Brian Ross wrote on May 4
th, 2017 at 11:43pm:
Britain and the British Empire stands for many things for many people. One thing that always amazes me is that people seem to forget one most important fact about the British Empire - it was set up to profit the British nation and the British people at the expense of all the various native peoples which it ruled.
You do but jest, methinks.
Huge local business empires grew up around wherever the British made landfall and established their trading posts. Shanghai had thousands of the local Chinese making their fortunes or a good living from first the British and then all the other foreign trading enterprises.
Hong Kong went from being a sleepy fishing village to an economic powerhouse in which the locals prospered alongside the British.
And so on and so forth.
And then there's Australia .... a First World country in 200 years while those to the north of us still flounder in poverty.
And then India which adopted holus bolus almost every institution of the one-time British occupiers. Same with a dozen countries in Africa.
And all the while that Britain was creating wealth for the locals in far flung places through business and trading, the average Brit at home was working in appalling conditions in Dickensian "Satanic Mills" where the sky glowed red at night where the factories and foundries were. Child labour. Women. 18 hour work shifts. Sleeping next to the looms as their permanent residence.
Taking a trip around Britain's Midlands and elsewhere you'll see the sort of miserable terraced housing the average Brit called 'home' during these years when 'the sun never set on the British Empire'. It was only a very few who saw any benefit in their lives from British colonialism.
The notion much beloved of ethnics and self-haters like Brian is that the British people were enjoying a life of idle luxury at the expence of foreign locals slaving mercilessly in hideous conditions, but the truth is in fact quite the opposite.
And then again, people like Brian never consider why everything is Made in China nowadays, and that the reason for this is China's Dickensian 'Satanic Mills' where the long work-hours and poor pay makes this all possible. But no, forget about today's semi-slave conditions in China and India - let's turn back the years and harp on
endlessly about the guilt Britain should bear for its colonial years.
And then let's compare the legacy of Spain and Portugal's colonial exploits in comparison to that of Britain's.
South America.
Say no more.
You make some valid points, Herbie and none which I will deny. However, in the case of Australia in particular it's history post federation with the British Empire was not a happy one. After WWI in particular, Australia sought to modify the British Empire from a UK centric one to a Imperial powers force, where the powers outside the UK controlled the Empire and directed its defence and political forces for their benefit, rather than the benefit of the UK. However, the UK resisted that and it was the spark that saw the disintegration of the Empire. Canada looked southwards to the USA. Australia, despite being loyal to the UK saw its military forces directed towards disaster when the UK controlled them (witness the battle between Churchill and Curtin over where the 2nd AIF was to be deployed, once it left North Africa). It saw it's beliefs in the UK's Royal Navy destroyed when Force Z was sunk and Singapore taken. After the war, despite offering the use of it's land for UK Atomic Tests, it was not to see it repaid with nuclear knowledge. New Zealand was more loyal to the UK until it joined the EU, and so it saw it's main market for it's dairy and sheep products taken from it by an uncaring London. Herbie, like Churchill you sound astounded that we, as independent nations should seek to get something in return for the blood we shed on your ex-nation's behalf. Tsk, tsk.
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101 Ways That Evil British empire Ruined the World (Read 9399 times)
