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Empire Notes

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Empire Niall Ferguson Introduction * To the British, as to people in the rest of the world, imperialism's golden age is now considered a stain on human history, an era of slavery and racism and the plunder of native lands and peoples. The notion that imperialism is inherently evil, and that no empire can be a good empire, is an axiom in today's geopolitics. * Examines the British Empire from an economic perspective, controversially concluding that the British Empire was, on balance, a good thing * Globalisation is the biggest thing that Ferguson thanks the British for * English language and ties to London made it possible * The Leftist opponents of globalisation naturally regard it as no more than the latest manifestation …show more content…

* The British Empire stretched over hundreds of years and millions of miles; its legacy hangs over almost the entire world. It was, at times, a force for good. But just as often, people who lived under the British were manifestly worse off for it, and for others -- as in the case of Indians, for whom empire's consequences are hardest to judge -- British rule was at best a mixed blessing. * The British may have improved the course of history in some lands, but only at a cost -- in terms of lives and in lost culture -- we would find unpalatable today. * Ferguson recognizes these costs, but he can abide them, he says, because other, worse empires might have come into power were it not for the British. * Britain became the first empire to abolish slavery, and it took to the task with zeal, stationing the Royal Navy off the coast of Sierra Leone to disrupt the Atlantic slave trade to, among other places, the newly independent United States. * ‘It is not easy to explain so profound a change in the ethics of a people. It used to be argued that slavery was abolished simply because it had ceased to be profitable: in fact, it was abolished despite the fact that it was still profitable. What we need to understand, then, is a collective change of heart.’ * Ferguson delves deep into what might have caused this change, and he discovers a fact

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