Is British Imperialism to blame for many of the world's problems?
POSTED BY: kpo
UPDATED: Monday, March 2, 2026 19:30
VIEWED: 4549
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A discussion going on over here after some apologetic remarks recently from our Prime Minister David Cameron on a visit to Pakistan.
Two interesting historical arguments can be found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12992540
It's not personal. It's just war.
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Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:
A discussion going on over here after some apologetic remarks recently from our Prime Minister David Cameron on a visit to Pakistan.
Two interesting historical arguments can be found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12992540
It's not personal. It's just war.
Hello,
It's an interesting question, and could even be broadened to say "Is imperialism in general to blame for many of the world's problems?" The obvious answer is yes.
--Anthony
Assured by friends that the signal-to-noise ratio has improved on this forum, I have disabled web filtering.
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Undoubtedly, and I don't think people really dispute that. They just want some description of the benefits brought by imperialism, or at least the good intentions, to be brought up as well.
It's not personal. It's just war.
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Yes, to your question.
But some imperialism is worse than others. French imperialism, for example, is worse than British imperialism.
However, maybe that doesn't merit the distinction. That is sort of like saying the pot is a little blacker than the kettle.
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Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:
Undoubtedly, and I don't think people really dispute that. They just want some description of the benefits brought by imperialism, or at least the good intentions, to be brought up as well.
It's not personal. It's just war.
Hello,
I don't think Imperialism has good intentions. It's a method of bolstering the Empire. Any good intentions are propaganda fed to the conquered or to oneself to justify the conquering.
It boils down to "If we control/own everything (and everybody?), we're better off."
--Anthony
Assured by friends that the signal-to-noise ratio has improved on this forum, I have disabled web filtering.
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Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:
A discussion going on over here after some apologetic remarks recently from our Prime Minister David Cameron on a visit to Pakistan.
Two interesting historical arguments can be found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12992540
It's not personal. It's just war.
It's kind of sad but true, when you start to look at the history of places with ongoing conflict, somewhere in the past their is British Imperialism. I would probably say it a bit broader than british, and that most 20th century conflicts could be at least partially attributed to the aftermath of colonialism, but if you look at many of the world's hotspots, you'll see they were formerly part of the British Empire.
Pakistan tick
Afghanistan tick
Israel/Palestone tick
Iraq tick
Zimbabewe tic
Sudan tick
How much of that conflict can be directly attributed to being part of the British Empire is up for debate.
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What Meghan said. I definitely have some problems with British imperialism, hello, Ireland, but as bad as it may be, the whole world was shaped by it and so its hard to imagine how the world would be if it hadn't happened. If Britain hadn't done it, then I think someone else would have, and who knows how that would have turned out, better? Worse?
Sometimes I like to imagine if Ireland had taken over the world instead of Britain, what would be different, what would be the same? I just know we'd be writing on this form i nGaeilge, :)), fine by me, beidh se go maith.
"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya
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Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
Sometimes I like to imagine if Ireland had taken over the world instead of Britain, what would be different, what would be the same? I just know we'd be writing on this form i nGaeilge, :)), fine by me, beidh se go maith.
God had a contingency called whiskey to ensure that sort of thing could never happen
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I know you're playing Happy, but I don't think I find it as funny as others do. But I know you're playin, so its okay.
"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya
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I think it's kind of delusional to believe that any nation that wields that sort of power will be all benevolent. If the Irish had conquered the world instead of the British, they would have been the masters, and that power dynamic will always lead to problems, consequences, conflict. Instead the Irish populated the world.:) A country that has about 4million population, but how many of Irish descent throughout the world?
BTW It's Magons not Meghan
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