How should we protray the the British Empire in our education today and in the future?

Question

I was reading book about the British Empire I while back I came upon page where it showed a page with some British cavalrymen fight with some Sudanese tribesmen. {A 400 strong regiment attacked what they thought to be a few hundred dervishes, but in fact were 2,500 infantry hidden behind these dervishes in a depression. After a fierce clash, the Lancers drove them back at some cost (three Victoria Crosses were awarded, for the loss of five officers, 65 men, and 120 horses), roughly one-fourth of their total manpower.} (I cut that from wikipedia) the author of the book I was reading called it "a perfect display of the idiotic bravery of the time" and continued on to rather subtlety suggest the overall stupidity of the empire in general. While not a imperialist, I felt a little hurt that the author sort of mocked the sacrifices of all our past soldiers and wondered, is this how the empire will be portrayed in the future and should it be?

Answer 1

I think we should be amazed by the logistics and efficiency of running such a vast empire in the days before telecommunication. If only we could recover that sort of efficiency and drive we'd be a force to be reckoned with today. Also, if you compare the British empire with a lot of other empires (eg french, spanish) we were very fair. Obviously there were downsides, but name me a civilisation that doesn't have bad points. The empire was something to be proud of - not from the point of view of subjugating weaker nations, but from the point of view of being strong, fair, diplomatic (with a few exceptions) and because of the motivation, drive, efficiency, talent and determination that created it.

Nelson Mandela said:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so?"

and I think that's so true of Britain today - we are scared of being great, and that's why we disparage all of our successes and dwell only on our failures.

Answer 2

We should portray the British Empire in the same way we portray the Roman Empire, the Greek Empire, the Mohammedan Empire of the Moors, the Aztec Empire, the Mongol Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Persian Empire, the .....you get the idea? They all reflected a period of history, a belief about supremacy, a desire to be powerful, a yearning for riches, a conviction about their god(s) and so on. Great bravery and great stupidity were shown in all of them but the bravery was none the less brave and the stupidity no less stupid. Soldiers and administrators in all these empires pushed back the frontiers of human experience and knowledge, and their achievements should be remembered but not always with pride; with a sort of admiration, perhaps.

All empires come to an end and the same will be true of the American Empire, but then another empire will arise for a period of time until its turn comes to collapse. Then the bravery and stupidity will be remembered, and some of it with admiration.

Answer 3

As a historian, I am interested in facts. What happened, why, who benefited and how, and what the consequences were.

The last three or four decades have seen a lot of revisionist history, much of it full of condemnation for Western accomplishments, lumping the good, the bad and the indifferent together and applying modern knowledge and values (mostly of a liberal bent) This has had the effect of making many westerners full of self-loathing as though the world and everything in it was perfect before Europeans started to explore, trade, settle, and so forth. White Americans are required to feel guilty because certain whites in past centuries owned African slaves. Columbus, once regarded as a daring adventurer for sailing across the Atlantic in three tiny ships, is now accused of genocide!

Taken as a whole, I personally believe that the British Empire gave a great deal to the world. The United States, while being the first to declare itself independent of Great Britain, nevertheless based its law mostly upon English common law, as did Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and large chunks of Africa. Citizens of the British Commonwealth wishing to become lawyers frequently attend British law schools (Gandhi, for example) The few countries which remain colonies of Great Britain do so by their own choice.

The greatest achievement, though, was the extensive world trade that resulted from the exploration and colonization of the British Empire. The Enlightenment and the industrial revolution resounded far beyond the shores of the British Isles.

Certainly there were instances of error, cruelty, and unscrupulousness on the part of many individuals, but that is true of all of humanity in all eras. The idea that the world's people were pure and decent until "contaminated" or "corrupted" by British colonizers is nonsense.

The author that you referred to who used the phrase "idiotic bravery of the time" is unlikely ever to have had any military experience. The Empire was NOT a stupid idea in its time.

The sacrifices of all military personnel, both past and present, should be respected regardless of how one views the politics surrounding that sacrifice.

Answer 4

Trouble is a lot of people are stuck in the anti imperialistic PC brigade at the moment, they only see the negative sides of History and not the positives. Hopefully there are people out there that will be bold and positive and look at the past from both sides and build up a good picture of what the past can teach us properly what the Empire meant. I suggest you try and get hold of the tri book called the British Empire (rise and fall) which has a good mixture of boldness about the era.
Personally I am proud to be British and proud of the achievements of the past, yes somethings where bad, but then again there was a lot of good as well.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

The pendulum is always swinging.
The British Empire has for some time been portrayed negatively in schools, but academic historians have changed now. Niall Ferguson, for example, agrees with Lord Curzon that it was the greatest secular force for good in the whole of world history. I saw an interview with him, in which he said the British Empire promoted human rights. The interviewer said 'How can you say that?' and he replied, 'Stamping out slavery - what's that if it isn't promoting human rights?'
It will take some time for this view to percolate into our schools, though.

Answer 7

Yes, I tend to agree, although history is always open to interpretaion. I'm reading an interesting peice on Britain and its history in this months Historia Magazine (a French publication). It's Britain seen through the eyes of the French, and it's very pertinent. Britain, the Norman Conquest, The Plantagenets, Tudors, through to the Industrial Revolution, the age of Empire, The Commonwealth to the present day.

I think that the Empire should be truthfully recounted and that students today should concentrate on the legacy of those years in the multicultural britain we have today.

Answer 8

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Answer 10

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