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British Colonial Rule

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Hymie | 08:06 Sun 02nd Jul 2023 | Society & Culture
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This story in today’s Daily Mail on-line interested me (especially as some ABers think me a racist).

In the article the Oxford professor claims that there were many very good things about British colonial rule, as well as very bad.

As an example of the one of the very good things about British colonial rule – he points out that we were one of the first to abolish slavery and slave trading within its territories.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12254917/Brits-feel-guilt-Empire-know-Oxford-don-tells-festival.html
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That’s a bit like a man saying he was the first to stop beating his wife.
08:14 Sun 02nd Jul 2023
the process of “civilizing” british imperial holdings involved an awful lot of exploitation…. look for example at the enormous opium trade that we created in india and the violent way in which it was maintained… the empire was built on racism and superior technology.

then of course there are the numerous atrocities and acts of genocide committed by the British.

no modern british person should feel any guilt whatsoever about the empire… guilt helps nobody. we should not however glorify imperialism or try to whitewash the past and pretend that our forebears were “the good guys”… this country got very rich indeed on the back of exploiting other peoples and the legacy of that is still very much with us
Indeed, Khandro. We’re all mired with the fortune of accidental birth in a country built on the accidental misfortune of others. But we should never forget that. This doesn’t mean we are guilty or we should feel guilt.
Well,said, untitled.
“ we created civilised places for living with law and order and infrastructure.”

there really is no way to know whether those things would have developed on their own… not many countries outside of europe managed to escape being conquered but some that did like japan and korea did develop industry and modern legal systems… india had many atrocious customs that were abolished under the british who then introduced some of their own… but the idea that india would have just stayed as it was in the 1750s had it not been for the wonderful british is not very likely!
untitled: // we created civilised places for living with law and order and infrastructure.”

there really is no way to know whether those things would have developed on their own…// - you're having a Turkish! Look at the afore mentioned Rhodesia for a start. Then look at myriad of countries the citizens of which are literally dying to get here.
It is actually nothing like a man saying he was the first to stop beating his wife. The UK didn't just stop slavery in the UK when the UK's moral attitudes changed, they were instrumental in preventing it's continued acceptance worldwide. To be an adequate comparison the wife beating would have to be done by everyone, and thought to be right.
Rhodesia is just a recent example of what happens to a country when left to the indigenous rulers.

of the 250 000 white settlers, 2000 are er remainers
of the 13m ndebele and shona - at least 1-2 m are economic migrants.

( hey I had a 19 y o telephone engineer. I asked him which language he spoke at home (ndebele). I told him that it had 6 clicks of which the best white speaker could only get 4. He seemed to know about that)

oh and the cost of repatriation of the whites, cost to the Treasury - nil. My cousin waited on tables in Exeter having managed a 5000 acre orange farm and said "I needed the money"
India
the usual ones are : supprssion of suttee ( burning of widows) suppression of the assassins
Railways
and education

which is kinda OK for 200y

Zim - standard of living lower than 1965 - oo er Mrs
Have you checked S. Africa, with it's rolling blackouts, among other issues ?
I'm a member of Tay Valley Family History Society and this appeared today on my feed.

".....remember that just because more records say one thing rather than another thing, that doesn't mean that's accurate. And also because we are working with historical people and places, we will never be able to absolutely know the truth, only get as close to it as possible.
Good genealogists know that there could always be some future discovery that will turn their current conclusions on their ear."
.remember that just because more records say one thing rather than another thing, that doesn't mean that's accurate

this is History not science innit?

the written record is preferred in scientifc endeavour as it is obvious that memories may vary ( now who was it who said that).

The beeb use this as a crutch a lot. History is rewritten every generation - look at slavery for chrissakes
or blood guilt - christians killing Jews 13th cent very bad
English payinng for slavery - very good
“ Look at the afore mentioned Rhodesia for a start.”

what exactly do you think the example of rhodesia demonstrates toratoratora?
11:00 are you serious? I can't work out whether you are making some obtuse point or you really are unaware of what happened. Here's a good account, "how to kill a country"....
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/12/how-to-kill-a-country/302845/
i am aware of the heinous record of the mugabe regime

but you seem to think that the example of zimbabwe proves something about whether or not colonised areas could modernize without being conquered... would you care to say what you think?
It's history, it's passed, move on and learn from it. I feel no guilt about it whatsoever about it all.
untitled, it demonstrates that colonial rule did produce a stable effective prosperous nation. Demonstrably infinitely more so than indigenous rule did. Why do you think thousands from myriad nations literally die to get to British rule? Now I know you lefty types like to rubbish the country but I think on balance a lot of good things came out of colonial rule.
indeed, William the Conqueror had abolished it in 1066. (Anglo-Saxons and Vikings before that thought it was fine.)

Still, the British Empire couldn't have been as successful without slaves. Some people are happy to praise the empire and count their blessings for how rich it's made the country, while claiming to have nothing to do with how the money was made. Take the cash but not the responsibility.
‘ they were instrumental in preventing it's continued acceptance worldwide’
That’s abit like a bloke who used to beat his wife encouraging others not to do it.
‘To be an adequate comparison the wife beating would have to be done by everyone, and thought to be right’
No it isn’t. Not everyone was involved in slavery so that analogy definitely doesn’t work.
Tora, I don’t believe you answered my question:
‘ what do you think the Ndebele people would think of that after they were mown down by the then new maxim guns by the BSAP?’
ZM: Well I'd hope they'd see it as a battle in a war, the battle of Shangani. You seem to be painting this as some sort of atrocity. The British were attacked and repulsed the enemy using weapons at their disposal. In any case I suspect they'd prefer to have comfortable safe lives as much as the next man.

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