it maintained the rule of law, benign government, free trade and, with the abolition of slavery, free labour. Historian Rudolf von Albertini agrees that, on balance, colonialism can be good. He argues that colonialism was a mechanism for modernisation in the colonies and imposed a peace by putting an end to tribal warfare. Historians L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan have also argued that Africa probably benefited from colonialism on balance. Although it had its faults, colonialism was probably "one of the most efficacious engines for cultural diffusion in world history". The economic historian David Kenneth Fieldhouse has taken a kind of middle position, arguing that the effects of colonialism were actually limited and their main weakness was not in deliberate underdevelopment but in what it failed to do. Niall Ferguson agrees with his last point, arguing that colonialism's main weaknesses were sins of omission. Marxist historian Bill Warren has argued that whilst colonialism may be bad because it relies on force, he views it as being the genesis of Third World development. However, history records few cases where two or more peoples have met and mingled without generating some sort of friction. The clearest cases of "benign" colonialism occur where the target exploited land is minimally populated (as with Iceland in the 9th century) or completely terra nullius (such as the Falkland Islands). See also References Further reading Albertini, Rudolf von. European Colonial Rule, 1880-1940: The Impact of the West on India, Southeast Asia, and Africa (1982) 581pp Betts, Raymond F. The False Dawn: European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (1975) Betts, Raymond F. Uncertain Dimensions: Western Overseas Empires in the Twentieth Century (1985) Black, Jeremy. European International Relations, 1648–1815 (2002) excerpt and text search Burbank, Jane, and Frederick Cooper. Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference (2011), Very wide-ranging coverage from Rome to the 1980s; 511pp Cotterell, Arthur. Western Power in Asia: Its Slow Rise and Swift Fall, 1415 - 1999 (2009) popular history; excerpt Dodge, Ernest S. Islands and Empires: Western Impact on the Pacific and East Asia (1976) Furber, Holden. Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient, 1600-1800 (1976) Furber, Holden, and Boyd C Shafer. Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient, 1600-1800 (1976) Hodge, Carl