Wednesday, 3. June 2015
"but it is notable that few people can think of another such incident"
annika heinze, 18:39h
The title I chose for this post is a quote from the Article by Robin Neillands, the one I wrote in my last post about.
He said that Amritsar was a horrible incident in the history of the British Empire but that only a few people can think of another such incident.
I didn't have to look too hard to find another incident.
It wasn't a mass-shooting like at Amritsar but it was no less horrible and inexcusable: How the British behaved during the Boer War(s)
In order to weaken the Boers the British destroyed farms and crops systematically, slaughtered the farmer's livestock, poisoned their wells and salted their fields (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_war_crimes)
Neillands said in his article that "On the whole the British left their Empire well and ruled wisely while it existed". I don't see how poisoning of wells and ruining other peoples opportunity to farm land is wise and well ruling.
Also the British did more than just the things listed above.
Against common believe it weren't the National Socialists and Hitler who invented the concentration camps in the middle of the 20th century. The British made this questionable invention at the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th century.
Initially they were intended to be used as refugee camps. There were 45 tented camps for the Boers (Dutch and Africaans word für farmer) and another 64 for black Africans.
Defensless women and children were brought forcefully into these camps on "open cattle trucks in freezing rain during winter". They were not given enough food or water.
"Of the 107,000 people interned in the camps, 27,927 Boers died along with an unknown number of black Africans."
In total 26,000 Boers, mostly women and children, died in these camps. They had commited no crimes for which they could have been held there as prisoners.
I think when people talk about the British Empire in a glorifying way they really miss out on the many things that were not all sunny and sweet about it.
Killing nearly 30,000 innocent people (by letting them starve, freeze etc.) is not to be overlooked and I think the way many people still glorify the British Empire Needs a very big change.
sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_war_crimes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment
He said that Amritsar was a horrible incident in the history of the British Empire but that only a few people can think of another such incident.
I didn't have to look too hard to find another incident.
It wasn't a mass-shooting like at Amritsar but it was no less horrible and inexcusable: How the British behaved during the Boer War(s)
In order to weaken the Boers the British destroyed farms and crops systematically, slaughtered the farmer's livestock, poisoned their wells and salted their fields (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_war_crimes)
Neillands said in his article that "On the whole the British left their Empire well and ruled wisely while it existed". I don't see how poisoning of wells and ruining other peoples opportunity to farm land is wise and well ruling.
Also the British did more than just the things listed above.
Against common believe it weren't the National Socialists and Hitler who invented the concentration camps in the middle of the 20th century. The British made this questionable invention at the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th century.
Initially they were intended to be used as refugee camps. There were 45 tented camps for the Boers (Dutch and Africaans word für farmer) and another 64 for black Africans.
Defensless women and children were brought forcefully into these camps on "open cattle trucks in freezing rain during winter". They were not given enough food or water.
"Of the 107,000 people interned in the camps, 27,927 Boers died along with an unknown number of black Africans."
In total 26,000 Boers, mostly women and children, died in these camps. They had commited no crimes for which they could have been held there as prisoners.
I think when people talk about the British Empire in a glorifying way they really miss out on the many things that were not all sunny and sweet about it.
Killing nearly 30,000 innocent people (by letting them starve, freeze etc.) is not to be overlooked and I think the way many people still glorify the British Empire Needs a very big change.
sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_war_crimes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment
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