I never said there is no conflict in the world, nor did I say the human rights situation is perfect. But can you honestly tell me human rights now are the same as they were 500 or even 100 years ago? Absolutely not. There are only small pockets of the world right now that live with a similar human rights situation as the past. Even most of Asia and Africa have relatively better human rights in this era, there are just a few pockets like Kashmir, Xinxiang, Yemen, and a few other places in the Middle East and Africa. Even countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, as extremely repressive they are, are more free than most societies of the past.
The people living in these empires would not have achieved what they did without living in the right type of environment. Science flourished in the Abbasid Caliphate because it was promoted by the rulers, the mathematicians in Ancient India made those developments in maths and astronomy because the government of the time allowed such developments to happen. How did a Pakistani from a modest background like Abdus Salam achieve so much? Yes, he was extremely intelligent, but he had to go to the UK to realise his full potential. He would not have had the same achievements in Pakistan simply because Pakistan lacks the opportunities and environment available to him in England. Sure, the empires of the past were oftentimes brutal, but that was the reality of that time period. I don't excuse the Americans or British though, as their brutality came in a time of enlightenment, and greater awareness and value of human rights.