What does the UK, France and the Netherlands have in common?

[Greyblades]

I don't think you used that saying correctly because the person complaining wasn't bragging about any worthless conquests himself.

Its a joke refering to his earlier years, ask him about being a ski instructor some time.

I also notice a completely monetary fixation in this thread, everything is about money and net sums o money and goods and more money and money as compensation. Noone even acknowledges the human suffering which cannot and should not be weighed up with money.

Well you keep telling us to "pay pay pay" and money's the only thing we really see as something we can give that they would want in reparations, except land, which we've given away all but the stuff we started out with, and them some.

Maybe we can come to an agreement where the British won't have to give away their precious money that their banks steal from all the world's taxpayers and instead go on a journey once a year where they travel around the world and give hugs and kisses to former colonials whose parents were slaves.

I think we already do that, teenagers and college students volunteer to be aid workers and because they're basically unskilled workers giving guilt laden hugs and kisses is the only thing they do that the locals cant do themselves.

Well, you forget the real motives again, such as your economic situation after the World Wars, which made it too expensive to hold on to the colonies by force, that the colonies had become more of a drain than an actual surplus for your economy (contrary to what "1 billion of taxpayers" insinuates) and the revolutions wthat sprung up such as the one by Gandhi etc. It's like you stole a credit card and gave it back once it was locked, and now expect a reward for giving it back.

When the rest of history is full of nations that had a habit of fighting over much less, regardless of the practicality of the attempts, are you really going to say that sparing the colonies yet another series of bloody revolutionary wars is not a point in Britain's favor?

[Pannonian]

I think we already do that, teenagers and college students volunteer to be aid workers and because they're basically unskilled workers giving guilt laden hugs and kisses is the only thing they do that the locals cant do themselves.

And former colonies who need help and are willing to work with us to improve their infrastructure are given help. Sierra Leone, the colony created from liberated slaves that our slaver patrols captured, imported a British administrative strata in the 00s, and are presumably given preferential status in various economic links. Somaliland, the unofficial state situated in former British Somaliland that's best known for being the stable part of Somalia, is seeking British aid in gaining diplomatic recognition and has already been given some help in moving towards a viable statehood. That's a couple of former colonies that immediately come to mind.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

...When the rest of history is full of nations that had a habit of fighting over much less, regardless of the practicality of the attempts, are you really going to say that sparing the colonies yet another series of bloody revolutionary wars is not a point in Britain's favor?

Having read this thread as a spectator, mostly, I wonder if the subtext of all of this isn't a rather Catholic need for penance in the expiation of guilt.

England, alone among Europe, has not suffered for their "crimes." France, Germany, Russia, Poland, Belgium, Italy -- virtually the rest of Europe -- have all, as a consequence of their direct or indirect actions, been invaded, conquered, destroyed, ethnically cleansed, partitioned, bankrupted, etc. In contrast, the UK has been largely secure from physical harm perpetrated against them by the rest of Europe (though not against internal strife) for a nearly a millennium.

So does the anger stem, I wonder, from a sense that the UK -- particularly England -- has not done it's fair share of penance for sins perpetrated in much the same manner and to much the same degree as the rest of Europe?

Again, I am an outsider to this, operating from limited data on an internet forum....centered on games that revel in Europeans killing one another....I might have it all wrong.

[Husar]

Interesting observation Seamus, but I think the the fact England hasn't been conquered for a while has affected their self-image far more than it has affected the image others have of England. As has been brought up in this thread, it's always the English/British who bring up their exceptionalism and their unique position and so on whenever the rest of Europe invites them to be just Europeans like the rest of us.

Even in this thread it's the English arguing the whole time about how they are/were better than everyone else and how noone can touch them anyway. As Gelatinous Cube phrased it, British exceptionalism is even stronger than the American kind.

[Pannonian]

Interesting observation Seamus, but I think the the fact England hasn't been conquered for a while has affected their self-image far more than it has affected the image others have of England. As has been brought up in this thread, it's always the English/British who bring up their exceptionalism and their unique position and so on whenever the rest of Europe invites them to be just Europeans like the rest of us.

Even in this thread it's the English arguing the whole time about how they are/were better than everyone else and how noone can touch them anyway. As Gelatinous Cube phrased it, British exceptionalism is even stronger than the American kind.

On the subject of slavery, which is the topic of this thread, it's hard to see the British as anything but exceptional.

[Kadagar_AV]

On the subject of slavery, which is the topic of this thread, it's hard to see the British as anything but exceptional.

Why?

Arabic countries have continued the trade into this millenium...

[InsaneApache]

I think he means that the British abolished slavery and used the Royal Navy to back that up. But I think you made his point for him. Inadvertently.

[Husar]

I think he means that the British abolished slavery and used the Royal Navy to back that up. But I think you made his point for him. Inadvertently.

I think he meant that the Royal Navy was apparently not very successful at abolishing slavery, slavery is still around everwhere in the world, even former British colonies.