I was once proud to British but not anymore once i leaned British History?

Question

How could we be so evil to millions of ppl?

Answer 1

Support your contention with evidence. What millions of people were the British 'evil' to and how was this 'evil' manifest? Are you saying that the British Empire was worse than the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mogul etc? Is the way the British behaved worse than the way that White Americans acted towards indigenous Americans? Worse than the Arabian slavers who rampaged through Africa for 100s of years? More evil than Nazi Germany? Let us have a little intellectual rigour before making sweeping statements like this.

Answer 2

I know. I'm doing a dissertation at uni on the slave trade and it's disgusting how anyone can say they are superior over such ridiculously irrelevant things like skin colour or culture. It's not just Britain though - every country in the world probably has a similar history but we must remember the pioneers we have seen in this country like William Wilberforce who made the case for the abolition of slavery, and the Booth and Rowntree social surveys of the turn of the 20th century that made people sit up and take notice about the plight of the poor. They were real radical pioneers who didn't care what the rest of the world thought. They knew it was wrong and were determined to do something about it.

So yes we've been horrible but we've also managed to cultivate some incredible people too.

Answer 3

Britain's success in building a massive empire in what in truth was a relatively short period of time, was nothing short of miraculous when you consider the size of this tiny island and the similarly tiny population that it had in that period.

Whilst Britain's armies may seem somewhat brutal by todays standards, our soldiers did nothing worse that our foes were doing at the time.

Our soldiers themselves were also treated quite brutally and callously by their senior officers but they put up with this type of treatment as it was marginally better than that which they would probably have got if they hadn't been in the army or navy of the time.

You cannot take the behaviour of Britain or the British military out of context with what was normal for the period you are looking at. Everyone was behaving pretty badly to each other throughout the middle ages and subsequent periods in history, and if you go back to what was probably the earliest recorded history (that was written at the time rather than several hundred years after), you find the Romans being pretty mean to people as well, both their own people and those they would probably have considered foreigners, imigrants, or enemies.

Slavery was of course evil by todays standards, but it was not at all unusual at the time of the great black slave trade. African tribes were murdering each other in large numbers at the time, and I would imagine they were being quite brutal at the time also. Many African Chiefs were deeply involved with the slave trade as well, but I can't say I've heard any apologies being voiced from that direction! Quite the reverse in fact, as the leaders of many African countries are still butchering people in their thousands, even their own people.

If one extrapolates things even further, if it hadn't been for the slave trade, how many Afro Caribean Americans would there be today? The West Indies probably wouldn't exist. And had it not been for various European nations invading and conquering parts of Africa and Asia, it is likely there would have been very little of the mass imigration from these countries which has undoubtedly benefited those imigrants and their descendants by no small amount.

So don't be ashamed of Britain's past, it simply played its part in the evolution of the world as a whole, and was perhaps a little more benign whilst doing so, than most of the super powers of the time.

Even now, there are no certainties of what is happening being right or wrong. We are only human and therefore subject to all the human failings. As long as there are people who care about what is happening around them, there is still a chance for the world.

We can perhaps apologise for what has been done by us within living memory, but the distant past is just that. We can only learn from the mistakes made by those living at the time. We don't even have the right to apologise for them. We were not there and have no way of understanding the values of the day.

Answer 4

What!?
Britain has a proud history. Sure some people might not of liked being on the receiving end of empire, but look at all the good it did. Britain and others during the age of imperialism brought civilization and technology to the primitive world.
People like to wax nostalgic about the loss of 'indig' culture. this is a wishy-washy pol.correct notion, and does a dis-service to a more advanced people.
While many indigs were artistic and had nice cultures, they were for all intents and purposes mostly primitives ( sometimes savages).
the advance in science, farming, literature, hygiene, education, government, etc., etc., ad nasium, far out weigh the the loss of primitive culture and aids in the advance of human development.
How many of these people, once out from under the yoke of Brit domination, forsook all of the benefits of the modern world and went back to a primitive lifestyle?
Be proud of a rich history that gave the world SO much.

Answer 5

I'm an American and I lived in the U.K. for a number of years and loved it. Yes, British history is grim but check out the history of America- slaves...Germany...Nazi's...Spain- Catholics going over to foreign lands and there you have The Spanish Inquisition where the natives would be tortured unless they accepted Catholicism. Also, the others are right. The Brits need to get rid of the monarchy. The Queen basically does nothing; the P.M. does. I recently saw the film, "The Queen" with Helen Mirren (she did a fantastic job) and this is off the subject but I really do believe the monarchy had a hand in Princess Di's death. She was nothing to them but a breeding machine. And Prince Charles was envious because Diana was more popular and loved than he was (or will EVER be.) She was indeed, "The People's Princess." The Queen was astonished at how many people Diana affected; just how much they loved her and respected her. You wouldn't see Prince Charles and that horrible Camilla Parker-Bowles going 100ft. of a land mine, or caring about AIDS patients. Be proud of your heritage! I am proud of my country, but I am not proud of the current Government.

Answer 6

Look back into any country or nation and you will find a brutal history. The American Indians fought vicious wars between tribes before the Europeans got here. When they did purchase guns instead of fighting the real enemy the Europeans they used them for long standing hatreds of each other. The same is true of Brasil and some of the other countries. The black African slave was sold to white people by other black africans. During their tribal wars they took captives and sold them. So when the British came they were so weakened by internal strife they were unable to fight them off.
The same is happening right now in Iraq. The Sunni and Shiite are killing each other which is the same country men.
When all the men are dead and the country is mostly widows and orphans then it will be easy prey for any country that chooses to take it over. They are almost there now.
More muslims are killed by other muslims than by others.
So who is weakening their country and their religion?
they are. How many civilians have died?

Answer 7

Oh don't be silly your judging things by modern standards which is daft. Of course there was a lot of cruelty and there's still plenty of it in the world today!!!

Most european countries had an empire. If we thought like we do now, back in the 1500's we would never of had an Empire (probably have been a good thing, but that's another story).

Most of the population in this country who were living in poverty and I mean real poverty (not like now) and probably knew very little about what was happening around the world.

If you're at the bottom of the pile as was the case with about 80% of Britains population you were more worried about where your next meal was going to come from and had no idea what was going on.

Answer 8

We were not that evil. You must see history in the context of it's own time.

In my childhood and youth, people were still being flogged with the cat o'nine tails [otherwise known simply as the cat]. People, men and women, could still be hanged for murder and indeed they were.

History is a foreign place.

Last night on TV we had the great honour and privilege to see a one hundred and eleven year old survivor of World War One. He was born in the 1890s before plane, before radio and TV and much else which we just take for granted.

We cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like to be in the trenches of Flanders during one of the world's worst ever conflicts, WW-One.

I was born in 1941 and the city of my birth was being systematically destroyed by the Nazi Luftwaffe. Bombs don't bother me any more, because I know that things have turned out nicely after all.

Most of what the British have done in their history has been good. You must not think badly of us, we are not bad people and we are surprisingly tolerant too.

Speaking of the 'cat', if you don't know what the expression, "that's the cat out of the bag" means, let me explain. The cat o'nine tails was kept in a bag. Once it was removed from the bag, someone was going to get a flogging. The expression has nothing to do with a domestic cat.

"Ignorance is bliss" - Oscar Wilde.

Answer 9

There is so much evil in the world. It is not restricted to Britain. When I read about what happens to girls in women in Eritrea and other parts of Africa and the Middle East, I want to cry. (I mean female genital mutilation, and I'll spare you the details, but if you are curious, Google it.) The Belgians and Spanish were at least as cruel as the British (and probably more so) to the people they conquered. (See "King Leopold's Ghost," if you can get your hands on it, for an excellent account of Belgian oppression of, and cruelty to, the Congolese.) In India today, there are people who chop the limbs off of healthy children to make them more effective beggars, and don't get me started on Indians' history of child rape and severe oppression (and sometimes live burning) of widows. The United States military, of course, has killed millions of people worldwide.

So, we have established that most nations have histories (and sometimes, present cultures) of horrible cruelty/"evil." Why? I don't know. I do think that humans are basically selfish, but why this ends up being displayed in such extreme cruelty, I don't know. I think it is usually a case of a few very clever and evil people rising to the top, and the masses following them out of fear, but why evil is so effective at taking power is another question.

I do know that, despite all this, if there are countries I can claim to like, Britain is still one of them. Some of the world's best literature, music, and comedy, have come from Britain, and the British government as it evolved in the 20th century (and to a large extent, continues today) is one of the best in the world to its own people. Britain was the first nation to have a national health service, and the poor and disabled in Britain are very well cared for by world standards. (There are a few European countries, of course, that are better.) I love British culture and British people.

Finally, though, I would point out that it doesn't make much sense to be "proud" of one's birthplace, since one obviously had no hand in creating or choosing it. It was very lucky thing for you that you happen to have been born in a very good (by world standards) country, and the proper response to this on your part would be to try to do everything you can to help Britain evolve into a country of model ethics, culture, and wisdom.

Answer 10

Don't be. I am a South African. When apartheid was abolished we were taught as a country to be proud of who we are and how far we had come as a country. Although there still many many issues of racism in this country. There is no way I would want or expect my afrikaans and English friends to feel "unsouth african" because our history. They are sensitive to what happened, but they do not let it dictate who they are as S.A citizens now. Don't stop being proud. Be proud! make new history. Be part of the reason why people say good things about your country. It's great that you are sensitive about the wrongs done. There's nothing you can do about it NOW. So. Be different.

Answer 11

oh please!
can you find any society/country that has a blameless past?
you have to look at these things in the whole - the good and the bad-
britain being 'wicked oppressors' in the past has really come home to bite us in the bum.
many of the problems in our present day society are as a consequence for trying to make amends for this past
british citizenship granted to millions who now happily take it up - if britain was so awful why do that?
it is having a negative effect on our small communities - i live in a small town that is fast losing it's identity - there are ghettos (of people's own making) making some areas almost no go areas for police
i bet many ww2 veterans are wondering where britain has gone.
so don't feel too sorry for the ills of the past - the ills of the present will be much harder to live with