What were the worst events in the British Empire?

[A Dashing Blade]

Yes, I agree that the slave trade was certainly a significant low. . .

And therefore the Empire's role in stopping the slave trade was . . . ?

 

[Santino]

1882, England 77 all out.

 

[Meltingpot]

The Massacre at Amritsar must be one of the many examples.

For me the worst event was another Indian one; the mass famines in the Punjab under Bulwer-Lytton. The death tool was into the tens of millions IIRC.

 

[Orang Utan]

johnny canuck3

 

[weltweit]

For me the worst event was another Indian one; the mass famines in the Punjab under Bulwer-Lytton. The death tool was into the tens of millions IIRC.

Thanks Meltingpot, I will have a dig. I have to admit to being completely ignorant about it atm.

Hmm, it seems there were a whole series of famines in India under British rule, this Wiki page details them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_India_during_British_rule

And there is a specific page about the Indian famine of 1899–1900
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_famine_of_1899–1900

 

[Santino]

The current series of Torchwood.

 

[krtek a houby]

Bloody Sunday

 

[Santino]

Bloody Sunday

Anything by U2, actually.

 

[krtek a houby]

Bloody Santino

 

[weltweit]

And therefore the Empire's role in stopping the slave trade was . . . ?

The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (citation 3 & 4 Will. IV c. 73) was an 1833 Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom abolishing slavery throughout most of the British Empire (with the notable exceptions "of the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company," the "Island of Ceylon," and "the Island of Saint Helena").[1] The Act was repealed in 1998 as part of a wider rationalisation of English statute law, but later anti-slavery legislation remains in force. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833

 

[Santino]

It would be easy to say that U2 were just an Irish problem, but I think Britain has to take its share of the blame.

 

[krtek a houby]

It would be easy to say that U2 were just an Irish problem, but I think Britain has to take its share of the blame.

It would be easy to slag off U2, so easy. and tired and old.

 

[A Dashing Blade]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833

So Britain had a major role in supressing the slave trade then . . .

"Slavery had been abolished in Great Britain in 1772 by Lord Mansfield in R v Knowles, ex parte Somersett[2] and Britain had outlawed the slave trade with the Slave Trade Act in 1807, with penalties of £100 per slave levied on British captains found importing slaves (treaties signed with other nations expanded the scope of the trading ban). Small trading nations that did not have a great deal to give up, such as Sweden, quickly followed suit, as did the Netherlands, also by then a minor player; however, the British Empire on its own constituted a substantial fraction of the world's population. The Royal Navy established the West Africa Squadron (or Preventative Squadron) at substantial expense in 1808 after Parliament passed the Act. The squadron's task was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. This suppressed the slave trade but did not stop it entirely. It is possible that, if slave ships were in danger of being captured by the Royal Navy, some captains may have ordered the slaves to be thrown into the sea to reduce the fines they had to pay. Between 1808 and 1860 the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans.[3][4] Notwithstanding what had been done to suppress the trade, further measures were soon discovered to be necessary"

 

[Pickman's model]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833

even with those caveats slavery would have been abolished in india in the 1850s

 

[weltweit]

Between 1808 and 1860 the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships

The numbers of people and ships and whatnot involved in the transatlantic slave trade are simply staggering.

 

[A Dashing Blade]

. . . What I am after in this thread is the awful things that Britain did in or around these periods of history, what did Britain do for which it should be wholly ashamed?

Why? Find one empire since the dawn of recorded history that hasn't done, using a modern Western European mind-set/ethical code/morality whatever, some pretty shitty things.

 

[A Dashing Blade]

The numbers of people and ships and whatnot involved in the transatlantic slave trade are simply staggering.

Absolutely, 110%. And, did you know that in spite of these numbers, conditions on the caribean plantations were so bad that their population actually declined during the late 18th/early 19th century? These were the first concentration camps imo.

 

[Pickman's model]

Absolutely, 110%. And, did you know that in spite of these numbers, conditions on the caribean plantations were so bad that their population actually declined during the late 18th/early 19th century? These were the first concentration camps imo.

i'm not getting the feeling you know what a concentration camp is.

 

[weltweit]

Absolutely, 110%. And, did you know that in spite of these numbers, conditions on the caribean plantations were so bad that their population actually declined during the late 18th/early 19th century? These were the first concentration camps imo.

Oh, I thought the first effective use of concentration camps was British use of them in the Boer War.

 

[weltweit]

Why? Find one empire since the dawn of recorded history that hasn't done, using a modern Western European mind-set/ethical code/morality whatever, some pretty shitty things.

I am interested, this was "our" empire.. plus though I haven't looked closely I may have ancestors that were involved.

 

[A Dashing Blade]

Note, 12 million is the estimate of how many slaves were taken from Africa via the transatlantic route to the Americas by all countries, not just by Britain.

Worth pointing out to those who don't know that Europeans did not capture the slaves, they purchased them from third parties.

 

[Pickman's model]

Oh, I thought the first effective use of concentration camps was British use of them in the Boer War.

spanish in cuba

 

[A Dashing Blade]

Oh, I thought the first effective use of concentration camps was British use of them in the Boer War.

Or perhaps prison camps in the American Civil War. Kinda need to define terms on that question. But my point is that conditions on the slave plantations up to the first quarter of the nineteenth century were truely appalling.

 

[krtek a houby]

Worth pointing out to those who don't know that Europeans did not capture the slaves, they purchased them from third parties.

Which third parties? Corsairs?

 

[Pickman's model]

Or perhaps prison camps in the American Civil War. Kinda need to define terms on that question. But my point is that conditions on the slave plantations up to the first quarter of the nineteenth century were truely appalling.

they weren't that good in the second or third quarter of the ninteenth century either

 

[A Dashing Blade]

Which third parties? Corsairs?

African tribes in the interior and muslim merchants.

 

[weltweit]

I suppose it is interesting to comprehend the general violence leading up to these times. I have just been looking at Hanging Drawing & Quartering which was from 1351 a punishment for treason in Britain.

... Although the Act of Parliament that defines high treason remains on the United Kingdom's statute books, during a long period of 19th-century legal reform the sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering was changed to drawing, hanging until dead, and posthumous beheading and quartering, before being rendered obsolete in England in 1870. The death penalty for treason was abolished in 1998.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered

 

[A Dashing Blade]

they weren't that good in the second or third quarter of the ninteenth century either

For sure, but I'd argue that the "beginning of the turning point" catalyst (broad brush-stroke caveat alert) could be dated to the French Revolution.

 

[DotCommunist]

Worth pointing out to those who don't know that Europeans did not capture the slaves, they purchased them from third parties.

*phew*

swimming pools at Auschwitz

 

[Pickman's model]

For sure, but I'd argue that the "beginning of the turning point" catalyst (broad brush-stroke caveat alert) could be dated to the French Revolution.

perhaps not: http://etymonline.com/columns/frenchslavery.htm