{"id":1992285,"date":"2023-08-06T05:18:04","date_gmt":"2023-08-06T09:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-upsides-of-empire\/"},"modified":"2023-08-06T05:32:43","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T09:32:43","slug":"the-upsides-of-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-upsides-of-empire\/","title":{"rendered":"Benefits of Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">6<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-upsides-of-empire%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1992285&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<h2>Never rile a Regius professor of theology<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>That is one takeaway from this \u200bmagnificent and timely book.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Nigel Biggar was a Regius professor and an expert in ethics at Oxford University \u200bwhen that university went through one of the odd periods of iconoclasm that has distinguished the past decade. Even before America started tearing down its statues in earnest, students at Oxford were asserting\u200b that a statue of Cecil Rhodes must come down from its perch on Oxford&#8217;s High Street, at the side of the college which he once generously endowed.<\/p>\n<p>The students \u2064were led\u2063 by a group of South Africans, the leader of whom was only at Oxford because \u2062he was\u2063 there on a Rhodes scholarship. Yet back home in \u200cSouth Africa, a &#8220;Rhodes must fall&#8221; campaign had already been underway and proved successful at the University\u200d of Cape Town\u2014a university\u2062 built on land given by Rhodes. This \u2063act of &#8220;decolonization&#8221; was \u2063led by students and others who decided to revise the reputation of the great \u206319th-century colonialist in the most\u200c reductive and hostile light. In 2015 his statue was duly removed.<\/p>\n<p>Fresh from this success,\u2063 the South African students at Oxford hoped to build political \u2063careers for themselves back home by repeating the trick. They ran very far very fast, getting a considerable amount of support from \u200cthe student body. Suddenly everybody in Oxford had a view of Cecil Rhodes, and\u200b almost entirely negative.\u200c One\u200d reason for that was doubtless the fact that anti-Rhodes\u2064 campaigners passed around leaflets and other literature in \u2063which they made up quotes that Rhodes had \u2063not said, and invented the most racial and violent statements which they then put in his mouth. Most students did not think to challenge this, and the hyper-specialization that exists in U.K., as in U.S., campuses meant that\u200c there were few informed adults around to push back.<\/p>\n<h3>A rare adult who did emerge<\/h3>\n<p>was the Regius \u2062professor at Christchurch College, who started off (as any scholar might) by reading the entry for Rhodes in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Even\u2062 from doing that much, he realized that something was amiss in the debate and so he became one of the very few figures to put his head above the parapet. He participated in debates and challenged the then-prevailing mood.<\/p>\n<p>The lesson clearly \u2063taught \u2062him something, as it did a number of others. One such\u200c thing was the realization that the whole issue of empire \u200cand colonialism was a confused moral mess. The era of\u2062 colonialism had, of\u2063 course, long since given way to the post-colonialists. And these figures had been unopposed for at least a couple of \u200cgenerations. As \u200da\u2062 result, by the\u2063 2010s the ability to see the matter in\u2062 the round seemed to have disappeared entirely. Shrill voices from the academic and \u200dnon-academic worlds were insisting that colonialism was genocide or that the British Empire stood on a moral level \u2063with\u2064 Nazi Germany (the go-to moral equivalence for everybody who knows no other history).<\/p>\n<p>As a result,\u200d Biggar thought that it would be a good idea to set up a course with some colleagues at Oxford University looking\u2064 into the ethics\u200b of empire. Contra his critics, he did not plan to say &#8220;rah-rah the empire,&#8221; but rather to look into how we should think about this part\u2063 of \u200dEuropean history. What were the\u200b positives of colonialism, what were the negatives, and how might we weigh \u2063these two against each other? \u2064Is \u2062it even possible to do so?<\/p>\n<p>Alas, the course did not begin because \u2062the academic who Biggar was \u200cmeant to lead it with (a\u2063 historian) dropped out under\u2062 pressure.\u2062 Meantime hundreds of\u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-upsides-of-empire\/\" title=\"Benefits of Empire\">academics signed multiple petitions condemning<\/a> \u2064the idea of even starting such a course. Biggar was defamed by colleagues, smeared online and off. All of which begged many questions, but one in \u2064particular: If\u2062 you cannot weigh up a complex question of history and ethics at Oxford University, where should it be done? At a lesser university? On Twitter? Not at all?<\/p>\n<p>All of this was clearly a crucible of fire for Biggar himself, who gained a deserved prominence in \u2064the media. As the public were able \u2062to \u2064see for themselves, Biggar is not some fire-breathing neo-colonialist (if such a thing even exists). He is a deeply thoughtful, wise, and \u200ckindly man who is genuinely interested in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-repeats-false-claim-about-ar-15-bullet-velocity-in-call-for-ban\/\" title=\"Biden Repeats False Claim About AR-15 Bullet Velocity In Call For Ban\">good-faith arguments<\/a>, academic inquiry, truth, and the \u200cfree exchange of knowledge and ideas.<\/p>\n<p>Although Biggar himself has been put through a\u200c lot, the reading public are lucky to have the benefit of the\u200b resulting book. Clearly, the\u200c resistance Biggar came up against as well as the willful lying, misleading, and hyperbole of his\u2063 critics spurred him to keep looking \u200bever deeper \u200cinto colonialism. The result\u2062 is not a history of colonialism\u2014though it certainly acts as a primer for that along the way. It is really a book about colonialism in the round. How are we \u200cto think about it today? As he says, this is not a history of the British Empire, \u200bbut &#8220;a moral assessment of it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Biggar starts his book\u200c by laying out the basics. Any analysis of empire (and we are principally talking about the British Empire here, though other empires\u200d across history \u200cinevitably appear along the\u2063 way) must be able to weigh up the good and the bad. Some countries have thrived after the colonialists left (Singapore), others have not (Zimbabwe). The British left India with the \u2062best civil service in the world, one of the greatest transportation\u2064 systems, \u200band much more. How are we to weigh this up against the downsides of British presence?<\/p>\n<p>As Biggar says in his introduction, and as he has found out first-hand, these are\u200b not abstract questions or mere questions \u2064of historical accuracy. They weigh heavily\u2064 on the\u2064 nation&#8217;s image of itself today. As he \u200cwrites, getting this history right matters because it affects &#8220;the\u200b self-perception and self-confidence of the \u200cBritish\u200d today, and the way they conduct themselves in the world tomorrow.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Each of the hottest of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/10-ways-to-save-the-modern-awards-show\/\" title=\"10 Ways To Save The Modern Awards Show\">hot-button issues<\/a> is evaluated in turn. There is the question of\u200c slavery and anti-slavery in the British Empire. \u2062Yes, Britain was involved in the slave trade, as\u200b was most of the rest \u2062of the world\u2063 for most of \u2062recorded history. But from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/prager-the-human-need-to-feel-important-and-how-government-squelches-it\/\" title=\"PRAGER: The Human Need To Feel Important \u2013 And How Government Squelches It\">early 19th century<\/a>, the British Empire was unique not just in abolishing the slave trade in its own territories but in using its naval supremacy to stamp the trade out\u200d across the\u200c high seas at\u200b great\u2063 cost of blood and treasure.<\/p>\n<p>Biggar addresses the issues of human equality, &#8220;cultural superiority,&#8221; and &#8220;racism.&#8221; He looks at the &#8220;Conquest&#8221; of lands\u2063 and settlers on it, at cultural assimilation, and \u200daccusations of &#8220;genocide.&#8221; And \u2063then there are the \u2064issues of free \u200dtrade, investment, and &#8220;exploitation,&#8221; government, legitimacy, and nationalism, and finally the issue of &#8220;justified force and\u200c \u2018pervasive violence.\u2019&#8221; \u2062Finally, in the end, Biggar provides a masterclass in attempting to sum up\u2062 what attitude we might\u2064 have toward all of this and what Britain might think about it all\u200b going into the \u2064future.<\/p>\n<p>As a previous\u2063 reviewer, Niall Ferguson,\u2063 has said, the result is a book that &#8220;simply cannot be ignored by\u2064 anyone \u200bwho wishes to hold a view on the subject.&#8221; \u200bAfter \u2064this \u200dbook, there\u200c will be scholars and pseudo-scholars who\u2063 will try to \u2064continue \u200ctheir &#8220;post-colonial&#8221; studies while\u2062 ignoring \u2064this book, \u2063but their\u200b own pursuits will become increasingly meaningless.<\/p>\n<p>For \u200cthe deep shades of black that colonialism has been painted in during recent years are here shown to be at least as ludicrous as any whitewashing of the crimes of empire that may have gone on in \u2062centuries past (though even this\u200c is shown \u200cto be\u2064 much exaggerated by modern campaigners). For example, \u200cthose demagogues \u2064and\u2064 others who\u2062 insist that the empire was purely a history of\u2064 slavery and \u2063oppression must find some way to\u2064 disappear the simple facts\u200b of how Britain abolished \u2063slavery and against what opposition.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly before his death in 1865, Lord Palmerston (two-time prime minister) said that the achievement of his in office which he looked back on &#8220;with the greatest and\u2062 purest \u200dpleasure was forcing the Brazilians to give up their slave trade.&#8221; It had not been easy. After strong-arming the Brazilians, the British attacked Lagos to try to stamp out their slaving \u200dfacilities. When an attempt was made \u2063to revive the trade, the British annexed Lagos as \u2062a colony.<\/p>\n<p>For of course it is uncomfortable\u2062 to\u200c remember this today, black Africans were among the last people \u2062in the world who wanted to give up \u200cslaving. Millions of black Africans remain in slavery in Africa to this day. It is worth remembering the detail, as Biggar does here. I wonder how many professors of post-colonial studies even know \u2063of the \u2062enormous pressure the \u200cBritish brought to bear \u2062on the Sultanate of\u2062 Zanzibar to stop the \u200dvast Great Lakes slave trade? As Biggar writes, &#8220;Treaties were signed banning trade in slaves to the Americas in 1822 \u200band to the more important Persian Gulf in 1845. In 1873 the sultan gave way\u2063 when Sir Bartle Frere, governor of Bombay \u200cand a resolute opponent of the East African slave trade, threatened a naval blockade unless the export of slaves from the African mainland ceased altogether and the slave market was shut down once and for all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Everywhere\u2064 you look Biggar \u200cprovides a judicious, informed, and fair-minded appraisal, far from\u2063 the madding simplicities of the current age. On the issue of racism in the empire he sums up, &#8220;The \u200dBritish\u2063 Empire did contain some appalling racial prejudice, but not only that. It also contained respect, admiration and genuine, well-informed costly benevolence. \u2063Indeed, from\u200c the opening of the 1800s until its end, the empire&#8217;s policies\u2062 towards slaves and native peoples were driven by the conviction of the basic human equality of the \u2064members of all\u2062 the races. It cannot fairly be said, therefore, that \u2063the empire was centrally, essentially racist.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>These \u2063are thorny issues, and\u200c there has been a\u2063 prevailing wind in\u2064 recent decades in Britain as \u200bacross the \u200brest of\u200b the anglophone world to pretend that these are issues of great simplicity. Specifically, there\u2064 seems to have been\u2064 a movement underway to imply firstly that the\u200c history of empire is solely the story of European empires, that the history of slavery is solely a history \u2062of European and North\u2062 American slavery, and finally that all\u2062 of these added together make \u2063the Western democracies not just as\u2064 bad as anybody else in\u2062 the world but actively worse.<\/p>\n<p>This trick could only be pulled\u200c off by doing \u200dtwo things simultaneously. The first is consistently leaning on and repeating \u2064the \u200cworst aspects of empire. There\u200d is a reason why almost any educated person knows the name of Amritsar. And that is because \u2062of the massacre of hundreds of people by British troops there in \u20631919. An event that Winston Churchill denounced along with his parliamentary colleagues in Westminster\u200b as a &#8220;monstrous \u200dday&#8221; and one of the darkest days in the\u2062 history of\u2063 the\u2062 empire. Of \u2063course, Amritsar\u2063 is known about because it happened in the British Empire\u2014because it was the \u2064exception, not\u2064 the rule. But I wonder how many people who deplore the 1919 massacre even know of \u2063the far larger massacre \u200bat\u200b the same site in 1984 when\u2063 Indira Gandhi sent the army in to \u2062quell similar protests. In other words,\u200d the simplicities of recent years are only \u2062possible by accentuating the worst moments of the British Empire whilst being completely ignorant of the actions\u200c of the rest of the world then, before, or after.<\/p>\n<p>Six months before his death in 2013, Chinua Achebe\u2014most famously the author of <em>Things Fall Apart<\/em>\u2014was asked his opinions on colonialism.\u200b He \u200ctold the Iranian journalist who was interviewing him, &#8220;The legacy of colonialism is not a simple one \u2063but one of great complexity, with contradictions\u2014good things as well as bad.&#8221; Biggar&#8217;s book provides\u2063 precisely this context, packed full of facts, filled with \u200bwisdom and empathy for\u2063 all. It is a book which ought to, and I expect \u200cwill, change the current debate.<\/p>\n<p><em>Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning<\/em><br \/>  by Nigel Biggar<br \/> William Collins, 480 pp., $34.99<\/p>\n<p><em>Douglas Murray is a \u200dsenior fellow at the National Review Institute, a columnist at the <\/em>New York Post<em>, and author most recently of <\/em>The War on the West.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Never provoke a Regius theology professor; a key lesson from this timely book. Nigel Biggar, an Oxford University ethics expert, experienced the iconoclastic wave that marked the past decade. Prior to America&#8217;s iconoclastic movement, Biggar witnessed Oxford&#8217;s peculiar period of upheaval. This remarkable book sheds light on these events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1175,"featured_media":1992286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1992285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1992285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1992286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1992285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1992285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1992285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}