Her influence overall was a great one, and the countries Britain once ruled (like mine -- the good ol' USA!) ought to thank their lucky stars for their fortunate legacy of English law, education, civility, and culture.
Thank you, from a Brit!
Btw, England alone, no, but all of the United Kingdom please! (I am also a Scot and we more than played our part, as you should well know States-side).
Like a lot of my countrymen, I tend to use "England" and "The UK" interchangeably, which is not correct, and I need to watch that in the future.
That's ok, but a lot of my fellow Scots are touchy about the slack use of "England" when I know you do mean UK. If you mean UK, please say so. Don't feel bad about it as some of your leading politicians make the same error.
shareWell, England did manage to civilize Ireland, in a brutal, ham-fisted fashion and Wales. And as part of Great Britain and the UK exported civilization to America, Canada, Australia, and a few others with its colonists.
India already had civilization. It's debatable whether British rule left ti better than it would have been if left alone. It also doesn't seem to have taken in most of Africa, due in large part to the legacy of imperialism - not that the UK is the only culprit here.
Probably the best that can be said for the British Empire is that it was better then the other European conquerors.
Like my quote about the USA & their Indians, "Not as nice as Britain & Canada but much better than Spain or Portugal".
Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?
The OP must be a Brit, despite what he says. The English virtually invented racism. And I'm sure all those countries that were subjugated in the name of the empire would have preferred to remain "uncivilized" but free.
P.S. And the Brits stole most of their law code from others, like the Norse.
Nah, most are certainly better off then they otherwise would have been
shareYes, r-birch. We only have to look at the 000's of migrants crossing north Africa still desperate to enter UK.
Many years ago, I worked in Sa.Leone (a former British colony) and I had dozens of local people, of varying ages, tell me, unprompted, that "you (Brits) are welcome back here any time". During the years I lived there, the country suffered from appalling lack of infrastructure development, oil shortages, daily power-cuts,and terrible poverty. I was told by a few older people there that things were better under British rule. At last, lives in that country of friendly people are turning around for the better, but it will take many years yet and much intl. support & goodwill.
You'll never hear in the MSM from Africans who wish the Brits were back in charge because it doesn't fit their Marxist narrative .
I couldn't agree more Compare and contrast Rhodesia and Zimbabwe.