meatcleaver
Posts: 9030
Joined: 3/13/2006 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tweedydaddy The two biggest losses to the British Empire, those of America and Ireland initially came about through armed insurrection, so I suppose it might be seen as a good thing. I think to lose one colony might be seen as understandable, but to lose both looks like carelesness. Only We and the Romans know what it's like. The American colonies were financially crippling Britain, money was flooding out of Britain and across the Atlantic at a rate Britain couldn't afford which is why it tried to introduce stamp duty in the colonies. When rebelion started if Britain was acting rationally it would have said OK, goodbye, have a nice time. Britain's trading deficit with the colonies was so huge, after US independence when Britain stopped importing from the colonies, it suddenly found itself rich and dynamic and went on to forge and empire. As the saying goes 'Lost a colony, found an empire.' As for Ireland, it was no great loss, it was a loss of face to the ruling classes but no one else (maybe to the protestants of Ireland and Scotland). With the rise of socialism in Britain, the last thing the British ruling class needed was a stroppy Ireland. After WWII, the post war socialist government in Britain was determined to get rid of the empire because the empire was an anathema to the socialists. Even if Britain saw a rightwing government, it could hardly hold on to the empire when it claimed WWII was about fighting for freedom. Which we know it wasn't, it was about fighting for survival.
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There are fascists who consider themselves humanitarians, like cannibals on a health kick, eating only vegetarians.
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