Is Britain to blame for world's problems?

[QUOTE="lowkey254"]

[QUOTE="lordreaven"] Every Empire has it's dark moments.MetalGear_Ninty

[QUOTE="MetalGear_Ninty"]

[QUOTE="lowkey254"]

I agree with David Cameron, but not only Britain but Western Europe as a whole; I'll specifically point out my home country, Belgium.

Nick Lloyd seems to have the idea that providing other cultures with "Western thinking" was an ultimate gift, but that is to come to agreement that all other thinking was less than and or inaccurate. Where would the world be without imperialism? Who knows, but I can guarantee the issues in African countries and between Pakistan & India would not be as large as they are.

I mention Africa because of the colonists had created boundariesand borders where there were none before in doing so they created countries and picked which tribe would be in charge over the other (based on physical looks ie. light vs dark, tall vs short, nose width). When the Europeans left the, those same European rules were in place. One tribe would discriminate against the other, massacre the other, and cause civil war. True they may have been fighting before, but most lived in peace with minor incidents, but nothing like what's going on now.

lowkey254

[QUOTE="lowkey254"]

[QUOTE="MetalGear_Ninty"] That last sentence is complete and utter bull**** which you cannot substantiate. This militant anti-colonialism is based on the fallacy that in precolonial times, such countries were havens of peace and harmony. This view is antiquated and simply not true. The Birtish empire did not export violence and civil war, they already existed in those countries before we got there such is the nature of man.

MetalGear_Ninty

[QUOTE="lowkey254"]

[QUOTE="lordreaven"] Every Empire has it's dark moments.MetalGear_Ninty

Really?

but what you see today in Africa, and between India and Pakistan, is still the cause of the European governments.

lowkey254

heey

let's blame america

that's a great way to make this topic funnier

Or, you could blame the people who are blowing **** up and murdering people. But no, it's obviously Britains fault for poorly dividing countries 90 years ago.

redstorm72

Probably, but you know these things go. Such conflicts take a bit to die down. Hell even today everyone keeps an eye on the Germans and the French and English have only recently (if I recall correctly Sarkozy is really when they started pushing for better English-French relations) patching up to be good old friends.

An awful lot of "Britian is responsible" or "Europe is to blame" in this thread, with nobody seeming to want to elaborate on what exactly they're responsible for. :PNinja-Hippo

And ninja, by people, I don't mean you. I wasn't bashing you, lol. Just reread my post and realized that it could be taken the wrong way. I was writing to support your point.

[QUOTE="lordreaven"][QUOTE="nickz_fpk"]

I really dislike the British Empire. I thought they were a bunch of evil people who were prepared to use unnessary force to take what's not theres. Perfect example the war of the Golden Stool. The more I researched into this matter the angrier I got because of the brutality of the British Empire.

lowkey254

[QUOTE="lowkey254"]

[QUOTE="lordreaven"] Every Empire has it's dark moments.lordreaven

It's not just that war that makes me dislike them it's way deeper than that.

Humans are to blame for the way the world is today.

I guess in conclusion both positives and negatives resulted from colonisation, and it seems certain colonies benefited more than others. Interesting read though – perhaps the conclusion could be that yes many problems stem from colonial rule, but without it it's unlikely we'd have the fantastic Indian cuisine that we do in the UK. Overall it's probably a fair trade :P

[QUOTE="lordreaven"]

[QUOTE="lowkey254"] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Golden_Stool

that's a limited explanation of what happened. The British Empire as well as the Belgians, French, Spanish are all to blame. Things don't just go away after you mess something up no matter how long ago it was.

nickz_fpk

It's not just that war that makes me dislike them it's way deeper than that.

I somewhat agree. Some British decisions in the past have caused conflicts that continue today. In particular, the division of the Ottoman Empire after WWI. But you can also point out problems today that have resulted from decisions made by other countries, especially the European colonizing countries. If Britain did not colonize some area, then one of the other powers would. If you are going to place blame on Britain for the division of the Ottoman Empire, you can just as easily place blame on the French, who helped set the borders, or the Americans and the Italians, who thought the division of territory was fair.

But I do think that many places are better off due to British colonization. The article mentioned India, and that is what came to mind too. Honestly, I am not sure if India would be considered a first-world, developed country if the British had not colonized it. The British gave India a huge boost on the world stage. Another major example is the USA. What would our lives be like if we had been colonized by the Spanish instead of the British? Britain left many lasting impacts on the USA, which in turn has affected tons of people around the world.