54 replies to this topic

[x_shez_x]

Of course not, it was a disgrace. there were hundreds of massacers, and genocides. life is life and they killed millions, theres no excuses for that. im shocked that it was the closest thing to world dominination ever. world domination is an awful thing. its fundamentaly wrong. Britain needs to forget its empire, and accept it was awful. move on and maybe we will no longer be one of the most hated countries in the world.
We gave the world railways, cricket and football that's something to be proud of and if the British Empire was so terrible why does the Commonwealth still exist? i think we SHOULD NOT be proud of the british empire. x

[crystalcastles]

The British should feel proud about the British Empire because they introduced alot of things that make our world today. Things such as railways, schools, universities, hospital and sewers - all an advantage. Also, womens rights and democracy were introduced which gave freedom of speech. Alot of people were proud of the British Empire and even today some people believe it's a great thing. The Mau Mau Rebellion is sometimes compared to the Nazis torturing the Jews. However, looking at the figures/numbers of people killed and the situation of each event, the similarities become blurred.

[saniiSTM]

i think we should be ashamed of the british empire, because they killed and hurt alot of people, and i personally think that is a really horrible thing to do. british people in ww2 said that it was horrible thing for the nazi to put jews in camps and kill them. But the british empire were doing the same thing to kenyans.
from saniya hussain

[Pickles]

I definatly believe there is never a straight forward yes or no to questions such as this. I agree that many extraordinary things came of the empire such as hospitals and sewers...imagine where we'de be without them??! But similarly, I feel many devastating things came of the "Great British Empire". Things such as the thousands of deaths in Africa, and the lives which we took in the African concentration camps.Some of these could have been prevented and there was no need for them.
Overall, I think there is such thing as too much power and definatly too much greed. We could have had a Wonderful and magnificent Empire but without taking as many countries and pieces of land which we did take. I think we became far too greedy and mad with power...that's where we fell down.

[lordofthe9riders]

I think we should certainly be proud of our great empire that which the sun never set, because although many many civilisations attempted world domination they failed because all they wanted to do was pillage and plunder and put an end to as many lives as they possibly could, like Genghis Kahn and his mongols, but the British werent like that, we just wanted to see if we could get a better life for our people, is that such a crime as Hitlers Nazis or Stalins Communists? NO, what they wanted was for everyone to think like them or die, but we brought democracy,a code of laws and education to Africa, America, and Southern Asia.







And Saniya we were NOT as bad as the nazis: they killed 6 million we killed 1,100, MAJOR difference there hmmmmmm?

[MrJohnDClare]

GOOD debate people - some really strong points made.

[Cyfer]

I think we should certainly be proud of our great empire that which the sun never set, because although many many civilisations attempted world domination they failed because all they wanted to do was pillage and plunder and put an end to as many lives as they possibly could, like Genghis Kahn and his mongols, but the British werent like that, we just wanted to see if we could get a better life for our people, is that such a crime as Hitlers Nazis or Stalins Communists? NO, what they wanted was for everyone to think like them or die, but we brought democracy,a code of laws and education to Africa, America, and Southern Asia.

And Saniya we were NOT as bad as the nazis: they killed 6 million we killed 1,100, MAJOR difference there hmmmmmm?

You cannot judge the Mongol rampage as an Empire, it was burn and plunder, no form of building any sort of long term situation.
Neither can you include it in the same context as the British Empire, it had totally different reasons. Instead you should question whether revenge is morally acceptable. You cannot judge revenge to a 'scale' in Genghis' case, as historians have no accurate figure of the amount of suffering or death the Chinese caused Mongol tribesmen.

Also I would advise in future that you refrain from answering questions in the 'we' form, it automatically shows you to be biased, and it happens to be one of the first things we were taught in history at school.

[Pickles]

What about the question, "should WE be proud of the British empire?" :-/
Overall, I think we started to be great and powerful, and countries looked up to us, however when other countries e.g Germany started to join in the game of 'monopoly' we became too competitive and again...TOO GREEDY! :@

[Pickles]

But I do agree that we cannot compare it to the genocide's of the Nazi's or Stalins Russia. This is because what Britain did was for the good of the people and we didn't want to harm anybody. We did what we did because we wanted to build a great empire and thought what we were doing was right. The holocaust was just a horrific act of pure evil and a result of one man's madness. There is NO WAY on earth that the British Empire can be compared to one of the most horrendous massacre's in history. o_O

Edited by Pickles, 16 January 2012 - 09:11 AM.

[Cyfer]

But I do agree that we cannot compare it to the genocide's of the Nazi's or Stalins Russia. This is because what Britain did was for the good of the people and we didn't want to harm anybody. We did what we did because we wanted to build a great empire and thought what we were doing was right. The holocaust was just a horrific act of pure evil and a result of one man's madness. There is NO WAY on earth that the British Empire can be compared to one of the most horrendous massacre's in history. o_O

Actually, you can compare it.
Hitler was planning for lebensraum through eugenics, hence an empire, similarly to Britain.
Contrast Hitler's concentration camps to that of the British if you want during the Boer War, the difference is hard to find.

What's the difference between it being one man's madness and that of an Empire? Does it make it any better that evil is now a collective system?

I believe a large part of the justification of the treatment of other ethnicities within the British Empire was the British's belief of their inferiority (partly justified in itself in technological terms) such as in the Opium Wars. Although Hitler had the same belief, how you weigh it up is your own battle