Is it fair to claim that powers like britain, france, and belgium got a raw deal during imperialism?

The statement is TRUE.

Old imperialism was characterized by direct occupation and dominance of a territory, and started with the arrival of the Spanish to America leaded by Columbus in 1492. Colonized territories depended on their mother country for political, economic, social and cultural issues. Apart from Spain, also other countries such as France, UK or Belgium created their own empires.

The relationships established with the colonist were mostly profitable for the mother country, specially in economic terms. Such system allowed the mother country to consume raw materials, minerals and other resources from the colonies only paying for the costs of their obtention or extraction, and to use them to produce manufactures. Subsequently, they traded the final products in the international markets, becoming powerful exporting nations. They even sold those final products back in the colonies.

for starters, there is the structural trend of rising primary government expenditure as a share of gdp, which reached 36% in 2014, up from 22% in 1991. this increase reflected a political desire to address the poverty and inequality that had gone unaddressed during previous decades. to support the increase, brazil’s government increased taxes on consumption and promoted progress toward labor-market formalization. nonetheless, public investment, particularly in infrastructure, took a hit. in fact, with the exception of the 2005-2008 period, total investment as a share of gdp has remained below 20% since 1991.