Empires

Fothsn · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:05

Sorry getting mixed up myself, it had massive help from France, without them they wouldn’t of being able to hold out and also the Spanish helped too, so with 3 we had a massive challenge, they got there colonies back, we then went onto better things at the time which was Australia

Greenlizard0 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:06

What a pointless thread. I never quite understand why anybody but really old people pine about the British Empire.

Also where is the Mongol empire in that list?

vincent1989 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:07

Fothsn said:
Sorry getting mixed up myself, it had massive help from France, without them they wouldn’t of being able to hold out and also the Spanish helped too, so with 3 we had a massive challenge, they got there colonies back, we then went onto better things at the time which was Australia

yeah, we did much better with Oz, they can be us at sports (that matter), part of me thinks we trained them to well

vincent1989 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:07

Greenlizard0 said:
What a pointless thread. I never quite understand why anybody but really old people pine about the British Empire.

Also where is the Mongol empire in that list?

was it a 150 year empire?

some of us like our history (and by that i mean history in general)

Amp34 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:08

Le_Petit_Lapin said:
No point, there is no British Empire any more, just a small island, of which a good portion of the population isn't or doesn't consider themselves British.

Maybe, but we are still one of the most powerful nations on earth. Our influence may have weined(sp) but we are still very influential in huge swaiths of the world (Africa, middle east, commonwealth [which covers most of what our empire did]). We're one of the 5 permanent menbers of the UN, a founding member of NATO, have one of the most powerful armies (combines forces) in the world, top 5 largest navies, 5 largest economies etc..

Yes our media love to pick holes in us and put us down but that's not necessarily the truth.

And why do people from other countries come here (most are from commonwealth countries)? Because we are so important and they believe they can make a better life for themselves.

slambo69 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:09

yantorsen said:
shouldn't the mongol empire be on there?

Greenlizard0 said:
What a pointless thread. I never quite understand why anybody but really old people pine about the British Empire.

Also where is the Mongol empire in that list?

It says on the list why the Mongol Empire isnt there. Also the Greek Empire as well.

Fothsn · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:10

Greenlizard0 said:
What a pointless thread. I never quite understand why anybody but really old people pine about the British Empire.

Also where is the Mongol empire in that list?

Why post in it then? Strangely believe it or not I enjoy reading about world history not everybody has the same interest as you you know.

vincent1989 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:10

Amp34 said:
<snip>

were also one of the most over crowded and over taxed places on earth (does wonders for the govts. purse strings

)

semi-pro waster · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:10

yantorsen said:
shouldn't the mongol empire be on there?

It says why it isn't in the opening post, after Khan's death it dissolved fairly rapidly although the man didn't half sow his wild oats given the percentage of present day Mongols who have some genetic linkage to the fellow.

The British Empire was a stunning achievement but what impresses me the most is that sometimes it seemed to expand simply on the basis of "I say Rupert, I would rather like to see what is in that country there" and then it was annexed into the Empire shortly after.

Amp34 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:10

vincent1989 said:
one thing i do remember is that the dutch brought the horrible scalp skinning habit with them and the plains Indians picked it up from them (which was then used to accuse them of being barbaric )

the british empire had more easily conquerable area

I'm sure the Indians would love to hear that, it's not like India was as advanced as us is it?

Although their military wasn't I admit.

vincent1989 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:11

Amp34 said:
Although their military wasn't I admit.

and surely that's all that matters when subjugating a country by MILITARY force?

Amp34 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:12

Greenlizard0 said:
What a pointless thread. I never quite understand why anybody but really old people pine about the British Empire.

Also where is the Mongol empire in that list?

I love it when people don't READ the OP properly.

Amp34 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:14

vincent1989 said:
were also one of the most over crowded and over taxed places on earth (does wonders for the govts. purse strings )

Try telling the overcrowded bit to the lowlanders and the tax bit to the Germans (plus a few other european countries).

vincent1989 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:15

Amp34 said:
Try telling the overcrowded bit to the lowlanders and the tax bit to the Germans (plus a few other european countries).

i did say 'one of the most'

Amp34 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:17

vincent1989 said:
and surely that's all that matters when subjugating a country by MILITARY force?

Possibly, but they still had forts and been fighting for years before the british came along.

Also you could argue the same for most Empires, for example the romans had a far more organised and modern army than most of the places they conquered. You could probably liken them to the US vs. Iraq now.

EDIT: And thinking about it I don't think India was actually taken over by the British (ie Government). It sort of joined the empire byaccident if I recall after the British East India company got a bit big for it's boots?

Amp34 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:17

vincent1989 said:
i did say 'one of the most'

Skull · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:20

Whilst the stastics are impressive in terms of their size, I don't really know why people are proud of the British Empire... our colonialism (read: desperate crusade for wealth and power) is what helped carve up Africa and create it's problems today, set the stage for perpetual interference in the middle east and of course inspired us to fight two wars with China to force them to import our heroin, because them saying no to drugs was bad for profit.

Sailing a massive military force up to a country, with its cannons on show and basically saying "We'll be taking care of things from now on" is exactly what everyone nowadays criticises the USA and the UK for doing with Iraq, yet the British people are proud that we did this to 400 million people in the past?

vincent1989 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:21

Amp34 said:
Possibly, but they still had forts and been fighting for years before the british came along.

Also you could argue the same for most Empires, for example the romans had a far more organised and modern army than most of the places they conquered. You could probably liken them to the US vs. Iraq now.

EDIT: And thinking about it I don't think India was actually taken over by the British (ie Government). It sort of joined the empire byaccident if I recall after the British East India company got a bit big for it's boots?

we had nice little things called cannons that make walls made out of bricks and mud look like paper. and yeah, you're right, but we were still superior to them in the way that mean they became or bitches.

Skull said:
<snip>

shhhh! people don't like hearing the truth!

and if you want to say that you could include WWI which was a result of Germany being jealous of many countries empires and then WWII (as a direct result of the aftermath of WWI) so by that marvelous piece of deduction i've discovered it was Britian and not Germany that caused both world wars

Fothsn · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:22

semi-pro waster said:
It says why it isn't in the opening post, after Khan's death it dissolved fairly rapidly although the man didn't half sow his wild oats given the percentage of present day Mongols who have some genetic linkage to the fellow.

The British Empire was a stunning achievement but what impresses me the most is that sometimes it seemed to expand simply on the basis of "I say Rupert, I would rather like to see what is in that country there" and then it was annexed into the Empire shortly after.

Yeah that’s the impression I have of them as well

must have being very strange discovering these islands and wonder what was there!

Greenlizard0 · 17 Jan 2009 at 16:23

slambo69 said:
It says on the list why the Mongol Empire isnt there. Also the Greek Empire as well.

Amp34 said:
I love it when people don't READ the OP properly.

Oops, blame the hangover for that one.

Fothsn said:
Why post in it then? Strangely believe it or not I enjoy reading about world history not everybody has the same interest as you you know.

I didn't say that it wasn't interesting, I just asked why people who aren't old / weren't in "it" seem to pine about it. Different things.