That is hilarious. Love it.

pip pip, old chap. Have this *recommendation² on the house. Now, who's up for a game of cricket? Jolly good times are to be had.

Double-Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 5:19pm PDT - doublepromote requested by rasch187.

>> ^rasch187:

pip pip, old chap. Have this recommendation² on the house. Now, who's up for a game of cricket? Jolly good times are to be had.


Why donts you talk some real english boy? That way I'd be able to understand you!

Yeah, and look what happened to that.

Interesting to see all the imperial territories, many of which are still messed up...this is why I like to blame Britain for a lot of the crap in the world today. And unfortunately it seems empires that screw up the world have former colonies that screw up the world.

We learned it from watching you!

Inaccurate to say the least.

Since the American Revolution was ABOUT the East India Company in part (the famous Boston Tea Party) the expansion to India can hardly have been AFTER the revolution.

Dude, it's a kids show. Designed to make them interested in the subject, giving them enough facts to go on until they wish to research it thoroughly themselves. It's just about making it fun

This should be required viewing for US Politicians so they can learn what is to come with the American Empire.

>> ^littledragon_79:

Interesting to see all the imperial territories, many of which are still messed up...this is why I like to blame Britain for a lot of the crap in the world today. And unfortunately it seems empires that screw up the world have former colonies that screw up the world.
We learned it from watching you!


Well, to be fair, many ex-colonies are in fantastic shape. Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore all have very high standards of living. India and South Africa seem to be in reasonable shape, with respect to their neighbors, at least. I'm sure historians have done better comparisons of colonized versus un-colonized nations. I would bet that colonization is a long term win. I'm not saying that morally justifies it, though.

I think it would be more accurate to say that those countries are doing well in spite of the colonization. Also, it depends who you're talking about in those countries... Native Americans in the U.S. and Canada, Maori in New Zealand, and Aborigines in Australia all had their cultures completely or nearly completely destroyed by colonization. A lot of those populations still live in poverty or are marginalized. I doubt they'd share your opinion about colonization's benefits.

>> ^rychan:

Well, to be fair, many ex-colonies are in fantastic shape. Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore all have very high standards of living. India and South Africa seem to be in reasonable shape, with respect to their neighbors, at least. I'm sure historians have done better comparisons of colonized versus un-colonized nations. I would bet that colonization is a long term win. I'm not saying that morally justifies it, though.

*femme for Queen Victoria - Canada just celebrated Victoria Day earlier this week - which is still pretty amusing to anyone outside Canada really.

Adding video to channels (Femme) - requested by Krupo.

>> ^rychan:

>> ^littledragon_79:
Interesting to see all the imperial territories, many of which are still messed up...this is why I like to blame Britain for a lot of the crap in the world today. And unfortunately it seems empires that screw up the world have former colonies that screw up the world.
We learned it from watching you!

Well, to be fair, many ex-colonies are in fantastic shape. Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore all have very high standards of living. India and South Africa seem to be in reasonable shape, with respect to their neighbors, at least. I'm sure historians have done better comparisons of colonized versus un-colonized nations. I would bet that colonization is a long term win. I'm not saying that morally justifies it, though.


Yes, committing essentially genocide and replacing the native populations with your own does wonders for the economy. Colonization is definitely a long term win, just not for the people you colonize.

Colonization doesn't have to imply genocide. It often has, I agree. But the British colonization of India was not so violent. There are claims that Indian famines resulted from British mismanagement, but there are also historians who think India benefited (and still does) from the British institutions, and that the Indians were often willing partners (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Raj#Economic_impact ).

In the Americas there are scores of documented atrocities against the native population. But the worst killer, by far, was unintentional -- disease ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_history_of_indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas#Depopulation_from_disease ). These outbreaks would have happened regardless of military aggression (and it did, which is what made the initial military conquests so easy). Europeans had unknowingly built themselves into amazing germ warfare machines over 100 generations. There's no way that the contact between the new world and old world has a completely happy ending. The germ theory of disease ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germ_theory_of_disease ) was not accepted; people didn't know better.

But consider this hypothetical situation -- there is an alien race with technology vastly superior to ours. They are 500 years more advanced than we are. Would you rather a) the aliens leave us alone completely, not making contact or b) the aliens non-violently assume high level control of much of the planet, while leaving nations largely autonomous (Analogous to the British "conquest" of India).

I would absolutely choose b. In Earth's history it's not likely that many cultures had such a clear cut choice, but the cultures that stayed isolated and backwards have suffered for it.

I would chose to have trading agreements and cultural exchange instead of being colonized. Colonization sucks.