That is British propaganda. Just what the British did in Ireland alone, for so many centuries, should keep them from criticizing "continentals." Then there was Scotland, and Wales. Right here in my home town, they burned down the courthouse and the church, because the people here were Dutch Americans instead of English. They committed brutal war crimes in the Carolinas during the Revolutionary War.
Look at China, where they forced opium on a nation just to maintain their tea fix. The Indian subcontinent was given even harsher treatment. Their invasion of Russia, after the communist revolution, contributed greatly to the paranoia that controlled Soviet foreign policy for 75 years. The British started the whole nonsense about "the white man's burden." Now, they criticize the Belgians for following their lead? I don't buy it. There is no excuse for what Belgium did in the Congo. That was dreadful, but actually quite limited in time and territory to what Britain did, all over the globe, with such masterful administrative skill and military overkil, for cfenturies. Dan On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Adam Maas <a...@mawz.ca> wrote: > On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 12:00 AM, Daniel J. Matyola > <danmaty...@gmail.com> wrote: >> "of the European Powers, the British were by far >> the nicest of the lot to natives" >> >> Oh, please; give me a break. >> >> Dan > > It's accurate. The British weren't nice, but the Continentals were > worse (aside from the Germans who didn't get into the Colonial thing > until the 19th century). Of the other Colonial powers, the Germans > were comparable to the British, the Portugese tended to be only a bit > more heavy-handed (well, arguably, the Portugese were distinctly worse > in the Americas but arguably nicer in their Asian possessions then the > British), the Dutch were pretty heavy-handed, the Spanish and French > were distinctly nasty and the Belgians were just about a nightmare to > those they colonized. > > -Adam > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.