Thank You For My Freedom! - Glorification of the British Empire

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There has been a resurgence of pro British Empire propaganda oozing out of the jingoistic woodwork of social media debate over Brexit, capitalism and conservatism (both big and little C). One of the popular, recurrent and broad motifs is that the British Empire was good because it gave, a rather uniquely defined, "freedom" to many countries who apparently weren't free before the colonial forces of the British Empire took hold.

That occupied countries only had freedom once they were occupied is a clear contradiction. Let's not fuss too much over the "you're only free when I say you're free" quandary, but instead talk briefly about the economic basis for the Empire, its implications and consequences.


Thanks, PragerU. Very cool!


Given that the British Empire was primarily a manifestation and emergence of early mercantile and then capitalist forces searching for new sources of raw materials, markets and labour, you can start to get a glimpse at where this is heading. Colonies were constructed, raw materials were mined and transformed into useful materials, and native peoples were enslaved as a source cheap (read: free) labour in order to generate wealth to export back to the mother country. This all sort of ended after the world wars when we decided to just up and leave previously colonised countries in what might be considered the most tumultuous change of heart in the history of mankind. In our wake, we left a trail of blood, destitution and socioeconomic turmoil.

Obviously this is a reductive gloss-over and you should endeavour to read about it from other, more expansive sources in order to gain the full picture of utter despair the Empire created. Interesting to note though and in my experience at least, sources like the BBC effectively depoliticise topics like this so it's probably best to avoid them.

Pie is for wealthy white people only.

Incidentally, this is how scientific racism came around - it was a means to justify colonising less "civilised" or unindustrialised lands. It was "the white man's burden", as Rudyard Kipling once wrote, to civilise these savage beasts.

So what freedoms did we actually give to our various colonies in our acts of clear benevolence?

  • Afghanistan: Such a stable and freedom filled nation
  • Australia: Genocide of the natives
  • Bahrain: Sunni dictatorship of a Shia majority
  • Brunei: Violently homophobic
  • Canada: Genocide of the natives
  • Caribbean: Slavery
  • Egypt: The home of "My favourite Dictator" - Actual Trump quote
  • India: British induced famine, caste system support, now a Hindu Nationalist authoritarian state
  • Ireland: Cultural genocide, famine, imperialism, and still to this day occupation
  • Iraq: Again, such a stable and freedom filled nation
  • Israel: Definitely not an apartheid
  • Libya: Such a stable and freedom filled nation. There's a lot of these, huh?
  • Malaysia: Utilised 'divide and conquer' strategies to divide the local population base on race; still sours race relations between different ethnic groups till today, with bursts of violence during the Infamous May Riots
  • New Zealand: Genocide of the natives
  • Nigeria: Boko Haram would like a word
  • Pakistan: Such a stable and freedom filled nation
  • Qatar: Definitely not a hub for modern slavery
  • Singapore: The only developed country in the world to rank below some quasi-dictatorships in human rights; the British helped nib liberal democracy in its cradle by helping to orchestrate a mass arrest of the local opposition
  • South Africa: Former apartheid that suffers from huge income/political inequality
  • Somalia: Most famous failed state, actual endpoint of right-wing Libertarianism
  • Sudan: Don't ask about Darfur
  • Uganda: Violently homophobic
  • USA: Slavery, genocide, successor imperial power
  • Yemen: Failed state
  • Zimbabwe: Former apartheid that suffers from huge income/political inequality
Let's not forget the partition of India, the existence of the IRA, the fact that over half of the countries that criminalise homosexuality were British colonies, the triangle trade that killed millions of Africans... I mean the list just doesn't stop! Except here. It stops here because I think I've made my point.

Next time you see some piss-weasel in the comments of The Telegraph saying "We should get the Empire back after Brexit!", show them this. When someone starts banging on about "Thems brown peoples are coming here to replace us!!", show them this and point out why their home country is in disarray.

Furthermore, in some regards we haven't actually left some of those countries; imperialist forces remain to help syphon wealth back to the UK. Can anyone say "oil"?

Do we really want to be replicating this? 


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