By Daniel Rahman, Past Senior Editor
In 2016 a YouGov poll revealed that 44% of Briton’s felt pride regarding Britain’s colonial past and 43% believed that the British Empire was good. Perhaps there has never been a better advertisement for why colonial history should be part of our curriculum.
There is no debate about it; colonialism has had a seismic impact on the history of former colonies and on our lifestyle today. Imperialist traces can be found across Indian and Australian culture and more clear examples of our past can be seen in the diverse demographics that live in a multicultural UK today. Many look fondly back at the days of the empire, admiring the growth of the Royal Navy, the economic prosperity felt in Britain and the modernisation that took place during the industrial revolution. All of this helped develop the economic comfort we enjoy today, the relative political stability and, most importantly, the rich history of Britain and its Monarchy. However, it is vital that we stop looking back on colonialism with such a fond gaze and start acknowledging the horrors perpetrated by the British and the legacy we have left behind in the Commonwealth.
British colonialism arguably started in the 1490s when John Cabot discovered North America in Tudor England. However it wasn’t until the 1600s when Britain really begun its empire following in the footsteps of Spanish Explorers in the New World. Over the next 4 centuries Britain would expand its naval supremacy leading to us controlling over ⅓ of the total world and having the largest Empire at its time.
It is clear to any observer how Britain benefited from the Empire; it made cheap labour accessible for the North-Atlantic Slave Trade to prosper, it allowed Britain to introduce new foods, activities and cultural additives to the ever-growing London and it enabled excessive agricultural produce to be imported into Britain paving the way for industrialisation and the expansion of the urban workforce in the UK. However, what may not be so clear is how this has in any way been beneficial to other countries. At the time, it wasn’t. Many communities in Native America and India operated independently and were self-sufficient farmers that did not seek any form of authority from foreign powers.
The more relevant question is whether or not British Colonialism has benefited former colonies today. It can be argued that colonialism has led to the spread of democratic ideas and western freedoms that many of these countries now enjoy. This is simply a fallacy as true democracy didn’t exist in Britain until 1928 when colonies were beginning to seek independence. The spread of democracy has extended beyond colonies and is more a result of globalisation today than historical ties to Britain or European Powers. Some even claim globalisation itself was allowed by the industrial revolution and therefore imperialism, and so overall, the British Empire has been a positive. Even if we claim globalisation has been beneficial to former colonies (which is questionable in itself) it cannot be wholly attributed to the British Empire as many historians and theorists can point out an industrial revolution was inevitable and did not require such unfair and brutal occupations to enable it to happen.
Colonies [...] still hold the scars of the past and have never recovered from the horrors of imperialism.
Colonies on the whole still hold the scars of the past and have never recovered from the horrors of imperialism. From Latin America to Central Africa, former colonies still struggle to escape the depths of poverty that come from resource and labour exploitation that has persisted from British rule into the 21st century. Many countries have fragile political systems after any existing authority or rule was wiped out by the British rule leading to turmoil and poor governance today. British imposition led to cultural divisions leading to apartheid in South Africa and repression of native communities in America.
This damaging history inflicted by the British has profound impact on global politics as a whole. It is easy for us as Brits to wipe our hands clean and claim that our spending 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid means we are now the good guys. But sadly history is not that simple and the legacy of the British Empire has led to poverty, conflict and catastrophe for billions today. This is why it is essential for us in Britain to recognise our role in the History and the stains we have to acknowledge as a starting point. When we are continually exploiting poorer nations, we need to recognise we have systematically crippled local economies in order to export their wealth and benefit our small island. This immoral position is indefensible to any compassionate person and an understanding of colonialism would lead to a healthier international political climate between the Global North and Global South.
Domestically, an understanding of imperialism would allow us to have a mature debate around many pressing issues such as immigration and foreign aid. When we discuss immigrants and complain about them taking our jobs and resources, we should understand we forcibly took $2 trillion dollars worth of natural resources from Latin America and enslaved a large proportion of male Africans ruining their civilisation for decades. When we put issues in this context, it becomes a lot more difficult to neglect the interest of the rest of humanity and it starts to become apparent why we need to look at sharing resources through development projects and through immigration.
We can never erase the horrors of the past and we can never fully correct the damage done by colonialism but we can work more cooperatively for a fair and prosperous globe that values human development equally and doesn’t simply just prioritise one country over another. The first step to achieving this is an understanding of historical events no matter how damming they are of our ancestors in Britain. We can still cherish our rich history and take pride in some of our institutions and discoveries but we can only do this truthfully if we acknowledge the suffering that lies in British history in order to create a more equal and fair world.
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