Top Ten Outrages of the Past Half Millenium

[Imran Siddiqui]

You are a very wierd man, Imran.

I like seeing people get what's coming to them!

Cromwell (he may have been before 1500)

The Glorious Revolution was 1668 or something, IIRC.

[GePap]

on something previously mentioned:

Charles, the last Elector of the House of Zimmern, died in 1685, leaving no male heir. He was succeeded by Philip William, a Roman Catholic of the House of Nueberg. King Louis the XIV of France claimed the land in the name of his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Charlotte, duchesse d'Orléans. He invaded the Palatinate in 1688, initiating another general European war, the War of the League of Augsburg. Louis XIV sent an army of 50,000 into the Palatinate. His claim was eventually disregarded, but not before much bloodshed. "Peasants were driven into their fields to freeze or starve; rich burghers were compelled with their own hands to tear down their city walls; in one day, the Elector, from the walls of Manheim, saw twenty-three towns and villages given to flames." (Green, p. 12)

from http://www.biffle.org/palatine.html

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Verto


But the Confederacy did not last for centuries, nor is it responsible for the deaths of millions, or I suspect any significant number of slaves.

It is claimed that some 20 million Africans were abducted by slavers over a period of three centuries. Somewhere between one-third and one-half died in transit. Not only that, but there were certain colonies that were literally graveyards for slaves. Haiti for instance required the importation of 50,000 slaves/year just to keep the population stable. OTOH the life expectancy of slaves in the US was overall pretty good. Probably no more than 300,000 to 500,000 slaves were brought to the US, yet by 1860 there were 3.5 million blacks living in the US.

Needless to say the share of the total number of slaves brought across the Atlantic destined for the US was very small, perhaps accounting for less than 5% of the total. But when you look at the total human cost of the slave trade, adding the number of lives chewed up by lethal working conditions to the number lost in transit, then he number of lives lost to the transatlantic slave trade approximates the number lost in the holocaust, and may even surpass it.

[orange]

the best part of this thread was seeing "turn the other cheek" Monkspider call someone a "dip****"

[Imran Siddiqui]

Those 1600s... that was a rough century.

[Imran Siddiqui]

the best part of this thread was seeing "turn the other cheek" Monkspider call someone a "dip****"

[Lonestar]

Man, what a Cockhound

[GePap]

Don't make me get 1600's on your asses!

[Berzerker]

Yes, turning the other cheek is easier when it's someone else's cheek that needs turning.

[Al B. Sure!]

number 4 would be the burning of atlanta by sherman

blah?! the population was allowed to leave and Sherman's men set fire to the arsenal, factories, etc. the fire obviously was hard to control and some houses were burnt down.

and anyway, Sherman's total war strategy proved sucessful and thus, the US is one today and the slaves were freed.

[monkspider]

Originally posted by orange
the best part of this thread was seeing "turn the other cheek" Monkspider call someone a "dip****"

I still am a believer in turning the other cheek, but you unenlightened infidels don't appreciate such a philosphy. So I figure Apolyton more fun when you just post like Zylka.

[Lonestar]

Besides, as Mel Brooks' Dracula would say;

"They had it coming."

[Al B. Sure!]

"turn the other cheek then you wonder why you get beat every other week."

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Lonestar


British Imperialism: What there Hell is this doing in the Top ten? It beat out the Rwanda Genocide, disintigration of Yugoslavia, Oppression of Eastern Europe, the Khmer Rouge, The 30 yrs War, Vlad the Impaler, Mao, the institute of Chattel slavery in the Americas, and Armenian Genocide? Classy.

In reprisal for the Sepoy mutiny and rebellion in the 1850s the British column coming up the Ganges to relieve New Delhi destroyed every village in their path. After relieving New Delhi they went back down the other side of the river doing the same thing. The Ganges river was then and is now one of the most heavily populated areas in the world. The government of India claims that the British killed millions. The British government obviously claims something different.

In the 1920s, frustrated over their inability to make ends meet in the empire, the British instituted a head tax in Africa. This tax required that every African family pay a tax to the Imperial government. The problem was that in many areas of Africa the natives did not participate in the cash economy. The British dragged able bodied men away from their families to make them work on projects inorder to pay off the tax. The pay on these projects was so poor that workers generally had to work full time nearly year round just to pay the tax. Deprived of their main labor force the family farms suffered and hundreds of thousands died of starvation depite the fact that the weather those years was perfectly adequate.

Other British nasty acts would include forcing Africans off of the best farmland so that white farmers could raise cash crops, starting wars with China in order to force them to accept the Opium trade, and the obligatory stealing native American land in Canada and sending the former owners off to die on worthless land, something they did just as well as the Americans.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by JohnT
What's wrong with Atlanta? It's a great city to live in, imho.

What are you smoking? The weather there is ****e. Oh, well at least there are a few good pubs in Atlanta.