In the US, in highschool history textbooks, are the following mentioned?

Question

In the 19th century, the British defeated China and took over the island of Hong Kong. The British conquered Arab, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Korea, and occupied India. The British invaded Africa and enslaved tens of millions of Blacks. The British occupied N. America and killed tens of thousands of Native Americans, and tens of thousands more died from relocation, diseases, and other hardships. The British wrote the dirtiest, bloodist, and ugliest page in human history---the British Century.

To what extent are the above discussed in the textbooks, and are those statistics mentioned in the books? Thanks.

Oh, sorry, I thought conquer=defeat. Now, I have realized conquer=occupy.

Anyway, thank you for pointing out my error, parrotjohn.

Answer 1

I'll get to the textbook thing in a second, but it was the Spanish who first colonized most of the Americas, and spread the diseases which killed tens of MILLIONS of native Americans. The British only came in and took over North America once most of the population was already gone.

Not to absolve the British from the crimes they committed during their empire, but I would argue Spain was far, far worse in its administration of the Americas.
Read "The Open Veins of Latin America" Eduardo Galleano for a vivid picture
http://www.amazon.com/Open-Veins-Latin-America-Centuries/dp/0853459916

The British empire is covered in US textbooks, but sanitized to a certain extent. They do cover Britain taking Hong Kong and India. The British did occupy much of the Middle East and divided it (badly) immediately after World War I.

The Dutch occupied Indonesia, not the British. And Thailand was never occupied by a European power. Japan and China have both occupied Korea; Britain never did. The British never occupied Japan -- Japan has never been ruled by a foreign power.

The British did have extensive imperial holdings in Africa, but were far better administrators than the French, Belgians or Portugese. If you look at countries that were former British colonies, such as Kenya and Tanzania, they are the most stable and prosperous nations on the continent.

Again, while the British were hardly saints (especially in their administration of India), I don't believe they were the all-out monsters you are painting them as.

Answer 2

I have actually seen many textbooks that do cover some biblical events. Of course they don't list them as all definate, because different religions have differnt beliefs, and they will pay more attention to those that have significant historical and achieological evidence to them. But they do often cover them as a background of what Christians believe happened, usually in conjuction with what other religions believe as well. For example, the story of the flood is common in many other religions and cultures besides Christianity, and many textbooks from public elementary school up to college level history do cover it. All that aside, I don't think what a history textbook chooses to include or exclude is a good basis for anyones religious beliefs or lack thereof - let alone whether or not they actually happened. For example, textbooks for fourth graders commonly only cover a select few of the battles of the civil war - the most inportant ones. That doesn't mean those other battles didn't happen, just that the editors of the book did not think they were necessary for the subject matter or the audience to learn at that time. Not even graduate level textbooks will have ALL details of historical events

Answer 3

I can’t answer specifically because I don’t have an American history book in front of me but generally speaking they will probably mention it to a certain extent however most types of colonialism (esp. British) don’t get much attention in the American psyche at all. Of course, many Americans are a product of British conquering the indigenous peoples and opening up the land for their settlement. To make it worse many Americans might associate the negatives of colonialism with how the Founding Fathers might have felt at the time of the Revolutionary War.

You have to keep in mind a few pages in an American textbook can never match the intensity of a lifetime of education crusading and non stop features in the American media that Americans get with comparative issues like American slavery, Jim Crow, the Holocaust, etc. Unfortunately, few are well versed with other forms of prejudice, oppression, and violence. I would go so far as to say it’s one of the biggest problems this country has. Most people just believe that the biggest problem is religion, but no, I strongly insist it’s a lack of understanding about colonialism.

I know I was shocked as an adult to hear about Libyans describing violence at the hands of the Italians or the British torturing native peoples all over the world and in many cases I had either never heard of these things or had heard little. I can even tell you as a child that I honestly thought people took over these countries mostly to help them. Of course you can’t discuss every single grievance but lack of knowledge on all this causes many problems to say nothing of Americans being brainwashed to believe that it’s sometimes necessary to conquer another country as opposed to fighting only when attacked.

The British did very bad things in the past too, even after WWII, but many Americans cannot accept this because they have been so in love with them for so long after a lifetime of seeing them depicted as everything from James Bond to King Arthur so if push comes to shove they will just say ‘well, they aren’t that bad- others did worse’ etc. In my opinion this is not acceptable because, although I’m totally against blaming people of today for the events of yesterday, it’s important not to compromise the truth of yesterday due to a popular image either. The all important historical events that I just mentioned are so overemphasized that American Southerners and Germans have been overly punished while at the same time Americans go gaga over anything remotely British. This factor is so strong that many on both sides of the pond see no great wrong with the empire. Yes, they know it’s a little naughty but I’ve even seen some British people brag that their little country once ruled over a quarter of the earth as if that was something to be proud of. Americans are no better and just the other day I was showing a French friend an American made webpage devoted to illustrating how British colonialism was more successful than French colonialism. Most people are probably in line with Archbishop John Sentamu who insists the empire wasn’t all bad and given he’s a minority product of the empire some really break their backs to hear those encouraging words. I have nothing against Britain but I just think more need to be aware of the dark side to counteract the romantic depictions in the movies.

Answer 4

While the history of British colonialism is a history of blood and oppression, countries colonised by the British were far better off in the longer term than those colonised by the French, the Belgians, the Portugese, the Spanish.

Do you not wonder why Hong Kong, Malaysia, South African and Egypt are so much stronger and/or more 'civilised' than their neighbours?

This does not excuse or justify colonialism and conquest, but 'the dirtiest, bloodiest and ugliest' page in human history? To say nothing of Japan if you are really 'in China'? get serious, my friend.

Answer 5

I can't find anything mentioned of the "British Century", although it may be in here. The history book I have is very thorough on the various exploits of the British, though. In the chapter devoted to Imperialism, Great Britain gets its own section. My book explains their harsh treatment and abuse of the native people. Most of the information here is about their control over India, although it explains their control over other territories in less detail. It would take a while longer than I've already spent to find all of the major references, but the chapter about imperialism is littered with references to British exploits.

Answer 6

Can't say I remember reading any of it, but it's interesting non the less, and I'm sure other countries have performed note-worthy tasks that remained unwritten.

Answer 7

The Native Americans had no business living in the United States before we got here.

Answer 8

I've never seen it in my textbooks.
Also, the riderefr made an INSIPID remark!!