Jason (and the Argonauts) are thought to have gone to Georgia to obtain the Golden Fleece.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece
"Nowadays, the heraldic variations of the Golden Fleece are featured frequently in Georgia, especially for Coats of Arms and Flags associated with Western...
Constantinople, Manchuria, East Turkestan, Mongolia, menacing Iran or Afghanistan, and a deal on the Sund tolls.
Some kind of Pan-Slavic solidarity mess in the Balkans.
So long as they're not in a position of using significant numbers of African slaves. Then it's a straight road to dehumanization town.
If they get in an enemy-of-my-enemy situation, say against the Ottomans, Portuguese or Dutch, they could instead view them positively.
Have Francis Galton's Chinese Africa proposal become official policy for some British colony in the late 19th century, and postulate it doesn't crash and burn. Crucially, they learn English under British administration and spend a generation "westernizing".
The resulting greater economic...