No, the British Empire isn’t something to be proud of—in fact, it’s still causing harm today

From China to Iraq, we kid ourselves when we downplay the effects of Empire

by Daniel York Loh / July 21, 2017 / Leave a comment

Iraqi refugees queue for food and water. The country was formed by British colonisers. Photo: PA

A recent YouGov poll revealed that 59 per cent of Britons think the Empire is something to be proud of. They also tend to think it left its colonies better off. A third would like it to still exist.

This is possibly not surprising. Many of the people asked for their opinions in that survey would probably agree that they don’t believe they’ve experienced any blights of the Empire directly. Indeed, it’s clear that many people in this country (like most other countries in the Western world) have benefited enormously from the vast profits of colonial exploitation—at the expense of other nations.

Take a country like Iraq, for instance. Iraq was created by the British Empire by amalgamating three Ottoman provinces (Mosul, Baghdad and Basra) under the Sykes-Picot agreement—an agreement which made sure to keep oil-rich Mosul out of the equally colonial hands of the French government. The British authorities then placed favourable elites in charge of the governance of this racially and religiously divided region. How anyone could expect that to proceed happily is quite beyond me.

Yet while most of us would chuckle at the belief, widely-held in the People’s Republic of China, that Mao was “70 per cent right, 30 per cent wrong”, this is precisely the kind of delusion we sell ourselves when we look for what is disingenuously termed a more “balanced” view of Empire. But “balance” is exactly what we need—although not the “balance” some pundits are calling for. At the moment, our schools barely seem to educate us about the realities of Britain’s colonial past. I don’t remember the subject of Empire being touched on at all at the state schools I went to. The first time I heard the words “opium war” was when the director of a short film I was working on made a flippant remark about it in reference to my “Chineseness.”

YOU'VE HIT THE LIMIT

You have now reached your limit of 3 free articles in the last 30 days.
But don't worry! You can get another 7 articles absolutely free, simply by entering your email address in the box below.

When you register we'll also send you a free e-book—Writing with punch—which includes some of the finest writing from our archive of 22 years. And we'll also send you a weekly newsletter with the best new ideas in politics and philosophy of culture, which you can of course unsubscribe from at any time

Prospect may process your personal information for our legitimate business purposes, to provide you with our newsletter, subscription offers and other relevant information.

Click to learn more about these interests and how we use your data. You will be able to object to this processing on the next page and in all our communications.

DEBUG messsage: regular

Meet the Syrian chef who refused to be a refugee

Wendell Steavenson / July 17, 2018

“What the French call gastronomy—quality ingredients in season—is like our daily...

The Prospect podcast #50—refugees, rights and writers

Prospect Team / September 12, 2018

What right should stateless people have? Stephanie Boland and political philosopher...

Share with friends

Comments

jimmymack
July 21, 2017 at 23:27
“Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs." Charles James Napier, Major General to the command of the Indian army. (1851). I'm on the side of the 59 per cent, Daniel. We taught the world. You should keep moaning about the British empire though. As things stand, it'll keep you in remittances from liberal publications for decades to come. And British guilt will also ensure that millions of your fellow British empire 'victims' will get a favourable passage when they unaccountably want to come to this spawn of Satan country. Get real. History happened. You're doing OK. I (Irish extraction) have moved on. You should do the same.
BillMason
July 22, 2017 at 11:47
Charles James Napier also said: "The best way to quiet a country is a good thrashing." Selectively editing our history so that only the good parts remain is exactly what Daniel's talking about.
1. JimmieMack
  August 12, 2017 at 22:16
  Yes, Bill. But we've had 50 years of selective editing so that only the worst bits remain.
pounce
July 22, 2017 at 22:38
Iraqi refugees queue for food and water. The country was formed by British colonisers. Actually it wasn't it was a League of Nations mandate,
D J G.
July 24, 2017 at 18:55
While there is no doubt that many actions of the British Empire were reprehensible and many of its statements viewed through 21st century ethical eyes are hypocritical, the challenge has to be what alternative government structure would have been in place with the enormous technological changes affecting countries. It is not a simple matter!
Barnie
July 25, 2017 at 08:51
I dont agree with the article. If the British Empire wouldnt exist there would be no power balance in Europe and in the world. The British Empire won crucial wars against world tyrants like Kaiser Wilhem, Philip the Second, Hitler and Napoleon. British Empire has given democracy to half of the world, including the United States. Of course had been misgivings, errors and crimes. But the balance is clearly positive.
1. ed
  July 30, 2017 at 21:52
  The problem is that we are not able to see alternative outcomes. You are trying to find the positives in what has happened, which is fair enough. We like to think that democracy cant be bettered but its often just a smokescreen. What we can see is that large parts of the African continent are still struggling very badly from the effects of European colonisation. A ghost that is repeatedly coming back to haunt us. Hitler was a result of the First world war which followed on from various empire jossling.
2. ed
  July 30, 2017 at 21:56
  The British Empire WAS the tyrant. We just have a skewed version of our own history because we chose to believe that others are morally inferior. Go look at our involvement with Leopold of Belgium in the Congo. It would make Hitler wince.