What would have to change to make it at all possible for nations to not enslave the natives of their colonies and strip them of their resources, but instead have them develop the colonies with the eventual aim of making them reliable, friendly allies of the mother country with close economic and political ties? And what would be the knock-on effects?
I really, really hope this isn't completely ASB!
Colonialism didn't start racist, in fact much of the European Monarchs and Clergy found the treatment of the natives morally repugnant, and it is said when the last remnant of the Inca Empire was destroyed the Spanish King gave condolences and felt as if his underlings betrayed him.
Racism was low-key, and almost always ethnocentric or culturocentric more so than racially founded, until the relatively modern times. African slaves were not imported in such vast quantities because the Europeans viewed the Africans as inferior creatures to be bought and sold, rather they were imported through the ease of access, the economic necessity that precipitated it, and a large number of interfaith laws that at first prohibited the enslavement of Christians, and later the enslavement of Muslims. Both were ignored, especially the latter, but open rebellion on a large scale against the laws in place were unfeasible and in some ways utterly disastrous if attempted given the lifeblood of trade which powered Europe at the time.
Racism became a justification in the 18th and 19th centuries. Ironically, many of the people behind the White Man's Burden wanted to prove that even the most "ignorant" of "barbaric savages" could be risen up to the level of a white man if given proper instruction and fatherly guidance, or at the very least could be made into useful employees to feed the motherlands' growing industrial and economic needs.