Sure, but how often do the colonized end up better off for it, especially via trying to employ clever play-both-sides strategies?
I didn’t say the colonized generally ended up better off, but outcomes did vary greatly. Just in the US the cherokees faired much better than say the Susquehannock and Pequot, and if you dig into that history it seems pretty likely that decisions on which colonizer(s) to ally with (british, french, dutch, later american etc) were important, even if not “clever play-both-sides strategies” (although I’d be surprised if that wasn’t also tried somewhere at least once)
I didn’t say the colonized generally ended up better off, but outcomes did vary greatly. Just in the US the cherokees faired much better than say the Susquehannock and Pequot, and if you dig into that history it seems pretty likely that decisions on which colonizer(s) to ally with (british, french, dutch, later american etc) were important, even if not “clever play-both-sides strategies” (although I’d be surprised if that wasn’t also tried somewhere at least once)