On that slavery thing. We were the first dominant society on the planet not to have slavery. Sure, the Danes pipped us to the squeak in abolishing the trade but before the steam engine slavery was a commonplace of every society, the strong enslaving the weak. The conjunction between the words slave and Slav tell us a certain amount, no? That Dublin did it’s time as Northern Europe’s largest slave market, the origins of the Mamluks – ringing any bells for an historian there David?
The violence of Empire? Every society that has had the technological capability has conquered its neighbours and then some. Alexander wasn’t doing a cultural tour of the Middle East now, was he? The Dutch East Indies Company was rather more vicious that the British version over nutmeg and mace.
And overseas empires petering out. St Maarten is a non-disappearing remnant just as Anguilla is, no?
That is, we can say that our history is remarkable but not exceptional – OK then, let’s stop beating ourselves around the head over it. Or, we can say that we were indeed uniquely evil, oppressive and all that – which means that the history was exceptional.
What the British history cannot be is both pretty normal and also something that we must uniquely be so ashamed of.
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Britain was exceptional in, for no pecuniary reward, expending vast sums and many lives combating maritime slave trading.
Britain was exceptional in freeing millions of slaves on the sub-continent of India.
Britain was exceptional in closing Tanzanian slave trading through Zanzibar.
Of course Britain's efforts were only partially successful, 100 years after her campaign against servitude communists and national socialists were still enslaving millions, but Britain also played a part in ending that.
Rather than being berated the British should be celebrated for this morally unimpeachable contribution.
Bravo Britain, you led the world out of darkness and towards the light.
Hundreds of years of British exceptionalism, and slavery is still sanctioned by _allah_ of islam as worshipped by so many descendants of slaves.
Lady Wyndham (Ursula Jeans): It’s easy for you to mock us. We’re used to that. Half the world mocks us - and half the world is only civilised because we have made it so.
North West Frontier (1959)
When the British film industry had real cinematic vision, before slipping into the mawkish sentimentality of Four Weddings and a Funeral.
I remember the film vividly for two reasons, firstly enjoying seeing it as a boy .
Secondly for, after return from a deliciously cool visit to Badrinath Temple high on the Himalayan Indo-Chinese border, my wife an I took an extremely hot train journey, just days before the summer monsoon, from Lucknow to Varanasi.
We rumbled over the impossible dusty plains in a non-air conditioned and ill-described 1st class compartment. Grinding to a halt in the middle of nowhere the compartment was suddenly invaded by 8 to 10 slightly shy and apologetic rural communists protesters, in fact the whole train became equally packed with their comrades in dhoti.
The train slowly accelerated to not much more than walking pace . I shared what little food I had with the increasingly despondent rabble whose embarrassment made eye contact fleeting and communication nervous.
Eventually we ground to a halt, and as if out of nowhere a troop of burly Sikh policeman determinedly cleared the train of activists with an ungentle use of four foot batons.
I hope at least that I made so a convincing attempt at keeping stiff upper lip that it would have gained Captain Scotts approval. My wife admirably kept her cool, but she always had something of Lauren Bacall about her, remarking simply that "I suppose we will be a little too late for dinner".
The India of the 1980s seems almost as far away as the India of the 1880s. Halcyon days indeed.
Nice story, Leo! I had a ride in an Indian "1st class" carriage in the 80s, but only from Agra to Gwalior, so I know a little whereof you speak.
He is not a student of history it is clear.
The Danes 'abolishing' slavery is an early example of Scandinavian virtue-signalling.