Re: British Empire
Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:12 pm
cyber bullying
I think that would lead to a discussion on whether or not globalisation and things like the UN are really doing more good than harm (mainly globalisation, the UN is pretty benign). My argument was more based on the fact that when the Empire began to dissolve, it just seemed to go around creating countries willy nilly without really looking at the local populace and how it would affect them. Out of this in my mind a lot of the division in the world today has arisen, notably in the middle east. Nobody gives a fuck about what country they are over there and ethnic and tribal ties are treated as hugely more important than any kind of nationalism. Industrially and scientifically the Empire was a massive force for good (besides the horrors of slavery and general exploitation of it's colonies as you mentioned earlier) but I do think all the good the Empire did in those regards was offset by the chaos it's engendered by appointing itself the decider of what country goes where if you follow me. This si a pretty half formed thought but I wanted to explore it a bit further, so thank you for the well thought and interesting response. Also, it goes without saying that the Holocaust was the worst human tragedy in either recent or the entirety of human history and I would be absolutely mortified if anyone thinks I'm trivialising or ignoring an abhorrent event like that, but it wasn't the cause of any new conflicts, as the Allies were already at war with the sizan when it was going on.magma wrote:I think you can probably argue it was the worst and the best in almost equal measure. It's difficult not to sound like the stereotypical patronising European to argue it was good, but for all its failings, it arguably did more to unite the world and lay the foundations for the "globalisation" which American quasi-imperialism built on in the 20th Century than anything else. We wouldn't have had the World Wars without all the vying empires, but we probably wouldn't have things like the UN and the WHO and we wouldn't have 'learnt our lessons' as a species about the dangers of naked Imperialism... hell, we probably wouldn't even be talking about this on the Internet. If we hadn't gone through the enormous global trade boom of the Industrial Revolution (yes, globalised down the barrel of a rifle) we may not have ever built the institutions that will stop it happening again.
But yeah, I think all Imperial ages tend to be run so much in the self-interest of the Mother country that the spread of enlightenment and 'order' is always incredibly unfair. I don't think India would be the burgeoning economy it is today if it hadn't been on the journey it has, but I'm not sure you can ever truly justify the horrors that occurred there... horrors we and they are still feeling the effects of today. Worse, the British Empire helped create and enforce the institutionalised slavery of black people and it's difficult to even turn on the radio without being reminded of that at some point. It also got a fuckload of Chinese people addicted to opium and the rest of us addicted to sugar.
I don't see the British Empire as an isolated event really... I think if we went back to a non-industrialised world and forgot all the advances from the 1700s onwards, the first country to work it all out whilst sitting on an island full of coal would create an Empire in order to spread that knowledge and power. It's happened at all points of human civilisation when a power gap has appeared... the difference with the British Empire is that when it ended, wider civilisation didn't follow suit. When the Roman Empire went down it took European civilisation centuries to get properly back on track... Britain was plunged into the Dark Ages and an awful lot of knowledge was lost. Arguably, the British Empire's greatest victory was that it was so effective at spreading knowledge of the sciences and (maybe more importantly) philosophy/politics that it practically brought about its own end... the Romans would've never been stupid enough to export John Stuart Mill to their colonies!
When the British first went to India, the plan was always for it to be independent eventually. Even as far along as McCaulay and the British Raj, the overriding aim (along with "casshhhhh") was to take a vast, populous country that struggled to organise itself and turn it into a modern industrial utopia that had favourable business ties to Britain. That idea sort of got lost along the way and they eventually had to seize independence for themselves, but the end result, 300 years later, isn't really that far off. The same can't always be said of India's neighbours where the Empire didn't get involved...
I've never truly made my mind up about Empire. I'm glad we appear to be over that now because I've only got the stomach for it in history books. Imagine if the French had taken America instead though? Just IMAGINE.
As for the "worst" thing to happen... the Holocaust stands out for me. 6 million dead on racist grounds in a matter of a few years.
tl;dr I don't know.
nope, not ginger in the slightest, sorry to disappoint you mannobody wrote:I have a feeling he's a ginger
Dammit, can you please start a 'guess what I look like thread'Dystinkt wrote:nope, not ginger in the slightest, sorry to disappoint you mannobody wrote:I have a feeling he's a ginger
you got me, my Facebook is littered with written selfiesJizz wrote:come on now, this is just a descriptive selfieDystinkt wrote:(gold star for anyone that can find another 19 year old that enjoys discussing historical and philosophical debates as opposed to taking selfies)
Like I said, apologies for coming across that way, and apologies for being an arsehole in my reply. You're right, I do need some new friends to discuss stuff like this withMuncey wrote:Gold star for guessing which bit made you sound like an arrogant twat!Dystinkt wrote:I'm sorry if you guys thought I was being arrogant I really didn't intend to come across that way
But ultimately I think you need new friends.
I doubt people would be interested, hardly Burial am Inobody wrote:Dammit, can you please start a 'guess what I look like thread'Dystinkt wrote:nope, not ginger in the slightest, sorry to disappoint you mannobody wrote:I have a feeling he's a ginger
It wouldn't be appropriate for me to start it
http://www.dogsonacid.com/threads/youfo ... 291/page-7nobody wrote:Dammit, can you please start a 'guess what I look like thread'Dystinkt wrote:nope, not ginger in the slightest, sorry to disappoint you mannobody wrote:I have a feeling he's a ginger
It wouldn't be appropriate for me to start it

It was pretty much the most poorly thought out sentence I've written on DSF, totally misjudged how people would take itkaili wrote:lloll i read this thread earlier and i knew everyone would go off about that line in the OP
Even just in India in just the late 19th century, up to 29 million apparently http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 04631.htmlOGLemon wrote:How many people died as a direct result of British imperialism?
lol step asidejaydot wrote:Yet we're still the greatest country in the world.