C2, the British Empire, the harbinger of the current human super colony, [like the global ant super colony], which is swamping nationalistic boundaries, was primarily English.
The strength of it was that it was not the garden variety empire of millennia gone by, but an enabler of previously repressed and enslaved local yokels.
The average Maori before the British Empire was not long for this world and was tribal 'cannon' fodder and more than likely actual fodder for victorious tribes.
The British Empire freed them from barbarism and now they wear pants for the most part and live decent lives, complete with beer and telly [the height of civilisation].
Previous empires were largely a matter of marauding genocidal conquest with victims of the onslaught being largely killed off, enslaved, or struggling by as niche survivors.
The British Empire was primarily one of enlightenment values subsuming local the cultures of alpha male territorial tribal dominance hierarchies. There was some military murdering within the British Empire, but not in general. The British in Hong Kong for example were never more than a tiny minority. When Great Britain took over India [and Pakistan] it was not a matter of genocidal population reduction but trade which drove the process.
The Scottish might have been excellent in creating developments within the Empire, but it was the Empire which enabled Carnegie and others to do great things, such as build a huge steel empire, then fund libraries around the world, of which I was a beneficiary in the 1950s, leading me into the realm of science, technology and knowledge, not to mention Carl Barks with his adventures of Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, Gyro Gearloose, Gladstone and Huey, Dewey and Louie.
If you want to examine seriously important output, take a look at what the Ashkenazi Jews have done. That was also enabled by the British Empire concept of freedom and self-determination - libertarian ideology which reached its zenith in the USA.
The British Empire enabled, me, you, TJ, ElM and a lot more besides to live lives streets ahead of any experiences we might have had if our ancestors had been left to the untender mercies of the nasty local yokel rulers of earlier centuries.
Thank goodness for the British Empire. Some, such as TJ, ElM, TJ's grandfather and hordes more, are ingrates, not understanding what got their pathetic lives out of the gutter.
Mqurice |
