English to Russian Social Sciences History

The European powers had mainly been concerned about access to raw materials, but by the mid-twentieth century it was possible to obtain this without formal political control - the industrialized powers and their transnational corporations had enough economic and political power to ensure any newly independent country had little choice but to collaborate. Independence would therefore mean little more than handing over power to those groups which had always worked with the colonial power. Once this process started, with one state moving down the road to extensive decolonization, it was more difficult for others to resist and so the process snowballed.
Правильно ли я понимаю, что would здесь имеет значение повторяющегося действия в прошлом, а не условия, т.е. "Независимость, следовательно, означала немногим более чем передачу власти тем группам, которые всегда работали с колониальной властью."