What were the worst events in the British Empire?

[Pickman's model]

*phew*

swimming pools at Auschwitz

bigger cages longer chains

 

[A Dashing Blade]

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

Didn't mean the French Revolution's impact on French society but more it's impact on the development of philosophic concepts (iyswim)

 

[A Dashing Blade]

. . . what did Britain do for which it should be wholly ashamed?

How's about it's policy of "splendid isolation" leading it to fail to have any diplomatic interest in Bismark's consolidation of Germany which created the conditions that allowed WW1 to occur, the settlement conditions of which led to WW2?

ie could have done something but didn't.

(broad brush-stroke caveats again come into force)

 

[weltweit]

spanish in cuba

1896 - Another tool implemented by Weyler was the system of “re-concentration,” in which various fortified areas were designated, and all inhabitants were given eight days to move in, including cattle and other animals. Anyone caught outside was considered the enemy and killed. These “re-concentration” towns were very crowded and unhealthy, since Spaniards and soldiers occupied the best accommodations and took the best food. Many died of disease and starvation.

http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/scaw/scaw1a.htm

 

[weltweit]

How's about it's policy of "splendid isolation" leading it to fail to have any diplomatic interest in Bismark's consolidation of Germany which created the conditions that allowed WW1 to occur, the settlement conditions of which led to WW2?
ie could have done something but didn't.
(broad brush-stroke caveats again come into force)

Well WWI was certainly a disaster of monumental proportions.

 

[Random]

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.

One thing that is unusual about the British Empire is that their imperial crimes have gone largely unpunished. The BE lost no wars as part of the loss of their colonies, unlike the French in Algeria and Indochina. They kept a British-educated elite in charge of most colonies, and also kept a reasonably good public image, internationally and even in many of the colonies themselves. And Britain's modern world role followed on smoothly from Empire, as part of the US-dominated world. So in many ways the empire never went away, especially when you consider all the 'third world' basketcases created by the UK divide and rule strategy that JC3 mentioned.

 

[A Dashing Blade]

One thing that is unusual about the British Empire is that their imperial crimes have gone largely unpunished. The BE lost no wars as part of the loss of their colonies, unlike the French in Algeria and Indochina. They kept a British-educated elite in charge of most colonies, and also kept a reasonably good public image, internationally and even in many of the colonies themselves. And Britain's modern world role followed on smoothly from Empire, as part of the US-dominated world. So in many ways the empire never went away, especially when you consider all the 'third world' basketcases created by the UK divide and rule strategy that JC3 mentioned.

Would quibble with terminology used in second clause of first sentence, apart from that, seriously good point imo.

 

[weltweit]

... I'd suggest the repression of the Mau Mau uprising, which was not objectively the worst thing, but is made worse by the fact that it happened in living memory.

Interesting read, quite what you say, in living memory. Heck almost in my living memory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Uprising

 

[DotCommunist]

http://exiledonline.com/when-pigs-fly-and-scold-brits-lecturing-sri-lanka/

What’s sick about this is that the British establishment destroyed the Sinhalese people completely. Completely and purposely, sadistically. Stole their land, humiliated and massacred their government, made it Imperial policy to erase every shred of self-respect the Sinhalese had left. You can talk about the Nazis all day long, but for my money nothing they did was as gross as what you find out when you actually look into the history of British-Sinhalese relations. If you can even call them “relations”; I guess a murder-rape is a relation, sort of.

But nobody knows about it. Weird, huh? Nothing weirds me out more than the total news blackout the Brits have managed to put on all the sick shit they did to brown and black people all over the world. They had a system, and it worked. They’d grab some paradise island in the tropics, use the Royal Navy to wall it off from the rest of the world, and crush the local tribe. If the locals resisted, the Brits would starve them to death, shoot them down, infect them with smallpox or get them addicted to opium–whatever they had to do to gang-rape the locals so bad that they’d lose the will to resist.
And to this day, they don’t catch even a little bit of Hell for it. Everybody thinks the Brits are all cute and harmless. You’re all a bunch of suckers for those suave accents, you suckers! The truth is that compared to the Brits, the Nazis you’re always yammering about were a gang of eighth-grade stoners who ran around spraypainting swastikas on school property. The Nazis lasted one decade; the Brits quietly ran their extermination programs for three hundred years, and to this day they wouldn’t even think of feeling guilty about it. Wouldn’t cross their minds.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

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

Economically driven.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

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.

It's all relative, though. Slavery's getting a lot of discussion on the thread. It was a characteristic of British slaveholders, and those formed in the British model [ie the US] to totally strip away the culture and religion of their slaves, creating a population of illiterate slaves with no cultural roots whatsoever, presumably out of a belief that they'd be more controllable that way.

Other empires, notably the Portuguese in Brazil, didn't do this as much; and it's arguable that this had a positive effect when slavery ended, and the integration process began.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

spanish in cuba

Americans, for aboriginal people, in the 1830s.

 

[goldenecitrone]

http://exiledonline.com/when-pigs-fly-and-scold-brits-lecturing-sri-lanka/

And to this day, they don’t catch even a little bit of Hell for it. Everybody thinks the Brits are all cute and harmless. You’re all a bunch of suckers for those suave accents, you suckers! The truth is that compared to the Brits, the Nazis you’re always yammering about were a gang of eighth-grade stoners who ran around spraypainting swastikas on school property. The Nazis lasted one decade; the Brits quietly ran their extermination programs for three hundred years, and to this day they wouldn’t even think of feeling guilty about it. Wouldn’t cross their minds.

It was always fun talking about stuff like this when I lived in Germany.

 

[Santino]

All those cinema versions of 1970s sitcoms.

 

[weltweit]

It's all relative, though. Slavery's getting a lot of discussion on the thread. It was a characteristic of British slaveholders, and those formed in the British model [ie the US] to totally strip away the culture and religion of their slaves, creating a population of illiterate slaves with no cultural roots whatsoever, presumably out of a belief that they'd be more controllable that way.

Perhaps it is no surprise that slavery, especially transatlantic slavery, is getting a lot of mentions. The Wikipedia page about slavery I found said that the estimate was that 12,000,000 africans were taken from Africa to the United States to be slaves. Twelve Million is a simply massive amount of people - almost incomprehensible.

Other empires, notably the Portuguese in Brazil, didn't do this as much; and it's arguable that this had a positive effect when slavery ended, and the integration process began.

Yes, I know a Spanish person who claims that in Spanish colonies there was mixing, mingling and interbreeding which meant greater integration between the Spanish empire builders and their dominions. I don't know enough to comment.

 

[goldenecitrone]

All those cinema versions of 1970s sitcoms.

Carry on up the Khyber.

 

[gosub]

Perhaps it is no surprise that slavery, especially transatlantic slavery, is getting a lot of mentions. The Wikipedia page about slavery I found said that the estimate was that 12,000,000 africans were taken from Africa to the United States to be slaves. Twelve Million is a simply massive amount of people - almost incomprehensible.

Yes, I know a Spanish person who claims that in Spanish colonies there was mixing, mingling and interbreeding which meant greater integration between the Spanish empire builders and their dominions. I don't know enough to comment.

The Moon travel guide on Cuba (better than lonely planet) reckoned Spaniards in colonys went to live abroad permanently, as opposed to Brits who went to make money and come back to Blighty. That said also reckoned the brief spell under the British the Cubans had, was a lot better than being a Spanish colony.
Readareview in the Sunday Times Culture last week of 1493 (looks a good read) which reckons the industrialization of the West African slave trade was down to malaria, and sub Saharan sickcell giving imunity

 

[Stigmata]

The Moon travel guide on Cuba (better than lonely planet) reckoned Spaniards in colonys went to live abroad permanently, as opposed to Brits who went to make money and come back to Blighty. That said also reckoned the brief spell under the British the Cubans had, was a lot better than being a Spanish colony.

I'd heard the opposite- that there was more racial mixing in South America than North because Portuguese and Spanish men came on their own to work, while English and Dutch came with their families to settle.

 

[Pickman's model]

I'd heard the opposite- that there was more racial mixing in South America than North because Portuguese and Spanish men came on their own to work, while English and Dutch came with their families to settle.

which is doubtless why english is spoken throughout north america while in large parts of central and south america spanish is seen as the language of the ruling elite.

 

[Idris2002]

It was always fun talking about stuff like this when I lived in Germany.

My German colleague in Brum would often remark to me that she was amazed that British kids knew nothing about history, and especially their own, when in Germany, on the other hand. . .

 

[Wolveryeti]

The BE lost no wars as part of the loss of their colonies

Apart from...er... the American War of Independence

 

[craigxcraig]

I was there a couple of weeks back and went along, it's quite shocking and there's a very moving painting there which I'll try to post one I have a better connection.

 

[Idris2002]

Perhaps it is no surprise that slavery, especially transatlantic slavery, is getting a lot of mentions. The Wikipedia page about slavery I found said that the estimate was that 12,000,000 africans were taken from Africa to the United States to be slaves. Twelve Million is a simply massive amount of people - almost incomprehensible.

Yes, I know a Spanish person who claims that in Spanish colonies there was mixing, mingling and interbreeding which meant greater integration between the Spanish empire builders and their dominions. I don't know enough to comment.

A similar
comment is usually made about Portugese policy with regard to the Assimilados, persons who had adopted some Portugese language and culture in the Angolan and Mozambican colonies. What's left out is that the Assimilados were a tiny proportion of the population, and did not, IIRC, have full citizenship rights equal to those of Portugese colonists (mind you, in Portugal itself, it was policy to restrict education literacy so as to keep the population docile).

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

 

[Random]

Apart from...er... the American War of Independence

I meant during the end of the BE and decolonisation. Sorry, I thought that was obvious.

 

[eoin_k]

1916-1922 wasn't a victory?

 

[Idris2002]

How can it be a victory when it loses them a large chunk of territory in the home islands, and becomes an inspiration subsequent generations draw on when they fight the British empire elsewhere?

 

[turing test]

Flashman knows the answer

 

[London_Calling]

Abolition or not, the entire 19th century industrial revolution depended on slavery, esp. (but not only) the supply of cotton to the Lancastrian mills. The British Empire - Britain in particular - was the market for North American slave produce.

 

[camouflage]

Yes, I know a Spanish person who claims that in Spanish colonies there was mixing, mingling and interbreeding which meant greater integration between the Spanish empire builders and their dominions. I don't know enough to comment.

This was due to a deficit of Spanish migration to the colonies.

 

[camouflage]

Abolition or not, the entire 19th century industrial revolution depended on slavery, esp. (but not only) the supply of cotton to the Lancastrian mills. The British Empire - Britain in particular - was the market for North American slave produce.

The Brits probably abolished slavery to stick it to the French, hit their sugar industry in the workforce-supply while Britain sucked India dry.