a reply to:
DISRAELI
Indeed, driven by most often very strong Christan faith (sadly utterly lost in today's inferior British politician's and there self serving mindset)
- though at other time's by those willing to exploit so it was not all summer sailing - the British often saw ourselves as having a duty to civilize
the uncivilized, to share our particular take on Christan values with them, to educate and to convert them - though never by force and this was often
known colloquially as the white man's burden since most of the British empire was ruling over people of other ethnicity's.
Also of note is the misconception that we Conquered India, I know that you also know that is wrong but other's on this site may be under the illusion
that we were forcefull empire builders when in fact our expansion in India was mostly through invitation and at first it was a purely private affair
with no direct British government involvement and in fact under the governance of the British East India Company a private enterprise, still even
these merchant's with there mercenary - mostly native Indian soldiers were almost always seen as liberators when they were welcomed by the people's
(mostly Hindu's, Sikh's and other faith's) into the many seperate nations and kingdom's that India had become prior to our arrival as a force for
change there, for century's, indeed over a millenium much of india had been oppressed by often brutal and cruel Islamic masters with there religious
taxation and forced coversion's, how many bloody revolt's lost to history did they put down before they staged there own mutiny against the English
whom had taken away there powers only God knows.
The History of India in particular is an interesting one, they had survived the expansion of Alexander, survived the great age of the Persian empires
and many others but india was fragmented, during it's hindu period it was many kingdom's but mostly two great empires that squabbled at time's ruled
northern and southern India.
There is some history I am a little vague on but it goes a bit like this.
Troubled by the story's of the Muslim army's burning monastery's, library's and university's, enslaving, raping and wiping out entire city's the
ruler of the Southern kingdom at that time the most powerful entity in pre-Islamic India sent out a great army known as the Raj Phut, this army as was
the tradition of many ancient cultures was led by the highest class of that ancient empire including members of the ruling/royal family and a vast
baggage train of family and supporting people went along with them, for over 20 or 25 years they conquered all Islamic army's that they encountered
and went ever deeper into land's that had been lost to the encroaching Islamic forces but over time attrition took it's toll on this multiple
generation caravan of soldiers and family's and at last they decided to turn back and head for home only to find that behind there back's avoiding
them the Islamic forces had invaded and conquered there homeland and that this meant that they now had nowhere to go.
It was theorized by one person that the Raj Phut may indeed have been at least one of the root branches of the Romany's when they fled whom indeed
have song's singing about lost homeland's but today most accept a different take and believe that while the Romany gypsy's may indeed have some Indian
ancestry it was probably from the much lower cast/class members of ancient indian society - though indeed this could simply be the genetic footprint
of those that acted to support the noble warriors, there servant's and there family's.
But of course no one really know's, when the Gypsy's as they became known first appeared they were mistaken for Egyptian's for some unknown reason
and so the name stuck despite there being no link between them and Egypt.
Empires come and go and as the good book points out all the work's of man are in vain or as in the allegorican poem about Ozymandias by Shelley (as
opposed to the earlier and arguably original work by Smith).
With credit to Wikipedia.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away
So I think we can all agree our house is better built upon the immovable rock, in that sense the British empire tried to do likewise but corporal
concern's often rule over better heads and greed and finance have the say in this world until that day come's.
Of final note the British empire was perhaps the greatest force for reform and change for the better - though it's sheet is far from clean with many
crimes over the period of it's existence though perhaps far cleaner than any other empire ever in recorded history - than any other force before it,
fighting against slavery once it was abolished here with royal naval patrol's actively hunting down slavery ship's from the 1820's onward in both the
atlantic and pacific as well as the regions around arabia and east africa.
During the mid to late victorian era in particular we had some of the most reformist and christian inspired leaders of any nation, oh they were not
perfect with children still working, no workers right's, workhouses etc but it was a beginning of moving toward the modern age and without the British
influence most western nations even today would still be backward, the French though arguably did the most with there deliberate attempt to create a
truly equal society - it failed but it was an attempt that in time inspired other's to move toward a softer liberation such as happened in Britain so
they do also deserve to be credited despite the many injustices perpetrated during the French Revolution.
Though we were sadly involved in those opium wars as were other european powers and the US - once again greed and money over ruled our christian
sensibility's in that episode and much to our eternal shame.
edit on 5-3-2020 by LABTECH767 because: (no reason given)