Will the Empire strike back?

Hello, lovelies.

            44 years ago I was born in this great country. A country that has a wealth of history, culture and arrogance. We all grew up believing that Great Britain truly ruled the waves. We sang songs about it. We were full of hope and stood on the bank of the Thames in glory. We have faced and defeated many wars, famines and diseases, and here we still were. Britain had stood strong for thousands of years, and nothing was going to knock it off its pedestal. This great Empire. But were we really that great? Have we lost our greatness? Or will the Empire strike back?

            Listening to the radio this morning, I heard that there had been some discussions about removing the word Empire from the OBE and MBE's. But why? Haven't we been part of an empire since time immemorial? No, we haven't. The British Empire began to take shape around the early 17th century. So just over 400 hundred years. In the great scheme of things, that's not very long at all. And it started with the English settlement if North America, and then the smaller islands if the Caribbean. And then was born the East India Company, who's job was was to administer the colonies overseas trade. But it wasn't until the 18th century that its expansion really grew.

        As it grew, the world map turned to a vermilion red, staining the map with British greatness and power. The empire was maintained through more than 2 hundred years of violence, war, bloodshed and conquest. There was hardly a time that people were made to suffer for their forced participation in Britain's colonialism. Slavery, prison, murder, famine and total extermination were faced by those who had no power to make decisions about their own lives. They were the collateral damage to Britain's war to rule the world.  You might think that those who suffered unspeakable fates would go quietly, never to be heard of again. But you'd be wrong. To the rest of the world, Great Britain was the picture of supreme power and majesty, but underneath that facade fought a resistance. People rebelled against the forced and unrelenting empire. So over the years, Britain was hindered by a lot of local opposition. 

                 Settlers, soldiers and convicts were the human cost of those who were caught in the colonisation.  They were the ones who had to deal with the fallout. The arduous sea journey, the fear of downing, hunger and disease, only to be followed by arriving on foreign land and attacked or killed by the native people who didn't want to be colonised. Death in pointless battles, cholera and yellow fever, the 2 great plagues of the empire. At  the peak of its power, it was called, 'The Empire on which the sun never sets.' Because the Empire's reach spread around the globe, the sun was always shining on at least one of its territories. 

       

                Can we really look back with pride at our Empire? Can we really gloss over the oppression, greed and murder? 

                Not much is left of the British rule today. It mostly consists of small island territories. Some countries still have Queen Elizabeth as their head of state. Including New Zealand, Australia and Canada.    

 

                It's hard to believe that one very small island managed to hold power over so much of the world. But was it all bad? No. The British Empire brought many changes to people all across the world. Like innovations in medical care, education, improvement in communication, new infrastructures, the railway, transport routes, access to the world through the English language. And the British Empire fought to abolish slavery in the 1800s, even though they profited from it in the 1700s.   

            Okay, so the Empire got it wrong, very wrong,  on so many fronts. But we, as a nation, we have acknowledged that, and we will never go back to the days of the British colonialism. We vilify those who seek to return to it. We in London hate racism and look to the future of diversity and difference.  So I believe that although there are those who look back with rose coloured glasses, in truth I am proud of the England that we are building today. We can learn from the past and never repeat the mistakes. I think that to change the word Empire for the word excellence would be a fine fitting for our ever-changing, growing and learning England.