*a millenia of slavery, genocide, repression and inequality*
British views of history: only fall slightly by 2024
I think we can be proud that we weren’t as bad as Spain or the Dutch.
Great Britain- England, Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland, does need to take a leaf out of Germany’s book. Take a hard look at it’s self, take responsibility for the crimes committed in the British Empire, apologise, and make a commitment to not make the same mistakes again.
Rage baiting??
Erm. Try living in the present and not the past then. Not a country existing has a nice history.
May be ‘responsibility’ is too triggering, may be ‘ acknowledge the crimes of the empire’ may be more acceptable.
My grandparents were farm labourers and worked in service, and they were exploited by the middle and upper-class, but that wasn’t the question
Here are 20 notable atrocities associated with the British Empire:
1. The Amritsar Massacre (1919) – British troops killed hundreds of unarmed Indian civilians.
2. The Bengal Famine (1943) Polucies led to the death of millions due to starvation.
3. The Anglo-Zulu War (1879) – Mass killings of Zulu warriors and civilians.
4. The Irish Famine (1845-1852)- British economic policies exacerbated the starvation of millions.
5. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919) Troops opened fire on a peaceful gathering, killing many.
6. The Second Opium War (1856-1860) – Forceful imposition of opium trade on China, leading to widespread addiction.
7. The Tasmanian Genocide (1803-1830s) Systematic extermination of the Tasmanian Aboriginal population.
8. The Mau Mau Uprising (1952-1960) Torture and killings of Kenyans by British forces.
9. The Partition of India (1947) – Violence and displacement resulting in millions of deaths.
10. The Boer War Concentration Camps (1899-1902) – Death of thousands of Boer women and children due to neglect.
11. The Punitive Expeditions in Africa- Violent suppression of uprisings, leading to numerous deaths.
12. The killings in the Caribbean – Enslavement and brutal treatment of Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans.
13. The Suez Crisis (1956)- Military intervention leading to violence and instability in Egypt.
14. The suppression of the Sepoy Mutiny (1857) Brutal reprisals against Indian rebels.
15. The treatment of Aboriginal Australians, massacres, and cultural genocide.
16. Exacerbating The Irish Famine ( 1845-49) estimated over 1 million deaths.
17. The destruction of the Ashanti Empire (1896)- Military campaigns leading to loss of life and sovereignty.
18. The execution of the leaders of the Indian Rebellion (1857)- Public executions as a means of repression.
19. The exploitation of indentured laborers Forced migration and harsh treatment of workers in plantations.
20. The Great Irish Rebellion (1798) – Suppression leading to widespread violence and retribution.
These events highlight the significant human cost of British imperial policies and actions.
Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” Edmubd Burke
This list does not include the war crimes committed by people who represent us, in the past 50 years
We absolutely need to do better at educating each other at how much England fucked other countries up in history (and I’m looking at you War On Terror..) and be less cringey about being proud of our heritage of being pillagers, thieves, murderers and slavers. Our country is so well off because we stole from the world, and some countries still haven’t recovered.
When people say we shouldn’t take refugees, I say we owe it to the world to make up for all the messes we’ve made
Well, at least we aren’t France
Britain stopped slavery world wide in 1819 we sailed the seas spending money and lives freeing slaves all over the world and Arresting the slavers. We only just paid off a debt to the bank of England for freeing all the slaves…..i was taught it was us who invented it !!!!! We stopped it !!!
I get it. I did a history degree and personally I find a lot of what we did a great source of pride. We fought against slavery for more generations than we engaged in it, started the industrial revolution, and I even quite like how we punch above our weight in selling weapons of war. They’re interesting to me even if they have caused harm. I’m not susceptible to judging the past by modern sensibilities basically…
But when you compare all of that history, good and bad, but always impactful, to what we have today the one thing that sticks out is Brexit. We not only chose wrong, but we chose the opposite of what we needed to do to build on our past successes. Giving back colonial territory was at least managed decline, but Brexit was so unmoored from our best interests as a country that it broke our streak of, at the very least *not choosing the worst option*.
Centuries of slowly developing financial ties with our neighbours upturned because conservative politicians wanted to represent their donors and neuter rebels who were taking those donations in return for pushing to cut ties. All because EU rules would have stepped on their side-hustles. We sided with corruption basically.
And I do not trust the future where powerful British people are allowed to be corrupt. Americans keep it to a high but tolerable level because everyone has guns. If corruption is allowed to flourish here, people will just sit and take it and it’ll become truly entrenched. This current Labour party is the eye of the storm. On their exit we may end up with unions no longer worth their name and everything prepared for the next Tory government to privatise the NHS. That’s what the donors want this time. When those are gone we’ve essentially lost the gains from the second world war. Another parliament or two and the super-wealthy will have redesigned labour laws to pull us back through the Victorian era. Employment at the employers discretion looks like it can only end up in some new variant of feudalism. All of that possible because we have our sovereignty back, and handed it to a rotating choice of two powers who are both funded by the same ‘lords’.
So ‘somewhat more cynical’ in my case refers to the fact I believe we’ve undone all the good achieved by every generation currently living, and we’re only about 12 years from maybe speed running back to the dark ages politically speaking. If we choose the worst option each time at least, and the financial incentives favour those.
12 comments
What a load of crap
Seems like a dog whistle to me…
*a millenia of slavery, genocide, repression and inequality*
British views of history: only fall slightly by 2024
I think we can be proud that we weren’t as bad as Spain or the Dutch.
Great Britain- England, Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland, does need to take a leaf out of Germany’s book. Take a hard look at it’s self, take responsibility for the crimes committed in the British Empire, apologise, and make a commitment to not make the same mistakes again.
Rage baiting??
Erm. Try living in the present and not the past then. Not a country existing has a nice history.
May be ‘responsibility’ is too triggering, may be ‘ acknowledge the crimes of the empire’ may be more acceptable.
My grandparents were farm labourers and worked in service, and they were exploited by the middle and upper-class, but that wasn’t the question
Here are 20 notable atrocities associated with the British Empire:
1. The Amritsar Massacre (1919) – British troops killed hundreds of unarmed Indian civilians.
2. The Bengal Famine (1943) Polucies led to the death of millions due to starvation.
3. The Anglo-Zulu War (1879) – Mass killings of Zulu warriors and civilians.
4. The Irish Famine (1845-1852)- British economic policies exacerbated the starvation of millions.
5. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919) Troops opened fire on a peaceful gathering, killing many.
6. The Second Opium War (1856-1860) – Forceful imposition of opium trade on China, leading to widespread addiction.
7. The Tasmanian Genocide (1803-1830s) Systematic extermination of the Tasmanian Aboriginal population.
8. The Mau Mau Uprising (1952-1960) Torture and killings of Kenyans by British forces.
9. The Partition of India (1947) – Violence and displacement resulting in millions of deaths.
10. The Boer War Concentration Camps (1899-1902) – Death of thousands of Boer women and children due to neglect.
11. The Punitive Expeditions in Africa- Violent suppression of uprisings, leading to numerous deaths.
12. The killings in the Caribbean – Enslavement and brutal treatment of Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans.
13. The Suez Crisis (1956)- Military intervention leading to violence and instability in Egypt.
14. The suppression of the Sepoy Mutiny (1857) Brutal reprisals against Indian rebels.
15. The treatment of Aboriginal Australians, massacres, and cultural genocide.
16. Exacerbating The Irish Famine ( 1845-49) estimated over 1 million deaths.
17. The destruction of the Ashanti Empire (1896)- Military campaigns leading to loss of life and sovereignty.
18. The execution of the leaders of the Indian Rebellion (1857)- Public executions as a means of repression.
19. The exploitation of indentured laborers Forced migration and harsh treatment of workers in plantations.
20. The Great Irish Rebellion (1798) – Suppression leading to widespread violence and retribution.
These events highlight the significant human cost of British imperial policies and actions.
Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” Edmubd Burke
This list does not include the war crimes committed by people who represent us, in the past 50 years
We absolutely need to do better at educating each other at how much England fucked other countries up in history (and I’m looking at you War On Terror..) and be less cringey about being proud of our heritage of being pillagers, thieves, murderers and slavers. Our country is so well off because we stole from the world, and some countries still haven’t recovered.
When people say we shouldn’t take refugees, I say we owe it to the world to make up for all the messes we’ve made
Well, at least we aren’t France
Britain stopped slavery world wide in 1819 we sailed the seas spending money and lives freeing slaves all over the world and Arresting the slavers. We only just paid off a debt to the bank of England for freeing all the slaves…..i was taught it was us who invented it !!!!! We stopped it !!!
I get it. I did a history degree and personally I find a lot of what we did a great source of pride. We fought against slavery for more generations than we engaged in it, started the industrial revolution, and I even quite like how we punch above our weight in selling weapons of war. They’re interesting to me even if they have caused harm. I’m not susceptible to judging the past by modern sensibilities basically…
But when you compare all of that history, good and bad, but always impactful, to what we have today the one thing that sticks out is Brexit. We not only chose wrong, but we chose the opposite of what we needed to do to build on our past successes. Giving back colonial territory was at least managed decline, but Brexit was so unmoored from our best interests as a country that it broke our streak of, at the very least *not choosing the worst option*.
Centuries of slowly developing financial ties with our neighbours upturned because conservative politicians wanted to represent their donors and neuter rebels who were taking those donations in return for pushing to cut ties. All because EU rules would have stepped on their side-hustles. We sided with corruption basically.
And I do not trust the future where powerful British people are allowed to be corrupt. Americans keep it to a high but tolerable level because everyone has guns. If corruption is allowed to flourish here, people will just sit and take it and it’ll become truly entrenched. This current Labour party is the eye of the storm. On their exit we may end up with unions no longer worth their name and everything prepared for the next Tory government to privatise the NHS. That’s what the donors want this time. When those are gone we’ve essentially lost the gains from the second world war. Another parliament or two and the super-wealthy will have redesigned labour laws to pull us back through the Victorian era. Employment at the employers discretion looks like it can only end up in some new variant of feudalism. All of that possible because we have our sovereignty back, and handed it to a rotating choice of two powers who are both funded by the same ‘lords’.
So ‘somewhat more cynical’ in my case refers to the fact I believe we’ve undone all the good achieved by every generation currently living, and we’re only about 12 years from maybe speed running back to the dark ages politically speaking. If we choose the worst option each time at least, and the financial incentives favour those.