The British Empire - a force for good?

[pete75]

I suppose it depends on whether or not you think waging wars of conquest on other nations, slaughtering their people and then setting yourself up to rule is a good thing to do.

I think we all agree that it is not. But then certain legacies of the British Empire have helped nations that were once part of the Empire. Nobody here, I think, would defend all the things done in the name of Empire, but we can see that India has continued some British traditions that have helped to maintain stability (after initial conflict over boundaries) and enable recent improvement in fortunes. By accident or design the Empire did leave some good things behind. I will leave it to the individual to decide whether cricket is one of them.

I don't deny there may have been good side effects but the question is, I think, was the empire as a whole a force for good. If you start fro the basic premise it's wrong to attack and conquer other countries then, as an edifice based on wars of conquest, the empire was wrong regardless of any seemingly desirable side effects.

[pwa]

I'd say that a lot of bad things happened in the name of the Empire, but it did leave some good things as a legacy, as well as some bad things. It would be going too far to say that as a whole the Empire was a force for good.

[hamster]

Nobody has yet mentioned the Opium Wars. We fought the Chinese government to sell opium to the population in China, even though we were well aware of its corrosive effect on society.

And we have never apologised.

[Vorpal]

Seeing as nobody can come up with anything. Here's a starter for ten, with respect to India:

The British brought the following to India:
Irrigation systems, which increased the available farm land eight fold

I guess that's why irrigation is mentioned in the Vedas, and that there are no less than 4 different types.

Or why the 4th century BC Maurya Empire profited from charging for the river water used for irrigation.

Do you know what the British Raj used the newly available land for? Growing poppies.

[hamster]

Do you know what the British Raj used the newly available land for? Growing poppies.

Which we sold as opium, at gunpoint, to China.

Nice.