Opinion: The British Empire: A legacy of violence?
The English Empire is perhaps the most famous, and infamous, in human history. The British Empire is often said to be responsible for “civilization” but it is also often claimed that it has been responsible for violence. The British Empire was both a cause and a consequence of violence.
The British Empire is often said to be responsible for “civilization” but it is also often claimed that it has been responsible for violence. The British Empire was both a cause and a consequence of violence.
The Empire began with a conflict over the ownership of part of the Indian sub-continent but was soon to expand to include every part of the globe. It is a conflict that has been used countless times in war and has brought about a massive loss of life:
“A war by itself is not always, or necessarily a war of aggression. It may also be a war waged by one state against another state for the purpose of conquest, domination or control. In that case the aggression, in whatever form it takes, will be deemed a war of conquest, and in the case of a state, or in the case of a territory, such an aggression will be termed the war of conquest. Such a description is true of both internal and external wars. For internal wars, the aggression would be considered a war of conquest as a consequence of the war situation; for external wars, aggression is deemed to be a war of conquest as a consequence of the war situation.”
“There is no war which is not aggression and conquest. All wars are acts of aggression or conquest.” (“The Definition of War”, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Vol. 2, Oxford University Press, 2002)
The British Empire was also both a cause and a consequence of violence for its own citizens.
The British Empire, as a nation state, is responsible for numerous acts of violence and acts of mass-murder, many of which are still being committed in the name of Britain. While there have been many who believe that the British Empire has been responsible for violence, only a few have actually done any serious amount of research, and the overwhelming number of British citizens who have claimed that the British Empire has been responsible for violence have either been wrong, or not done