Did the British Imperialism improve the world?

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by Sava
The worst modern day result or effect of British Imperialism could be a Nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan. Way to go

Well, without the Empire, there would be lots and lots of little states in India, which would probably be fighting it out right now to see who was top dog.

That is the problem. My gut instinct is to say that it was a negative influence, but who is to say what would have happened if it wasn't arround? Since we will never know, speculating about it seems a pretty pointless exercise.

[Ned]

Over the long haul, I do not believe the Brits had a negative effect on any region they ruled. The simply had greater success in some rather than others. I am willing to bet that those areas of the ME and Africa occuppied by Britain are better off today, and more democratic, than areas not occuppied by Britain.

True, Britain could rule stupidly, cruely and for their own benefit. But they uniformly invested as well - in railroads, infrastructure, education, medicine, law and democratic institutions. They also left their colonies the English language that has turned out to be the international language for business and science.

To focus only on the negatives is wrong. Most of us here who admire Britain will agree that there were negatives. But the positives greatly outweigh the negatives.

And to think that they did all this for to make a profit.

[yago]

It just has something funny to it. The European/American judges the dids and achievements of is ancestors, based on books written by Europeans in European languages.

5. Singapore
Economic powerhouse for such a small Island

6. Hong Kong
Very similar to Singapore.

Now, I bet, when someone asks people there, why they're so rich, they say something like: "We have culture, moral values, ethics and aren't as lazy blokes as the Europeans and Americans.

And there's a country constantly missing. It never has been a colony. Now, it's the 3rd richest economy of the world. A country which itself had colonies and was a huge military power. And the success of it's former colonies (to which Singapore and Hong Kong can be counted) are much bigger than the success of the European colonies in Africa and Asia. (Actually, even China can be counted as former colony of this power)

[CerberusIV]

It is still too soon to give a definitive answer. The Roamn empire is to some extent idolized as moving the advance of civilisation onward and the nasty bits such as massacres, mass enslavement and their favoured public entertainments are treated impersonally because it was long ago.

The British empire began to seriously break up less than 60 years ago and it will IMHO probably be another century before the real long term effects can be assessed.

My view is that the long term benefit of humanity will be best served by a unified global political and economic system. In that context the British empire was a major step forward in establishing links around the globe, not least a commonly used language. Long term, as the bad bits are sorted out and largely forgotten, I think the British empire will be seen as a major step forward in human progress.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
at the cost of millions of dead non-whites.

They would have died of old age by now anyway.

[Sava]

I don't know why people are saying British imperialism was good because the US was born. IIRC the first Patriots fought against such imperialism. Americans made America great, not the British.

[C0ckney]

what contry is that yago, germany has the 3rd largest economy in the world.

to echo what others have said about india, were it not for the british there would still be lots of petty kingdoms, some ruled well, some not, but none ruled democratically. as for cultural factors, that's a good one, the caste system hardly promotes democracy.

[Sava]

Yeah, because India is such a prosperous pillar of Democracy...

As I mentioned in another thread, whenever the British draw up borders for a new nation, bad things happen. Although not totally responsible, look at Yugoslavia... Western nations created this nation. Good job

Look at India and Pakistan. Look at Iraq. French Imperialism, although not as bad, led to problems in Vietnam and Algiers. In general, European Imperialism f*cked up Africa. According to what I've read about African history, before the Europeans came to Africa, it was a stable place. Timbuktu was a thriving city that was quite civilized. But the quest for power, gold, and glory of God led the Europeans to Imperialism.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Ozz

One thing i have noticed, the longer the British
stayed, the less of a basketcase the countries
are today.

This is in large part due to the way that areas were selected for colonization. Advanced societies had large populations of relatively educated people that could be immediately exploited for profit. Sh!thole backwaters were a good place to lose a few workers and a lot of money. This is why so much of Africa was left alone until the 19th century, even though it is closer to Europe than America and Asia. As the most promising areas were selected for exploitation first, it is not surprising to see that they are still ahead of the game today, especially as I do think there are quite a few useful aspects of contact with the Brits.

One thing that I am surprised not to see mentioned is the effect of Europeans on population. Whatever you may think about Britain's colonialism, it is safe to say that there have been billions of people born who would never have been born were it not for the boons of cheap and easy food distribution and production and sanitation. Just a bit of counterpoint to Che's starvation lecture.

[Ramo]

One thing i have noticed, the longer the British
stayed, the less of a basketcase the countries
are today.

*cough*Bangladesh*cough*

[Ramo]

The Brits milked the more modern parts of their empire for their (and other) markets through trade barriers and milked the rest for their resources and people, and wiped out the societies where they could colonize. Yes, I think it's safe to say that British Imperialism probably wasn't a good thing.

[Seeker]

If the British Empire had not decolonialized in the 50s and 60s the world would be a much happier place.

In particular, if Cecil Rhodes dreams for revolutionizing and improving Africa had been followed through....

It's not like the colonial revolts were militarily significant, only politically.

Even in Kenya, the Mau Mau were a pathetic army, and were given many of their demands after being decisively defeated on the field.

The Brits of the time are the Americans of today, militarily invincible...of course few took the threat of a slowly tooling up but still somewhat 'wacky' Germany (China) seriously until 2 world wars later...

[C0ckney]

sava calling someone an idiot. oh, the irony etc...

Originally posted by Sava
Yeah, because India is such a prosperous pillar of Democracy...

india isn't perfect, far from it, but it is prosperous and it is democractic. and it would be in a much worse state if it weren't for the british.

[Wtiberon]

Originally posted by Seeker
If the British Empire had not decolonialized in the 50s and 60s the world would be a much happier place.

In particular, if Cecil Rhodes dreams for revolutionizing and improving Africa had been followed through....

It's not like the colonial revolts were militarily significant, only politically.

Even in Kenya, the Mau Mau were a pathetic army, and were given many of their demands after being decisively defeated on the field.

The Brits of the time are the Americans of today, militarily invincible...of course few took the threat of a slowly tooling up but still somewhat 'wacky' Germany (China) seriously until 2 world wars later...

Britain was forced to decolonize after WWII...mainly because the increased sense of nationalism among the world and pressure from the newly formed U.N. gave them little choice. Also places like the middle east gave them such headaches they would have eventually unloaded those regions anyway.

The British Empire of old is very similiar to America of today...we tend to force our ideals on other people. I have to admit (of course I'm a bit biased) that if I were to chose any nation to be a superpower it would be the British or Americans due to their long tradition of individual rights and rule of law.

[yago]

what contry is that yago, germany has the 3rd largest economy in the world.

No, Germany is 4th.

3rd is Japan

(China is now 2nd, because Hong Kong was given back to them, that changed OECD-statistics recently).