The Foundations of Empire

At its height, the British Empire was the largest and certainly the furthest flung the world has ever seen. In land mass owned, only the fleeting empire of the Mongol conqueror, Genghis Khan was bigger.

The Mongol Empire covered from most of China, all Russia - both European and Asiatic and into Poland. Southwards it stretched into Nepal and Northern India. To the South West it took in most of medieval Arabia and Persia. The British Empire, not withstanding the loss of the American colonies at the end of the eighteenth century, covered by the early nineteen thirties, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Egypt, the Sudan, much of modern Iraq and Palestine, Cyprus, India, Pakistan, Bangla Desh (proper name - East Pakistan), Uganda, Ceylon, Burma, Malaysia, Hong Kong and so many islands - Gibraltar, Mauritius, St. Helena, the Falklands, the Seychelles, Malta - the list is almost endless. There were also many dependencies such as Aden. No continent on earth failed to contain a significant amount of British territory.

Much of this Empire had come to Britain accidentally, as through the centuries - especially from the sixteenth, we were drawn into wars which became conquests. Some of it was almost uninhabited - Australia for instance for all intents and purposes was barren of mankind. The aborigines had lived there since time immemorial yet are one of the few peoples on Earth not to have made ANY significant mark on the land, or any improvement in their lot.

Here the loud mouthed liberal steps in and tells us all these native peoples were living in a Shagri La type of blissful existence until the horrible British White man stepped in, robbed them of their country, looted it and basically enslaved all the natives.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In almost ever single case of conquest or colonisation, we treated the native peoples to a rule of law that replaced savage and arbitrary tribal ones. We taught them. We showed them how the feed themselves and we built! Not since the time of Rome have an Imperial people built across the globe on such a scale. India today is still powered and runs on the railways we bequeathed it. Hong Kong is the show piece of China. Singapore a fully modern city when without us it would still have been a backwards shanty town.

Decades ago, our schoolchildren were taught that to be proud of being British and being immensely proud of the British Empire and all its achievements were good things. Now in our multi-ethnic mish mash educational system, they are derided as some of the worst evils known to man.

The Empire is behind us now, replaced in the main by dozens of disease ridden, Third World, tin pot dictatorships - usually led by madmen such as Mugabe or the unlamented Idi Amin, a character it would be hard to invent! Many natives of our ex-imperial possessions look back with nostalgia at the time when the British ruled and peace and order reigned.

It is said at one time that you could travel from Cairo in Egypt to the Cape in South Africa, the whole length of the continent - without ever leaving British territory. Try it now and you'll be HIV positive before you get a few hundred miles.

We should be proud of our Imperial heritage and sickened by the way a succession of governments full of mealy mouthed do-gooders and anti imperialists threw it away - killing as a result of the civil wars and famines that followed, millions of our former subjects.

The Imperial tradition can also be viewed in a wider context. In exploring, settling, conquering these far flung places, we were following our Aryan blood call - the call to reach out and discover and master new lands.