Unfortunately, I think Simon wasn't being clear when he stated that the "British Empire created the slave trade." I'm sure he meant that the British Empire started the Atlantic Slave Trade that led to slavery in the USA. No one who knows history could ever legitimately claim that slavery didn't exist before the British Empire as every major civilization (and some minor ones) engaged in slavery since antiquity.
Portugal and Spain were in on the Atlantic slave trade for there south American colonies before the northern parts of Europe got in on the business. Byt we just stepped ot up in scale and put are managerial know how into the trade to make more profit.
They also don't like talking about how we started the "slave trade". It involved purchasing the slaves from Africans. The reason why no-one really gives a fuck about most of the negatives described in this video, like human suffering, is because it is part and parcel of history and the concept of a human civilisation. Yet people act like it's this demonic evil force that came out of nowhere and subjugated a fair a free society. It's hard to not roll my eyes at it.
to be honest this video's was just simon shitting on the british empire in my opinion, half of what said in the video isn't even true he's a bloody lying revisionist.
Slight correction: we did not abolish slavery in 1807, we abolished the Atlantic Slave Trade - you were still allowed to keep slaves, just not ship them over the Atlantic. Slavery itself was abolished in 1833 in the British Empire as a whole. EDIT: also, slavery within England and Wales was banned since the C12th.
Actually slavery was abolished in the 12th Century in England and Wales, which led to rullings regarding a need for postive law freeing slaves that had been brought to britain.
They ended all slave trading across oceans, not just the Atlantic, because that was all that was possible. Slavery was ended by the British, French and Americans around 1919. The only slave trades that continued after the British and French navies were the slave trade in China and north Africa/the middle East. With the fall of the Ottoman empire, and the collapse of Imperial China, slavery could be ended in the places the British and French could not previously get to as they were not capable of invading deep into the heartlands of continents (although they started to be able to do so in the 1890s with the scramble for Africa). The credit for ending the Chinese slave trade could go the Chinese Communist Party although in effect they just nationalised slave labour by giving themselves the monopoly on slave labour, such as with the slavery of the Uighers in Xinjiang concentration camps today.
19:23 "... it (British Empire) essentially started the slave trade." Within the British Empire, yes. However, to the shame of humanity across the globe, capture and trade in slaves LONG preceded the British Empire: eg δοῦλοι , δοῦλαι in Ancient Greece, servī in Roman Empire, þrælar of the Vikings ... and let's not forget the Bible: Exodus 21:20-21 Leviticus 25:44-46 Ephesians 6:5-8 Colossians 3:22-24, 1 Timothy 6:1-2, Titus 2:9-10
@@nedkelly4825 Islamic slave trade continues to this day but we aren't allowed to say anything bad about Muslims and my comment will probably be shadow banned by UA-cam for saying it.
@Present Tense "The slave trade" (also referred to as the "Atlantic slave trade", or "transatlantic slave trade", or the "Euro-American slave trade") in the context of European Colonialism, refers to the transatlantic trading patterns which were established as early as the mid-17th century. The British triangular trade in slaves, in which trading ships would sail from Europe with manufactured goods to the west coast of Africa to be traded for slaves, the ship would then transport the slaves to the Americas or the Caribbean, before returning home with cargoes of sugar, rum, tobacco and other 'luxury' items, is the "The slave trade" in question here. It is this Slave Trade that the British Empire controlled and "essentially started", which is being discussed; It is not about the slaves in Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire or the Bible (which were made up of predominately captured enemies) but the activity of exchanging goods for human beings and then buying, selling these people as chattels in a triangular trade route.
@@mccombe25 people like you forget that the ruling British exploited and abused their own people long before and during the empire. our ancestors pain and suffering was the motivation for the empire
Slavery is wrong and no one could defend its practice, but the British did not start it. Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, etc all used slaves. Slavery has been practised by humans since the dawn of civilisation and perhaps before that. I will say that no nation can claim to be paragons of justice when it comes to history. We must research, debate, and learn from history so we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.
There are countries in Africa who in recent years have formally apologized for the substantial role they played in the slave trade. Somehow, this is always forgotten when people talk about slavery.
Chattle Slavery, as practiced by the European empires in the age of exploration was substantially different than most historical forms of slavery, vastly wide spread, and still has measurable and direct impacts on people and communities still living today in multiple countries.
"the cool kids are doing it too" doesn't excuse the act of slavery. Just fucking own it. Let it marinade into acceptance, and do better for the future.
What gets to me about the British Empire (Im British by the way) is that every major city from Glasgow to London were riddled with poverty. The biggest Empire huge and wealthy while it's people suffered
Ever been to the US? The wealthiest country ever and the levels of poverty across the US is shocking. You might not see it in Times Square, but you wouldn't have to go far.
All empires were like that. Look at the two remaining true empires , russias failing brutal one and the chinese ( tibet enslaved) one that is right now exterminating yughers.
Sorry to be that guy, but the lost colony of Roanoke was in North Carolina, not South Carolina. Trust me, North Carolinians are way too proud of that fact (it is taught in 4th and 8th grade).
Why do you keep saying the British started the slave trade? You need to do a little more research on that subject sir. I know you are very well versed in a lot of things, but you are completely wrong on that topic. The British did nothing more but step in and take advantage of a preexisting slave trade. They did not start it. I'm not British so I'm not trying to make excuses for anyone, I'm just pointing out the facts.
This is true, slavery predates Britain existance, romans did it, carthagenians did it, babylonians did it, hell on the oldest law code the Hamurabi code there is punishments for killing another person slave
Enjoy these presentations immensely. FYI- The Roanoke Colony was in present day North Carolina, not South Carolina. Back then, then the whole area was known as Virginia. It was not until much later when Charles I partitioned the Virginia territory and named the new divisions after himself that the Carolinas came into existence. Earlier in 1624, King James revoked Virginia’s private charter and declared it a Royal Colony, the first official such designation in what was to become the British Empire. Also, Virginia remained loyal to the crown after the Regicide of Charles I,. When Charles II took the throne after the Cromwell’s Protectorate collapsed, Charles II declared Virginia the “Old Dominion,” a nickname which survives today.
Spaniards first pass by Virigina, not the genocidal Brits. See also the video "Spanish Discovery of Hawaii 1555." Jamey Cooked is overrated. Brits are overrated. The British Empire wasn't the biggest. Stay tuned for my video proving it.
@BB49 YOu can ask the brown people in Perú who exist because the Spanish weren't genocidal, and those people are indoctrinated to be anti-Spanish, so you'll get the wrong answer from their mouths, but the right answer from their existence.
@@scintillam_dei Ask the so-called indigenous “Brown People” in Mexico or Peru today of their opinions on how Cortez, Pizzaro or the other Spanish Conquistadores really treated their conquered & subjugated peoples (Their ancestors) in most, if not all their Latin-American colonies?!! It might totally be an eyes, ears, & wholly mind-opening experience for you!!
@@trevorfuller1078 You're talking to a Central Amercian. Most people are taught to hate Spain from youth. They're ingorant and gullible, just like you. Most Native Americans in América don't even know their identity. Their ignorant opinions don't change a thing except to show the injustice of anti-Spanish lies.
I don't think they can take credit for ending slavery in their own territory either. It's not an accident that both Acts of Parliament limiting or abolishing slavery (1807 & 1833) almost immediately followed large influxes of anti-slavery Irish MPs in the elections immediately following the 1800 act of union forced on Ireland and the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act. The change in voting between earlier failed efforts to abolish slavery in the late 1700s almost exactly aligns with the addition of Irish MPs.
@@cros13 The addition of Irish MPs... and where were they added? That's right, to Britain. Thus, Britain abolished slavery. Let's not forget the huge role played by the RN!
Keep in mind that he doesn't say slavery, slavery had already been prominent in Europe if you go back to antiquity and it was still widespread throughout the world. He specifically says the slave trade, referring to the Atlantic Slave Trade. He would also be wrong on this account since the Portuguese and Spanish had already been trading in slaves previously. However, neither country would be able to match Great Britian in absolute numbers, it wouldn't have gotten as far as it did without British (or French) participation and it is largely responsible for creating the racial divide in the US (Not continuing it). As a small aside, I'm not trying to say that what other european countries wasn't bad, you're either in the slave trade and colonialism or you're not and what others did is just as morally wrong even if they weren't as good at doing it. You can even go farther and look at other european countries who would have done it if they could. The Danes, Sweedes, Austrians and Poles also tried to have colonies of their own at one point or another.
@@luislealsantos yeah, there are many hell holes as well where civilization didn’t stick due to the locals wanting to live in the dark ages. Look at the mess we Americans have left in Afghanistan. I cry watching the hoards of people trying to flee the cavemen.
I think at least a shout out to IP law could be one discreetly major thing that the British Empire spread across the globe. It was a huge component in tying together the last major incentives and protections in law that made the industrial revolution possible.
@@rogersmith9535 . They suggested it was a positive, but we didn't spread it to China, the world's biggest manufacturing country, did we? No international IP laws in China today, which is why Taiwan does much of the top tech, as they've signed up to all major treaties. Did our empire take IP treaties to Taiwan? Nope.
@@davidpalk5010 You say "decades of exploitation". India's GDP grew while the British were there. You underestimate the benefits from British trade and investment and from industrialisation of India's economy. Under the British an increase in Indian population also occurred with an increase of GDP per capita. And "between 1860 and 1940 employment in factories increased from less than 100,000 to two million. The share of factories in industrial employment of British India increased from almost zero in 1850 to 11% in 1938, and in industrial income from 15% in 1900 to 45% in 1947...The growth is impressive by any standard". Source: Tirthankar Roy.
I don't have that. Nothing in my feed tells me I've seen a video. For what its worth, I've never needed anything to tell me I've seen one. Thumb nails are great for recollection.
@@ryateo1 I watch thousands of videos and could never remember all of the thumbnails. UA-cam will only put a red line under the last 2000..a lot of times I’ve started watching a video only to realize 5 mins in I’ve seen it before
A point to remember when talking about claiming lands like Australia is: The policy of Terra Nullus was established by the Pope when the Spanish and Portuguese were busy claiming lands in the Americas back in the 16th century and was a major part of claiming the lands in North America. This policy was also very strongly supported by the US and Canadian governments with their expansion across North America as well as being a core aspect of the US Government policies behind the settling of the the lands west of the original colonies.
@@grahamross6397 Not to mention that the first European who "Discovered" Australia was the Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon which makes Britain's claim to Australia even thinner (if that is possible when the aboriginals had lived there for 60 000 years). But might makes right and the nation with the worlds largest Navy kinda did like they wanted back then, just like Spain did in the early 1500s.
Australia was a managed land , the natives had practiced burning the land since they arrived and they had structures just not in the Eurocentric view of civilisation
Makes me wonder if id be an American or even if id be alive as the same person if, after the USA divorced GB, the US govt hadnt expanded west and just stayed the original 13 colonies
@@angryatheist managed the land is an interesting way of putting it. There was an extinction event when they settled Australia, like everytime humanity found a new place to call home. Humans are the most ridiculously over and powered animal this planet has ever produced and this shows in the fossil record.
That's because the fellow, entertaining as he is, is one of our modern Liberal Quislings, who loathes his own history, extolling only the bad, observed, of course, only through the lens of C21st morality.
The British weren’t the first to start the slave trade, slavery has existed since the beginning of man kind. Many civilisations such as the Greeks, Egyptians and Persians exploited slavery. I suggest you look into the Arab slave trade as it often gets overlooked compared to the Atlantic slave trade which gets far more attention.
I think the Portuguese were the first to be shipping from Africa. Maybe we was the first to do it on an industrial scale, as we'd just invented industry.
@@funster73mcr2 There was more shipped to Brazil. It's just America is the world's most powerful country and emphasising carefully chosen narratives works in favour of competing interests.
We Portuguese have a heavy guilt in slavery, that is for certain. But slavery is way older than the country. Before Portugal being a naval power, the peoples from north Africa raided the Portuguese coasts, mainly Algarve (in the south) and took the villagers to slavery. I would say that slavery was a common concept at the time, just as was war. Slavery was a profitable trade, it was not an act of evil at the time. Awful and a crime to our modern eyes, for sure.
@@sentientflower7891 Sure, but that was irrelevant for many, such as the Moors that enslaved the Portuguese or later some greedy Portuguese nobles and merchants. At the time there were champions against slavery, such as a humanist Jesuit that is one of our 'national heroes'. This greedy mentality that drove empires is not so different nowadays. People accept that climate changes is a consequence of our behaviour. Do most of the big companies really care? I don't see that. They just pay (or make us pay) a 'climate tax' and clean their hands. Immediate profit cannot be stopped, even if it seriously damages future generations. That is not properly a Christian idea, in my opinion. Not to disagree with you, it is just to say that this is the way humanity has been.
@@a.ferreira9787 the ultimate climate change tax is the extinction of the human species. That bill is coming due. Soon. Jesus Christ isn't returning. Ever.
"The bad and the ugly, oh and something about infrastructure". All the points are basically true, but this is such an amazing oversimplification. Empires are always complex. They generally combine extreme brutality with huge advances in technology and society. The British Empire effectively kick-started the modern world, for better and worse, and its cultural influence alone is a huge part of modern "western" thought. Also some key points I would have included: the effect of the Napoleonic wars on basically clearing out the seas for Britain to ramp up colonialism, the immense shift that the end of slavery created in Europe and America, and the overwhelming importance of the industrial revolution.
When we talk about the industrial and scientific revolutions, we should remember where the monies came from to back these advances, and the answer is more or less from the plundering of India by the EIC and also from the slave trade. In the early 18th century before the British company began gaining political power India was one of the two largest economies in the world, rivalled only by China. If I remember right, India's economy was larger than that of all European nations put together. In 1765, Britain gained the right to collect taxes in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, replacing the Mughal authorities. Before that date, 85% of the EIC's exports to India was bullion to pay for the goods imported back to Britain. After 1765, part of the tax revenues were used to pay for those goods (effectively making Indians pay for their own manufactures to make profits for Britons in Europe). Over the course of the empire until 1947 Britain impoverished India.
Magaprojects: Britain started the slave trade. Portugal: Am I a joke to you? A quick Wikipedia search says that Portugal started buying African slaves in 1444, and started sending them to Brazil in 1526. This doesn't excuse the British, just stating facts.
Let's not forget the Romans, Barbary Pirates or pretty much any large empire that needed cheap labour from it conquered enemies. Not an excuse for it yet not 100% the only slavers ever.
@@DarkZodiacZZ Mostly from the Mali empire, which Portugal already had trade relations with. Mali was the hub of west African slavery, and had been for centuries. But the Transatlantic slave trade was particularly brutal, even by the standards of ancient times. The conditions for the crossing, combined with the treatment of the slaves (especially in sugar plantations) is on a level never seen before.
It's also not Great Britain's first overseas colony. That would be St John's Newfoundland, granted Royal Charter in 1583 after being a fishing outpost since 1497
@@Uncommoner However it was only seasonal and not permanent until 1610, 3 years after Jamestown was settled as the first PERMANENT English settlement in the new world.
My biggest issue with this video is the phrasing of “British created slavery.” Or basically blaming “slavery” on the British. Shouldn’t be this sloppy with your wording. Saying “British Empire along with the Spanish Empire helped create the African transatlantic slave trade” would be better. Slavery existed long before the British Empire and still persists today. Hell it was also beneficial to those Africans who sold other Africans into slavery. This issue is much more complicated than most people pretend it is.
Sums up my argument perfectly, we were involved in the Slave Trade, but WE also stopped it ... on the 'balance sheet' of History, i think that it will show that finally abolishing Slavery is/was more important than being involved in it ... WE even provided reparations to Slave Owners to emancipate slaves, setting them free ... in 1832's money, it was £20 MILLION - in todays money, conservative estimates equate that £20 MILLION to anywhere between £10-20 BILLION - WE only FINISHED paying off that loan in 2014
Simon seems like the sort of smug bastard that is quite happy to live the life he does, where he does, with all the benefits of education, security, etc that come with that, whilst decrying the efforts that got us here. If he wants to feel sorry about anyone, it should be for the forgotten millions at home in Britain who toiled for centuries in poverty, to create the wherewithal that enabled the Empire to be established in the first place, but that never seems to worry such smug lefty gits. Question ?? Why do this kind of person always have beards ?? Seems to be a common trait amongst oppressors.
@@harrypotter4309 ... if it wasn't for Empire generating wealth, there would be no 'Services' to speak of, as on the whole 'Libtards' work in the Service Industries, so not generating wealth themselves, this is after they get their Media Studies degrees at Uni ... 🤣🤣🤣
@@brianhodgson9547 Absolutely spot on. I usually have a go at the universities (ever more left leaning since the 1920's) but I ran out of steam. Totally agree regarding their taking up of non jobs as I like to call them, and the media studies bit is so true. I was a witness to this nonsense grabbing hold in the education system in the early seventies, that and "liberal studies" which usually had in charge someone who was half our age, and knew nothing of the world except the information they had been indoctrinated with . We had much fun pulling them and their assertions apart. But it was difficult not to get angry with their smugness sometimes !! Happy Days !!
"Apparently here at Mega Projects, we like throwing hand grenades into the comments section." BEST LINE ON THE VIDEO. Had me laughing for a good minute. Thanks for making me spray my table with coffee.
Yep. An Empire that made such an impact through murder and rape that they changed the actual carbon foot print of the the human race as it was then (millions killed in such a short period, as in a few years that the amount of wood/fuels at the time burned reduced drammaticly, and 1 in 200 men in the human race share DNA direct to the Khans!).
What, you think that the Mongols were unique in their atrocities. Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands were all able to shovel their problems under the rug. Winners write the history books, especially when most of those books were written after World War 1, mostly by the aforementioned powers. The most recent example of great atrocities is the infamous Mao Zedong, who from 1949 to 1979 (30 years) may have had 50-75 million killed through his actions. Even Genghis Khan did not do that, we do not know how many people Genghis killed, all is heresy written by others.
@@roisinmalone3015 he’s not saying the British didn’t commit similar atrocities. He’s just saying he would like to see a video of Simon trying to smile through talking about it. Bring up another video idea isn’t shoving this under the rug
19:23 "...essentially started the slave trade." That's horseshit, Simon. The slave trade - or at least slavery - in Africa has been going on for *thousands* of years, and it was the Portuguese who first landed on African shores to *buy* slave from local slave traders. Additionally, slavery only became associated with ethnicity during the slave trade to America; slave traders in Africa (particularly the Barbary pirates) would capture people of any ethnicity, including whites - but no one likes to talk about that. For more on White Slavery, start here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_slavery
Its because Simon is your typical British left wing millennial, only giving you the information that fits there narrative about how evil their country was.
@@MrWansty First off, slavery was something that has been accepted in many different cultures, so long as it wasn't applied to the in-group Second- ok... So the Arabs were doing it. Does that make it OK? Whom would you like enslaved today to make up for it? Third, white slavery was and is terrible- the numbers simply skew heavily toward African chattel slavery. And that's kinda the point. Nobody is saying it didn't happen, but you SEEM to be saying that the short period of Barbary pirates taking slaves from Spain, England and france should be taught entirely instead of the millions of Africans over hundreds of years who were brutally abducted and made into property. Growing up in America, we did learn that one of the early years of our navy was slapping some sense into the Barbary pirates and securing treaties with the north africans to stop it. So- 4a- we stopped that pretty early 4b- people actually do get taught about it 4c- you're welcome 4d- funny how even then, we got pissed over white people being enslaved but not black people 4e- maybe thats why people like you are laughed and heckled in public.
Prince Andrew, Jeffrey Epstein, Leslie Wexner, Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Charles, Johnny Savile, British Foreign Office Of The Crown, Mossad, CIA, Stephen Hawking also abusing children on one of Jeffrey Epstein's child abuse islands I believe per unsealed records in pre trail hearings of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein would fly out of Royal Airforce Bases, native residential schools in Canada, Lord Mountbatten...and it goes on and on and on.
The amount of power the ussr was able to exert over its people to enact the 13 different 5 year plans was astonishing, we would love to hear the other 12
It's actually pretty simple: Every Soviet Citizen was given a stipend of vodka. Even when bread lines extended for miles and toilet paper was as rare as gold-pressed latinum, the USSR managed to keep the vodka flowing as if the supply was inexhaustible. THAT is a megaproject if evvrr thhrr wwss 1! 🥃🥴👌
@@noworriesnoproblems6382 American Empire beat your British Empire, heck, the US doesn't even call it an empire. Get rekt mate, the metropole of the previous empire is now their bish. Britannia rules the its part of the waves for the US.
@@noworriesnoproblems6382 Can I write it again do its readable? I'll take it you said Britain is the best at taking in immigrants as is your responsible.
Simon's point about the French not supporting the second Iraq war is well met. I was one of the people who went along with the propaganda and fervor that lead us into that war, and derided the French for their opposition. Now I realize they were right, and I was wrong. Another reason to reject the idea of America as the World Police.
Better the USA than China. I won't even mention Russia,pretenders to top spot as they are, a nation with the 5th largest economy in Europe and even a smaller economy than Texas.
@@angloirishcad well if anything it shouldn't be the nation who is the biggest exporter of weapons and has the most nuclear powered arms than any other nation in the world
good on you for admitting that. However I was deeply skeptical at the time though. Despite repeated claims of WMD nothing was actually shown on TV or anywhere else for that matter. I still believe that the US had to be seen to do something after 9/11 and we were obliged to go along with them, it's as simple as that. Saddam Hussein was no real threat to us and weapons inspector Dr David Kelly was silenced before he could talk.
The worst thing you can do with history is to take the wrong lessons from it. Today many liberals are seeking revenge against the British empire by being...racist to Whites...
A few things you did not mention, and perhaps should have done: The actual enslavement in Africa was mostly by one African tribe enslaving another and selling the slaves to traders from other countries; The slave trade in Britain was private enterprise and not state enterprise; After we changed our mind about slavery, we actively set about ending the global slave trade. The Royal Navy was ordered to intercept slave ships of other nations and turn them back to Africa. In this, the Navy returned about 150,000 Africans to Africa. Wikipedia has a good article on the topic.
I'm not entirely sure that this is entirely honest. Parts of this feel as though he's just saying what will get the approval of UA-cam. I'm gonna spend the next hour or two reading.
The British Empire evil, oh, compared to what, compared to which other empires. Ridding the Indian sub continent of it’s actually evil empire? Ffs get real.
As a Brit I don’t find it hard to see the past of my ancestors because it’s the past and it was very different times. All we can do is use the past as a lesson and not make the same mistakes ago
Yep. The Bible is very clear, that we are not held accountable, responsible, or guilty for the sins of our ancestors. Anyone who believes in god believes in this.
@@robfer5370 Isn't one of the central ideas of Christianity that EVERYONE is held accountable/ responsible for a fruit-related transgression of an ancestor in the Garden of Eden?
Not one mention of Canada, taken by conquest from France and the largest colony by far in its day. Having lost what was then called British North America, perhaps Louis XIV said it best: "It was just a few acres of snow." 🙂
.. Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Holy Spirit Can give you peace guidance and purpose and the Lord will John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus
It was Voltaire said of Canada " it was just a few acres of snow" and Louis XIV died long before the Treaty of Paris gave New France to Britain. You really need to get your history straight. Although not mentioning Canada is a true oversight.
We here in Ireland would like to thank the British empire for their input into civilising us. Only for them we probably wouldn't speak English as our first language, millions would not have died in a famine or spread to all parts of the world to escape it, they partitioned our country that lead to civil War and years of troubles.. I could go on.. Thanks again.
I find it an interesting comment on nature of bureaucracy is that, as the empire disintegrated post WWII, the Colonial Office was expanding at a ridiculous rate.
there is no "we" however unless you're attributing generational, blood based collective responsibility. If people are collectively responsible for slavery, they are also collectively responsible for the modern world and all its luxuries. So, are you sure "we" want to go down this road?
The english definitely didnt "start" the slave trade... Slavery has been around as long as people have been around to do it. They didnt end it either slavery is still going on today.
'The slave trade' is not the same as 'trading in slaves'. The slave trade, in this context, is the term used to decribe the atlantic slave triangle. I think he is aware slavery existed before an after the british empire.
@@allytg1 It really suits the narrative of certain countries to label the Atlantic slave trade as "the slave trade". The reality is that the slave network developed by Muslims that developed into the Barbary Pirates was the largest network of slaves ever seen. Americans just love attention too much.
@@SharpeBalth I mean if its amaericans talking about slavery then its not that weird for them to call it 'the slave trade'. Simularly to how they call it the civil war. There were other civil wars but when talking about their own they don't need to specify.
Thank you for this excellent swift survey of the British Empire. I noticed you did not mention New Zealand (Aotearoa) which was last to be colonized by the British. It was conceived as the Britain of the South Pacific. Here, there was a treaty between the local Maori tribes (iwi) and no wholesale slaughter or famine, but there were the Land Wars of the 1860s. Reparations are still being made by the government to iwi to this day.
Well NZ was first colonised by New South Wales, as a sub-colony of it, then later NZ was transferred to Britain as a colony after NSW had sorted out the treaty, or most of it to be fair.
There was no wholesale slaughter and famine in any places of the empire. They would only go to war if provoked or to destroy evil like the enslaving ashanti etc.
@@dominicomucci3014people just like to blame us brits because it's easier than accountability. The reasons we did things are never brought up, neither is the fact the entire world as it stands now was shaped by us.
@@seanlander9321 legally transferred to those who ran the who shebang. Sounds like an Australian mad they got bit on the ass by a spider today while taking a shit.
“The bow and arrow was once the pinnacle of weapons technology. It allowed the great Ghengis Khan to rule from the Pacific, to Ukraine. An empire twice the size of Alexander the Great’s. And four times the size of the Roman Empire.” - Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar
The great Genghis Khan.? The man was a murderer and rapist on an unimaginable scale. He should be spoken in the same breath as Hitler in my book. But that's just my view.
so i remember my dad telling me when i was young about how the British and their advancements developed our country and cursed it at the same time,he told me about how the empire handed power/backed a certain tribe and till this day that tribe continues to rule our country one way or another.
Too many people today don't understand that anyone can be, and every country has at one time or another been both remarkably good, and unimaginably bad. Everything has to be absolute nowadays, there's no room for disagreement and discussion, and that is insanity, and it's dangerous.
Yeah, but slavery was far worse to their own people in each country that had factories. Those conditions now have been civilized, so no one really suffers any of this.
The thing is, that if you actually have a conscience, and try to better yourself, which western societies in general do, unlike less developed societies, you will be called out, for exposing yourself. Even though other countries and cultures have done the exact same thing, sometimes much worse, they are not called out for it, and they are sure as hell not going to admit to ANYTHING. And that is essentially, why they are not able to better themselves and create better societies for their people. if their inferior minds, you are exposing yourself. In a western context it's sometimes good to sometimes admit mistakes, so that there is a chance for you to better yourself.
I agree black African tribesmen were selling rival tribesmen taken battle and raids to Dutch merchants long before Britain got involved but that gets ignored cos we apologize and the Dutch don't.
The British STOPPED it, but unfortunately many people of colour still indulge in it. Anyway the British were victims of slavery for many hundreds of years before Africans.
Up until the British abolition of slavery, slavery has been practiced on every continent, by virtually all people. In no way, shape or form is it a "British" thing.
The Portuguese started the trans-Atlantic triangle slave trade, then the Spanish, then the Dutch, then the English and the French later. As for all the slaughter, bondage and slavery (initially) in the British Empire (and it wasn't British until 1707), it's like what John Cleese's character said in the Life of Brian; "what did the Romans do for us?"
The slave trade itself was started by the muslim arabs in the 7th century after they *Invaded* *Occupied* *Colonized* North Africa , they converted the berbers and then the Othoman Turks came , all these 3 muslim groups established History's *Largest* and *Longest* slavetrade (7th to 20th century) , they enslaved millions of Black africans and millions of Europeans (they raided european coasts and ships) .... when Europe finaly broke out of the islamic siege in the 16th century they became Clients of the islamic SlaveTrade ,they bought slaves from the muslims , even many Pagan African tribes became SlaveTraders and raided neighboring tribes to sell them to both muslims and europeans
@@anoopkl4u Yes! The same as the the Mogul empire in India (and those before it), Egyptians, Chin Dynasty, Islamic states (espescially in Afirca where it was bigger and lasted longer than the Atlantic slave trade) etc... Infact every civilisation ever........ they also excelled at it.
One thing you can hand to the Brits is their willingness to openly discuss the evils committed in the name of empire. Would that other countries could do the same... looking at you, Japan.
I'm not sure if that's entirely true. There are some examples of the British starting to face up to their past but it's slow and patchy. There is no formal mention in school curriculums and the current government is trying to ban the national trusts from mentioning links to slavery attached to historic buildings. The conversations are just starting but not in full swing.
@@twofortyrida It's not a matter of payment. It's a matter of recognizing that their grandfathers and great-grandfathers committed some unspeakable crimes. Japan does not recognize historical events such as the rape of Nanking, medical and chemical experimentation conducted on Chinese citizens, the plight of Korean and Dutch comfort women. Young Japanese grow up believing that their country was an innocent victim of World War II which culminated in unprovoked atomic attacks.
Strangely it seems that only people from the carolinas actually care whether it was in north or south carolina. the rest of the states could care less.
11:08: the army of 250,000 men was a very late development in the East India Company's history. Until the wars with the French in the mid-18th century, they usually made do with small security forces at their fortified trading posts, but then they gradually expanded, exceeding 70,000 by the end of the century
@@Ravi9A Ultimately, yes. Robert Clive originally worked for the East India Company as a junior administrator/clerk. Then in 1746 the French captured the trading post of Fort St. George where he worked. After a few weeks he managed to lead an escape and soon turned out to have a fine military mind. However, even after he sneakily defeated the Nawab of Bengal over a decade later, the policy was to instal a more "sympathetic" Nawab rather than rule Bengal directly. That took years more.
@@Ravi9A Some do, but I don't think Robert Clive would have at the time. They were simply solving a business problem, with the help of some of the Bengalis with whom they traded and who were also affected by the same problem. Apart from the name of the Nawab, and the very generous awards to Clive personally and the Company in general, not much changed until 1764 (and even that was still just in Bengal).
Speaking of megaprojects, could you perhaps do a video on the eventual abolishment of slavery throughout the world? It would be interesting to see the inception of the abolitionism movement, the slow implementation of laws prohibiting the African slave trade, and how different countries reacted to these laws at the time. Love the videos, keep it up?
You understand slavery STILL exists, right? Slavery is very popular in the Far East, the Middle East, and wait for it………. Africa. The idea that slavery was abolished is true if you are referring to the western world.
Surely the Spanish began the Transatlantic slave trade moving slaves from Ceuta to the Caribbean replacing the poor Taino across the Atlantic Ocean. In a crossing motion. In a Transatlantic kind of way? Not condoning Slavery, slavery is 'orrible but Britain was relative late comers to the party. We just did it an absolute shit load over a relatively short period. We were also the first major player to stop it and then started enforcing everyone else to submit to ship searches to make sure everyone else stopped it also.
An over simplification, the British empire was one of the primary and initiating proponents of the Atlantic slave trade though, that specific one. People do tend to think of this specific one when they hear the phrase ‘slave trade’, because it was probably the worst slaves were treated in history if only because there were so many people being treated like utter shit. In the ancient world there would of course have been slaves treated worse I imagine, but not on such a massive scale.
@@gk4539 that's a very huge overestimation. And no, the US is not so great that it counterweights it's past and current misdeeds. It's very good at redirecting people's blame tho.
Love the channels and long time fan but I noticed a mistake in this video, the first colony wasn't in south carolina, it was in north carolina. I grew up on roanoke island and worked backstage with my father running the concessions for the actors and actresses of the Lost Colony outdoor reenactments. Honest mistake but yea, roanoke island north carolina is where sir walter raleigh set down the first colony where the first baby colonist to be born into the new world virginia dare. Love your shows though brotherman, keep up the good work and take care
@@Purgar316 Yeah, slaves were captured and relocated since ancient times. Even if you were talking about the specific trade of slaves from africa to north america, Portugal was the first.
Hi Simon!! You must take to task the writer of this program! I live in the American colonies, North Carolina! The Roanoke colony was located on an island among the NC Outer Banks and NOT South Carolina!! Roanoke was not too far from Virginia but too far for the ship's captain with a storm coming. So he dumped the colonists on this uninhabited island off North Carolina . Love your videos! And you are a cutie!
The square mile isn't a part of Britain. It is a separate sovereign state run by the Bank of England. Similar to the State of Colombia, Washington DC and the Vatican in Rome.
Please please please do a video (showing my age lol) on the Mongolian Empire. I am a disabled man who when not creating art likes to spends his time educating himself and you are the most educational channel on youtube (i watch your other channels too) Keep up the great work :D
And looking at the comments on this video no matter how much you feel bad people will still see you as a cartoonish villain. They will claim that all British people touch themselves constantly thinking of imperialism. Then when you say you are sorry for things long dead people possibly not even related to you did, they will demand more and more while still demonising you. Screw them.
‘The British started the slave trade’. Where are you getting your “facts” from? 😂😂 the Portuguese started what we call “the slave trade” and we finished it. But let’s not forget, the concept of slavery has literally been around since the dawn of civilisation and every single person alive today, has benefited from it.
If your referring to the Atlantic slave trade probably right. But the Arabs and other Muslim countries were trading in sub Saharan African slaves long before the Atlantic slave trade and they continued it into the 20th century.
@@T30-z5w It's kind of a no brainer that the British Empire invented it's own slave trade between its colonies. I mean who else was going to do it? Germany? France? Egypt?
@@Snagprophet Nothing is ever a no-brainer. There’s always more to the story. The Atlantic slave trade of which several European countries (England, Portugal and Spain come to mind) participated in was indeed intense for a specific period of time. But it dwarfed the East African slave trade in sheer numbers. Trade to Muslim countries began much earlier and lasted much longer. If it hadn’t been for England’s ability to project force on the high seas against the slave trade after 1807 the Atlantic slave trade would have continued on for much longer. So yes, not a no brainer but a complicated history as always.
In spite of the black effects you mentioned, you did not speak to one of the most recognizable effects of the British Empire: the establishment of the English language as the dominant language in the world today. And many of the former areas of the empire still rely on the precepts of English Common Law to guide their judicial systems.
I believe thats a quite literal thing too. Apparently if a crime or some random arse scenario ends up in a court, if the courts have no precident or clue on how to manage it, they'll look to see if Britain has dealt with the issue. If British courts have ruled on that paticular strange scenario then the courts overseeing the case will follow that set precident. Its pretty interesting how the court systems are so interlinked and how a court can literally change the law by ruling differently, law set by precident is a quirk not many acknowledge or appreciate.
Gary .i very much do agree on this point. And here's I think is a simple example .....When you look at the Nuremberg trials .Im sure it followed english common law .Even those vile creatures had the right to face their accusers and give their side of the story .If starlin had his way he would have simply taken them out and have them shot NO trial .
You should have contextualised the slave trade segment. Britain did play a role, but it neither created the slave trade, neither was it the first to take slaves across the atlantic. All major powers of the time were invested in the slave trade, and the trade was done with the full participation of the African states that benefitted greatly from it. I have no issue with confronting dark points of our past. The issue I have is when it is not put in a wider context of the time. Slave trading British were no better or worse than the states and cultures that existed at the time or came before.
The biggest problem for the history of the British Empire, are the self flagelating Britons who for some reason get a big kick from blaming themselves and the rest of the British (English) people of this century!
It was one of the last European powers to take slaves across the Atlantic. Whilst it wasn't unique in being involved it was unique in the resources and efforts it expended to abolish slavery, globally. Half the world stopped slaving because of the British empire. They didn't stop anti slaving patrols off East Africa till the 1970's.
Touchy subject, much like the British Empire, but you should cover the tobacco lords that made Glasgow so rich. As you say, as touchy as it might be, not talking about history doesn't get us very far. Also, more 5 year plans fact boi!
Not talking about history is better then talking about it inaccurately like Simon. Roanoke, in north Carolina? Simons an idiot, it doesn't take a history expert to know it's in Virginia....his stuff is always wrong in several places...it's embarrassing how often he's wrong
@@froggystyle642 fair point, my thought was like the man records 10 videos a week, that's like getting 1/10 facts on your homework wrong, right? Though I guess I should be calling on Danny or the editor, I'm guessing I'm the one pedantic person who fact checks everything I can. ^_^
@@jamesmeppler6375 nothing wrong with fact checking at all, I see these videos as a way to get a rough idea on things, and often I'll go look up the subject!
I'd love to see the Mongolian empire as a topic. Its one of those historical events that is so significant, so notable, but don't know so much about... speaking personally of course.
@@stephenj4937 And they *still* weren’t the first to do that; Spain and Portugal had been buying and exporting slaves from Africa for a century before English merchants got involved.
Did you really say the British Empire started the slave trade at 19:24? The slave trade was well established literally thousands of years before the British Empire in the first civilisations even before the Roman Empire which had a huge prominent slave trade.
Surely the most poignant aspect of the British Empire’s involvement in the slave trade was the abolishment of slavery and then the enforcement of this ban around the globe at the cost of much blood and treasure.
So you’d like the british empire to be better recognised for solving the problem they helped create and profited from? Fair: thank you, Britain, for stopping the thing you massively contributed to industrialising and profited from. It was nice of you to compensate your slave owning subjects to make sure it ends. Pity about the slaves, who were simply told they were now free and then were left with no choice but to largely continue to do what they were doing before to survive, but the MAIN thing here is the huge sacrifices Britain made to end slavery. Britain are the true heroes and victims here. The centre of the story. Thank you so much for bringing this up. Someone simply HAD to speak up for the British Empire.
As a British MP of Nigerian descent noted recently in parliament the largest statue in Nigeria is of a Queen of an African empire who made a fortune from trading in slaves, in competition with the slave traders from North Africa (the US marines sing about the shores of Tripoli because they went there as part of a punitive expedition to discourage the Barbary Pirates from enslaving the crews of US ships). The British did not invent the slave trade, they exploited an existing trade at the time and a trade that still exists today with greater numbers of affected people than ever before. It was, and remains, an abomination but the danger in characterising it as a 'British Empire thing' the assumption will be it is over. Slavery is, was and probably will be disgusting, but the British did not 'invent it' they exploited it (no more morally justified but it helps to get your facts right when forming an opinion). If you dig a little deeper it was more a 'Norman' empire than a British one, the Normans and their kin folk have had a major impact on history, from making Britain the class ridden society it became (thereby facilitating many of the excesses of the British Empire), to protecting the Ottoman sultans and subtly colonising places mostly around the Mediterranean. It is dangerous to start trying to group people by arbitrary features (skin colour, nationality, what scale their model railway is in etc.) the problem is they are all people, prone to delusional paranoia, riddled with insecurities, clever at some things (putting a satellite in orbit around a far flung asteroid is damned clever) absolute rubbish at other (religion being one of the worst). A more fruitful approach, if understanding is the goal, would be 'comparative empires', comparing and contrasting the features of various examples (with reference to the work of psychologists, in particular those researching conformity and obedience such as Asch, Maslow, et. seq.), however if 'clicks' are the goal then carry on making vague references lacking the essential context that serve to reinforce people's prejudices. Culture is just the way humans seek to organise to confront their environment, as the environment changes so the culture must evolve (but humans hate that kind of change). Politics is what we resort to when we don't know, ideology is what we fall back on when we find out but don't like it and dogma is the last bastion of ego-protecting ignorance. Politics at it's best is the art of expediency and diplomacy is the art of obscuring that ugly fact, but politics at its worst is thinly veiled criminality (but hey, humans innit as they say in westminster - Allegedly). Personally I think knowing is a better option, I am less interested in politics than in the results of double-blind, placebo-controlled, peer-reviewed and published experiments that have been replicated, but given human insecurities and the need for self justification (and if possible aggrandisement) the research suggests that would not be a popular position to take (the Seligman Gove Problem, as I choose to call it).
Britain did not start the slave trade,it already existed prior to the british joining in. The Arabs had been trading slaves for centuries and the Spanish and Portuguese were buying slaves from the Arabs long before the British muscled in on the deal.
@@terrancehall9762 The spanish started first, The British started with shipping prisoners from England to the Caribbean for working the plantations but the plantation owners were so beastly to the prisoners and treated them so badly flogging and hanging the prisoners for the slightest infringement that the government of the time decided that if the plantation owners paid for the worker prisoners that they would be treated more fairly and not killed off so fast. But of course the Christian ethics then came into play and you cannot sell a white Christian into slavery so they looked elsewhere and came up with buying black slaves from the Arabs who of course were "heathens" and therefore could be bought and sold with a clear Christian conscience.
As a Brit being born in England having a Sierra Leonian mother gives me a very good perspective. Both on the empire and on slavery. Considering my mothers people decend from freed slaves. British colonists exploited something that was already there however in Sierra Leone the slave trade had been started by Portuguese and Spanish slavers which resulted in the slave fortress of Lomboko and bunce island, which took slaves to the Caribbean and from there to the United States and South America. It is with good authority that a lot of black peoples residing in these areas come from and decend from those belonging to the tribes of Sierra leonne. A film known as la amistad based on real events talks about the journey of a select group of liberated slaves of the Temne and Mende being tricked into sailing to the United States which sparks off a legal case and then is the spark that sets off the American civil war. Slavery had been abolished in England at least since 1066 but not in the empire, and was abolished eventually in 1806. All in all a lot of criticism of the Atlantic slave trade goes to the British but honestly not enough attention is given to the Spanish or Portuguese slavers. It is my belief that although we should be taking responsibility and acknowledging the evils the British empire brought on the world, the blame should not solely rest at its feet simply because it was the largest.
@@opola1432 In anglosphere discourse we gloss over it because we are English speakers sharing some stock with the English the focus is generally on Atlantic and indigenous slavery our states engaged in. I've seen it among educated people, they think there's something uniquely savage about white people and the colonial era, the states of south America are just 'poor browns' in their mental space. Kind of ignoring the larger scale of African slavery in places like Brazil or the 1400 year old sub-saharan slave routes to Arab markets from west Africa. Ultimately a lot of anglos who go woke still take pride in white people being special, even if its being exceptional in inhumanity so they can act enlightened on the topic. Christian cultures still take great pleasure in self-flagellation.
@@chinogambino9375 exactly couldn’t agree more, there isn’t so much of a debate in the Latin realms of the impact of slavery in the southern americas. Martin Luther king jr often said to beware of white liberals “when the issues were joined concerning local conditions, only the language was polite; the rejection was firm and unequivocal.” Malcom X had the same view as that they both believed that the liberal or woke liberals in the north would simply use the cause of black community to further their own gains for white liberals, but when it comes to issues concerning both groups of even just black people they would simply but politely say no and disagree. A lot of people will forget the first suffragettes did not allow black women to protest with them. Most woke liberals forget that the latins are white Europeans, but you often here just simply how bad the English or even the British are.
every nations looking ackwardly towards Britain and France knowing far too well if those two did not exist it probably would have be them that would be the most hated nation in the world.
Portugal started the slave trade as far as I know quickly followed by Spain but Arab countries took whites & blacks years before then then there was the Roman Empire , I’m sure they’ve been taking slaves since time began tbh ,I’m not saying it’s right but that’s how empires are built mainly , look at the Egyptians , but yeah great work mate
@@standalby6949 Even before the pyramids were built in Egypt slavery was a thing. It's stupid to say Britain started it, because in reality they just took part in it for a while and then ended it everywhere
Hey, you skipped the horrendous border drawing in the middle east (which is still haunting us until this very day). Kind of a big deal. Also, eating baked beans for breakfast. The Horror.
Yeah, but it's really difficult to blame that one on the British when the natives were pushed out of their home over 1000 years ago, and have been repeatedly persecuted in Europe since migrating there, from being massacred in the 14th century due to being blamed for the black death, all the way up to what happened in WW2. None of this was the fault of the British, nor was it their fault when huge numbers of Jews started turning up in the middle east immediately post WW2. That should have been on the collective shoulders of the international community to deal with. We could have all chipped in to buy some land somewhere in the world to resettle them in a new country of their own.
Of the 20 minute video 15 minutes is slavery, colonialism, and war. 2 minutes discussing health care and infrastructure. 3 minutes of ads. There I just saved you 10 minutes!
Simon when talking about the good the bad and the ugly about the Great British Empire, you should have pointed out that it ended widow burning in India, as well as crusading against the slave trade and were the first major power to stop slavery !
Here in NZ the local custom of taking members of neighbouring iwi's (tribes) as slaves, and eating them if it was a hard winter, was also ended by the terrible British.
@@Ankit-d9f4u so black people who keep talking about it should just leave it in the past !, When was the last time you heard a white person complain about another race who owned white slaves ?
@Bluegrass Banjo especially Japan, Cambodia, and America to name a few. For Japan, Nanking Massacre (you probably learned this) Cambodia: Pol Pot Shenanigans that led to living skulls being stockpiled (you may have learned this) America: Massacred vietnamese villages and committed war crimes in vietnam killing rice farmers with baskets on heads, bombed afghani hospitals, homes, shelters and communities, and under o🅱️ama, self bombed its own hospitals.
@@FlatEarthKiller The British Empire stole over 40 trillion dollars worth of food and resources from India causing nearly 2 billion deaths from famines in the few centuries they colonized the sub continent. India should just launch a nuclear warhead at London and turn that city into glass. The British Empire has and probably will never pay any reparations to any of its former colonies. Not unless India threatened the UK with nuclear war.
The most enlightening covno's I've ever had on Brit colonialism has been with friends from India and Pakistan. Convo's of good, bad, and a whole lot of grey. Definitely advise others to have chats with those on the other side of colonialism (my father is English), as its both humbling and inspiring.
bad? How? Higher GDP growth than Mughals and 🍆 worshipping kings. Much benevolent than the Portuguese and Spanish. Higher literacy than Lindhoo reign. Today India is a more horrid state than ever under the British.
People: Roman Empire was great and big Same people: British Empire was bad ??? You cannot like Rome and not bow to the British Empire, and I’m not even British, I’m just not a hypocrite
Na you can still recognize that they did terrible things instead of glorifying them. The Romans caused a lot of misery to anyone who wasn't them for their personal gain. The only reason we remember the cool stories are because they wrote history from their point of view
@@blink182bfsftw in 500 years the British will be glorified along side the Romans and Mongols because humans are hypocrites and condone things when they aren’t personally related to them. The British colonies were a harsh time which propelled progressive first world nations such as Australia, NZ and North America with advanced medicines, technologies and forms of government. It’s so progressive history is now more focused on the evils rather than the successes.
@@rockstar450 agreed, Dan Carlin talks about this, eg the Mongol empire. I feel like British crimes in India aren't spoken about enough though. Good to see Simon talk about it
You say that you tried to be balanced but there were far more negative aspects you went into detail with and simply glossed over anything positive. Also the British Empire did not start slavery, that is just false and you are a fool if you believe that.
I think he said the slave trade. Slavery has been around for eons up to today, and will be here tomorrow but he means the British started the business of the slave trade across the Atlantic to the Americas and Caribbean.
@@Catkilledmeowbob Actually it was the Portuguese in 1526 who started the Atlantic Slave Trade. The British were not even the largest, that was also the Portuguese. It was also the British who eventually stopped the trade all together and forced the other nations to comply. Always do your own research.
@@Denazon you’re right, it was the Portuguese. Not sure what source he was drawing his info from. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I thought your argument was based on the “act of enslaving people” which has been around since human civilization, not the slave trade which was also an incorrect assertion that it was started by the British Empire.
@@Denazon Yeah, it was the Portugese and Spanish who started the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, with the Portugese having the largest numbers overall - and both those countries did it for the longest period around 1500-1875. Britain was particularly bad in the 1700's, but before 1650 there was very little by comparison, and between 1807 and 1833 it was hugely reduced and then banned by Britain.
Did you just claim that the British started slavery? That’s patiently ridiculous. Even just transportation of slaves across oceans is not a British invention. You fail to mention the civilian deaths in the Indian uprising that really crossed lines with the British. Frankly, this was not a good episode.
Get Surfshark VPN at Surfshark.deals/MEGA and enter promo code MEGA for 85% off and 3 extra months for free!
Rule Britannia…
Yo
🙄 British Empire 👉 was a world 🌍 biggest looters and thief 💥 💯 🙄 British Empire was a world 🌍 killer evil Empire 💥
🙄 British Empire 👉 was looting the Hindustan 😡😡😡😡😡😡 👉 Trillion's of dollars 💥💥💥💯
Not watching this! Shame on you. Brextits.
Unfortunately, I think Simon wasn't being clear when he stated that the "British Empire created the slave trade." I'm sure he meant that the British Empire started the Atlantic Slave Trade that led to slavery in the USA. No one who knows history could ever legitimately claim that slavery didn't exist before the British Empire as every major civilization (and some minor ones) engaged in slavery since antiquity.
Portugal and Spain were in on the Atlantic slave trade for there south American colonies before the northern parts of Europe got in on the business. Byt we just stepped ot up in scale and put are managerial know how into the trade to make more profit.
@@krtcampbell9007 Yeah, I read that after I posted, but I didn't have time to come back and edit my post.
They also don't like talking about how we started the "slave trade". It involved purchasing the slaves from Africans. The reason why no-one really gives a fuck about most of the negatives described in this video, like human suffering, is because it is part and parcel of history and the concept of a human civilisation. Yet people act like it's this demonic evil force that came out of nowhere and subjugated a fair a free society. It's hard to not roll my eyes at it.
Slavery is as old as written history. Unfortunately, it still exists today.
to be honest this video's was just simon shitting on the british empire in my opinion, half of what said in the video isn't even true he's a bloody lying revisionist.
Slight correction: we did not abolish slavery in 1807, we abolished the Atlantic Slave Trade - you were still allowed to keep slaves, just not ship them over the Atlantic. Slavery itself was abolished in 1833 in the British Empire as a whole.
EDIT: also, slavery within England and Wales was banned since the C12th.
Actually slavery was abolished in the 12th Century in England and Wales, which led to rullings regarding a need for postive law freeing slaves that had been brought to britain.
Another correction. Slavery was abolished in England and Wales by William the Conqueror.
😮
They ended all slave trading across oceans, not just the Atlantic, because that was all that was possible. Slavery was ended by the British, French and Americans around 1919. The only slave trades that continued after the British and French navies were the slave trade in China and north Africa/the middle East. With the fall of the Ottoman empire, and the collapse of Imperial China, slavery could be ended in the places the British and French could not previously get to as they were not capable of invading deep into the heartlands of continents (although they started to be able to do so in the 1890s with the scramble for Africa). The credit for ending the Chinese slave trade could go the Chinese Communist Party although in effect they just nationalised slave labour by giving themselves the monopoly on slave labour, such as with the slavery of the Uighers in Xinjiang concentration camps today.
Later they enslave indians
19:23 "... it (British Empire) essentially started the slave trade." Within the British Empire, yes. However, to the shame of humanity across the globe, capture and trade in slaves LONG preceded the British Empire: eg δοῦλοι
, δοῦλαι in Ancient Greece, servī in Roman Empire, þrælar of the Vikings ... and let's not forget the Bible: Exodus 21:20-21 Leviticus 25:44-46 Ephesians 6:5-8 Colossians 3:22-24, 1 Timothy 6:1-2, Titus 2:9-10
@@TG-tl4uj Or a prisoner of the Barbary Pirates.
@@nedkelly4825 Islamic slave trade continues to this day but we aren't allowed to say anything bad about Muslims and my comment will probably be shadow banned by UA-cam for saying it.
@@OriginalBongoliath Well said,
Was going to correct this twat also thanks for doing it for me.
@Present Tense "The slave trade" (also referred to as the "Atlantic slave trade", or "transatlantic slave trade", or the "Euro-American slave trade") in the context of European Colonialism, refers to the transatlantic trading patterns which were established as early as the mid-17th century. The British triangular trade in slaves, in which trading ships would
sail from Europe with manufactured goods to the west coast of Africa to be traded for slaves, the ship would then transport the slaves to the Americas or the Caribbean, before returning home with cargoes of sugar, rum, tobacco and other 'luxury' items, is the "The slave trade" in question here.
It is this Slave Trade that the British Empire controlled and "essentially started", which is being discussed; It is not about the slaves in Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire or the Bible (which were made up of predominately captured enemies) but the activity of exchanging goods for human beings and then buying, selling these people as chattels in a triangular trade route.
"And yes, everyone in the past was the worst" that was hilarious😂🤣
An empire so big, a country celebrates its independence from Great Britain on average every seven days.
And now look at the state of the UK. Lmao, a fate well deserved.
@@moseyburns1614 It's better than 99% of countries today? Nothings happened. The UK today is much better than in the 19th and 18th centuries
@@moseyburns1614
yes the pariah of europe
@@ursodermatt8809 thats literally how the UK has rolled for about 700 years, hardly a change to the status quo
@@moseyburns1614 Jealous, eh?
Modern British: "Terribly sorry about the whole Empire business, awful stuff, terribly sorry"
Mongolians: *30 metre statue of Genghis Khan*
@@lu544 With God complex and probably biggest rapist and killer in history.
@@Anonymous-cm8jy im sure he was spinning in his grave when when you wrote that.
Never met a British person thats been sorry about anything the British have done. Quite the opposite actually
Apologies are cheap
@@mccombe25 people like you forget that the ruling British exploited and abused their own people long before and during the empire. our ancestors pain and suffering was the motivation for the empire
Slavery is wrong and no one could defend its practice, but the British did not start it. Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, etc all used slaves. Slavery has been practised by humans since the dawn of civilisation and perhaps before that. I will say that no nation can claim to be paragons of justice when it comes to history. We must research, debate, and learn from history so we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.
Not forgetting the Inca, Aztec & Mayans until the 16th century.
Also, the Japanese in the 19th & 20th Century.
And it's not as if we started the American slave trade either, that was the Dutch, iirc.
We were just more efficient at it, when we joined in.
There are countries in Africa who in recent years have formally apologized for the substantial role they played in the slave trade. Somehow, this is always forgotten when people talk about slavery.
Chattle Slavery, as practiced by the European empires in the age of exploration was substantially different than most historical forms of slavery, vastly wide spread, and still has measurable and direct impacts on people and communities still living today in multiple countries.
"the cool kids are doing it too" doesn't excuse the act of slavery. Just fucking own it. Let it marinade into acceptance, and do better for the future.
What gets to me about the British Empire (Im British by the way) is that every major city from Glasgow to London were riddled with poverty. The biggest Empire huge and wealthy while it's people suffered
Ever been to the US? The wealthiest country ever and the levels of poverty across the US is shocking. You might not see it in Times Square, but you wouldn't have to go far.
All empires were like that. Look at the two remaining true empires , russias failing brutal one and the chinese ( tibet enslaved) one that is right now exterminating yughers.
First of all poverty is everywhere. The level of poverty is different. Poverty in USA is wealthy compare to poverty I india
@@lewisbae1326 So is the cost of living in USA compared to India
How civilized they were ?
Sorry to be that guy, but the lost colony of Roanoke was in North Carolina, not South Carolina. Trust me, North Carolinians are way too proud of that fact (it is taught in 4th and 8th grade).
Youre correct Ive had the pleasure of visiting that exact island and site definitely North Carolina
Maybe it was really in South Carolina and that's why they've had so much trouble finding it? /s
@@INMATEofARKHAM nope, definitely in NC. The Croatoan tree was in Dare County, and the actual tribe lived near modern-day Cape Hatteras.
South Carolinian here. Yes, Roanoke was in NC, not SC.
Set foot in Downtown Charleston and you'd realize there's no need to live anywhere else.
Don't worry.
No one cares.
Why do you keep saying the British started the slave trade? You need to do a little more research on that subject sir. I know you are very well versed in a lot of things, but you are completely wrong on that topic. The British did nothing more but step in and take advantage of a preexisting slave trade. They did not start it. I'm not British so I'm not trying to make excuses for anyone, I'm just pointing out the facts.
if you look at the comments below you will notice that 300 others have pointed that out already.
@@andip7480 That means that 301 people that have commented know the truth.
Is he that well versed?...really? Seems like over simplified click-bait to me.
This is true, slavery predates Britain existance, romans did it, carthagenians did it, babylonians did it, hell on the oldest law code the Hamurabi code there is punishments for killing another person slave
The slave trade and slavery are not the same thing. The British started modern slavery to the US as we know it
Enjoy these presentations immensely. FYI- The Roanoke Colony was in present day North Carolina, not South Carolina. Back then, then the whole area was known as Virginia. It was not until much later when Charles I partitioned the Virginia territory and named the new divisions after himself that the Carolinas came into existence. Earlier in 1624, King James revoked Virginia’s private charter and declared it a Royal Colony, the first official such designation in what was to become the British Empire. Also, Virginia remained loyal to the crown after the Regicide of Charles I,. When Charles II took the throne after the Cromwell’s Protectorate collapsed, Charles II declared Virginia the “Old Dominion,” a nickname which survives today.
To be fair, when you have an empire that large its only natural to forget where you placed a colony here and there.
Spaniards first pass by Virigina, not the genocidal Brits.
See also the video "Spanish Discovery of Hawaii 1555."
Jamey Cooked is overrated. Brits are overrated.
The British Empire wasn't the biggest. Stay tuned for my video proving it.
@BB49 YOu can ask the brown people in Perú who exist because the Spanish weren't genocidal, and those people are indoctrinated to be anti-Spanish, so you'll get the wrong answer from their mouths, but the right answer from their existence.
@@scintillam_dei Ask the so-called indigenous “Brown People” in Mexico or Peru today of their opinions on how Cortez, Pizzaro or the other Spanish Conquistadores really treated their conquered & subjugated peoples (Their ancestors) in most, if not all their Latin-American colonies?!! It might totally be an eyes, ears, & wholly mind-opening experience for you!!
@@trevorfuller1078 You're talking to a Central Amercian. Most people are taught to hate Spain from youth. They're ingorant and gullible, just like you. Most Native Americans in América don't even know their identity. Their ignorant opinions don't change a thing except to show the injustice of anti-Spanish lies.
Thanks!
I dont think you can say England started slavery, it was used well before that
I don't think they can take credit for ending slavery in their own territory either. It's not an accident that both Acts of Parliament limiting or abolishing slavery (1807 & 1833) almost immediately followed large influxes of anti-slavery Irish MPs in the elections immediately following the 1800 act of union forced on Ireland and the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act. The change in voting between earlier failed efforts to abolish slavery in the late 1700s almost exactly aligns with the addition of Irish MPs.
@@cros13 The addition of Irish MPs... and where were they added? That's right, to Britain. Thus, Britain abolished slavery. Let's not forget the huge role played by the RN!
Keep in mind that he doesn't say slavery, slavery had already been prominent in Europe if you go back to antiquity and it was still widespread throughout the world.
He specifically says the slave trade, referring to the Atlantic Slave Trade. He would also be wrong on this account since the Portuguese and Spanish had already been trading in slaves previously. However, neither country would be able to match Great Britian in absolute numbers, it wouldn't have gotten as far as it did without British (or French) participation and it is largely responsible for creating the racial divide in the US (Not continuing it).
As a small aside, I'm not trying to say that what other european countries wasn't bad, you're either in the slave trade and colonialism or you're not and what others did is just as morally wrong even if they weren't as good at doing it. You can even go farther and look at other european countries who would have done it if they could. The Danes, Sweedes, Austrians and Poles also tried to have colonies of their own at one point or another.
@@CamoHunt8 The Portuguese still actually transported more slaves.
I don't think he did, did he?
*british grenadiers starts playing in the background*
You are being civilized, please do not resist
Resistence is futile
the trees start singing yankee doodle
Where the British Empire planted flags, great civilizations followed. America, India, Australia, and Canada eh!
@@madrabbit9007 iraque,iran,Palestine, Egypt, Syria and so on..
@@luislealsantos yeah, there are many hell holes as well where civilization didn’t stick due to the locals wanting to live in the dark ages. Look at the mess we Americans have left in Afghanistan. I cry watching the hoards of people trying to flee the cavemen.
I think at least a shout out to IP law could be one discreetly major thing that the British Empire spread across the globe. It was a huge component in tying together the last major incentives and protections in law that made the industrial revolution possible.
Ah, IP law. That was worth millions of deaths and decades of exploitation, wasn't it?
@@davidpalk5010 They never said it was.
@@rogersmith9535 . They suggested it was a positive, but we didn't spread it to China, the world's biggest manufacturing country, did we? No international IP laws in China today, which is why Taiwan does much of the top tech, as they've signed up to all major treaties. Did our empire take IP treaties to Taiwan? Nope.
@@davidpalk5010 Nom they traded with the British and other western Nations. And so had to comply.
@@davidpalk5010 You say "decades of exploitation". India's GDP grew while the British were there. You underestimate the benefits from British trade and investment and from industrialisation of India's economy. Under the British an increase in Indian population also occurred with an increase of GDP per capita. And "between 1860 and 1940 employment in factories increased from less than 100,000 to two million. The share of factories in industrial employment of British India increased from almost zero in 1850 to 11% in 1938, and in industrial income from 15% in 1900 to 45% in 1947...The growth is impressive by any standard". Source: Tirthankar Roy.
Probably not a great idea to ever put a red border around a video as it looks like the indicator that shows it has already been watched.
😎the “already watched” line never stops me…Simon’s Channels are the first I ever enjoyed reruns of!!!
I don't have that. Nothing in my feed tells me I've seen a video. For what its worth, I've never needed anything to tell me I've seen one. Thumb nails are great for recollection.
@@ryateo1 I watch thousands of videos and could never remember all of the thumbnails. UA-cam will only put a red line under the last 2000..a lot of times I’ve started watching a video only to realize 5 mins in I’ve seen it before
@@stdesy I wonder if its because I only use cheap phones without Google apps?
@@ryateo1 It’s probably that. I’m only ever on the opposite side with an iPhone but I do also see the red line on my PS5 and Roku UA-cam apps
A point to remember when talking about claiming lands like Australia is: The policy of Terra Nullus was established by the Pope when the Spanish and Portuguese were busy claiming lands in the Americas back in the 16th century and was a major part of claiming the lands in North America. This policy was also very strongly supported by the US and Canadian governments with their expansion across North America as well as being a core aspect of the US Government policies behind the settling of the the lands west of the original colonies.
Also those already there in Australia had no concept of land ownership, so couldn't sell the land for beans.
@@grahamross6397 Not to mention that the first European who "Discovered" Australia was the Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon which makes Britain's claim to Australia even thinner (if that is possible when the aboriginals had lived there for 60 000 years).
But might makes right and the nation with the worlds largest Navy kinda did like they wanted back then, just like Spain did in the early 1500s.
Australia was a managed land , the natives had practiced burning the land since they arrived and they had structures just not in the Eurocentric view of civilisation
Makes me wonder if id be an American or even if id be alive as the same person if, after the USA divorced GB, the US govt hadnt expanded west and just stayed the original 13 colonies
@@angryatheist managed the land is an interesting way of putting it. There was an extinction event when they settled Australia, like everytime humanity found a new place to call home.
Humans are the most ridiculously over and powered animal this planet has ever produced and this shows in the fossil record.
"History is history, good, bad, ugly and the shameful its still history." - Daryl Davis
Take your "logic" and get outta here. :P
@@Archangelm127 agreed
@@Archangelm127 elaborate
Daryl Davis is an amazing person.
@@Radit_HP It's a joke expression, commenting on how the most logical arguments often seem to be dismissed the most quickly in the public discourse.
Simon, it's ridiculous that your writers claim that the British started slavery.... more than once.
That's because the fellow, entertaining as he is, is one of our modern Liberal Quislings, who loathes his own history, extolling only the bad, observed, of course, only through the lens of C21st morality.
It did start chattel slavery
The British weren’t the first to start the slave trade, slavery has existed since the beginning of man kind. Many civilisations such as the Greeks, Egyptians and Persians exploited slavery. I suggest you look into the Arab slave trade as it often gets overlooked compared to the Atlantic slave trade which gets far more attention.
I think the Portuguese were the first to be shipping from Africa. Maybe we was the first to do it on an industrial scale, as we'd just invented industry.
@@funster73mcr2 There was more shipped to Brazil. It's just America is the world's most powerful country and emphasising carefully chosen narratives works in favour of competing interests.
wasn't even that bad, the alternative was starving in many cases, or just being wiped out as was the case with ancient tribal warfare.
The British Empire put an end to slavery in the west though.
@@vinaynk erm, no.
So when are we going to see a mega projects about Simon and his youtube empire??
Underrated comment
We Portuguese have a heavy guilt in slavery, that is for certain. But slavery is way older than the country. Before Portugal being a naval power, the peoples from north Africa raided the Portuguese coasts, mainly Algarve (in the south) and took the villagers to slavery. I would say that slavery was a common concept at the time, just as was war. Slavery was a profitable trade, it was not an act of evil at the time. Awful and a crime to our modern eyes, for sure.
Slavery was awful and evil in the Bible circa 1000 BC.
@@sentientflower7891 Sure, but that was irrelevant for many, such as the Moors that enslaved the Portuguese or later some greedy Portuguese nobles and merchants. At the time there were champions against slavery, such as a humanist Jesuit that is one of our 'national heroes'. This greedy mentality that drove empires is not so different nowadays. People accept that climate changes is a consequence of our behaviour. Do most of the big companies really care? I don't see that. They just pay (or make us pay) a 'climate tax' and clean their hands. Immediate profit cannot be stopped, even if it seriously damages future generations. That is not properly a Christian idea, in my opinion. Not to disagree with you, it is just to say that this is the way humanity has been.
@@a.ferreira9787 the ultimate climate change tax is the extinction of the human species. That bill is coming due. Soon. Jesus Christ isn't returning. Ever.
we still have slaves you know, we just don't call them slaves. we call them, NBA players.
Yup
"The bad and the ugly, oh and something about infrastructure".
All the points are basically true, but this is such an amazing oversimplification. Empires are always complex. They generally combine extreme brutality with huge advances in technology and society. The British Empire effectively kick-started the modern world, for better and worse, and its cultural influence alone is a huge part of modern "western" thought.
Also some key points I would have included: the effect of the Napoleonic wars on basically clearing out the seas for Britain to ramp up colonialism, the immense shift that the end of slavery created in Europe and America, and the overwhelming importance of the industrial revolution.
When we talk about the industrial and scientific revolutions, we should remember where the monies came from to back these advances, and the answer is more or less from the plundering of India by the EIC and also from the slave trade. In the early 18th century before the British company began gaining political power India was one of the two largest economies in the world, rivalled only by China. If I remember right, India's economy was larger than that of all European nations put together.
In 1765, Britain gained the right to collect taxes in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, replacing the Mughal authorities. Before that date, 85% of the EIC's exports to India was bullion to pay for the goods imported back to Britain. After 1765, part of the tax revenues were used to pay for those goods (effectively making Indians pay for their own manufactures to make profits for Britons in Europe). Over the course of the empire until 1947 Britain impoverished India.
Magaprojects: Britain started the slave trade.
Portugal: Am I a joke to you?
A quick Wikipedia search says that Portugal started buying African slaves in 1444, and started sending them to Brazil in 1526. This doesn't excuse the British, just stating facts.
Let's not forget the Romans, Barbary Pirates or pretty much any large empire that needed cheap labour from it conquered enemies. Not an excuse for it yet not 100% the only slavers ever.
Careful hate facts will get you sent to the naughty bin.
Egyptians built their own tombs dont ya know.
Who did they buy those slaves from?
@@DarkZodiacZZ Mostly from the Mali empire, which Portugal already had trade relations with. Mali was the hub of west African slavery, and had been for centuries.
But the Transatlantic slave trade was particularly brutal, even by the standards of ancient times. The conditions for the crossing, combined with the treatment of the slaves (especially in sugar plantations) is on a level never seen before.
I think his point was that the empire was the largest single contributor to the slave trade, I think
Minor correction: the remains of Roanoke Colony is in modern North Carolina. Not South Carolina.
I go to Duck 3 or 4x's a year.
Was just there two weeks ago, it’s definitely in the OBX, not South Carolina
Grew up near there. It is NC.
It's also not Great Britain's first overseas colony. That would be St John's Newfoundland, granted Royal Charter in 1583 after being a fishing outpost since 1497
@@Uncommoner However it was only seasonal and not permanent until 1610, 3 years after Jamestown was settled as the first PERMANENT English settlement in the new world.
I love seeing the older videos and seeing how much Simon's beard has grown.
An extremely important point left out is the British method of "Divide and Conquer"
That's hardly uniquely British. It's the oldest play in the Empire Playbook.
Still prevalent to this day. Used by politicians and others with power.
Divide and Rule by the British is a myth.
My biggest issue with this video is the phrasing of “British created slavery.” Or basically blaming “slavery” on the British. Shouldn’t be this sloppy with your wording. Saying “British Empire along with the Spanish Empire helped create the African transatlantic slave trade” would be better. Slavery existed long before the British Empire and still persists today. Hell it was also beneficial to those Africans who sold other Africans into slavery. This issue is much more complicated than most people pretend it is.
Sums up my argument perfectly, we were involved in the Slave Trade, but WE also stopped it ... on the 'balance sheet' of History, i think that it will show that finally abolishing Slavery is/was more important than being involved in it ... WE even provided reparations to Slave Owners to emancipate slaves, setting them free ... in 1832's money, it was £20 MILLION - in todays money, conservative estimates equate that £20 MILLION to anywhere between £10-20 BILLION - WE only FINISHED paying off that loan in 2014
Simon seems like the sort of smug bastard that is quite happy to live the life he does, where he does, with all the benefits of education, security, etc that come with that, whilst decrying the efforts that got us here. If he wants to feel sorry about anyone, it should be for the forgotten millions at home in Britain who toiled for centuries in poverty, to create the wherewithal that enabled the Empire to be established in the first place, but that never seems to worry such smug lefty gits. Question ?? Why do this kind of person always have beards ?? Seems to be a common trait amongst oppressors.
@@harrypotter4309 ...brilliant 👍
@@harrypotter4309 ... if it wasn't for Empire generating wealth, there would be no 'Services' to speak of, as on the whole 'Libtards' work in the Service Industries, so not generating wealth themselves, this is after they get their Media Studies degrees at Uni ... 🤣🤣🤣
@@brianhodgson9547 Absolutely spot on. I usually have a go at the universities (ever more left leaning since the 1920's) but I ran out of steam. Totally agree regarding their taking up of non jobs as I like to call them, and the media studies bit is so true. I was a witness to this nonsense grabbing hold in the education system in the early seventies, that and "liberal studies" which usually had in charge someone who was half our age, and knew nothing of the world except the information they had been indoctrinated with . We had much fun pulling them and their assertions apart. But it was difficult not to get angry with their smugness sometimes !! Happy Days !!
"Apparently here at Mega Projects, we like throwing hand grenades into the comments section." BEST LINE ON THE VIDEO. Had me laughing for a good minute. Thanks for making me spray my table with coffee.
And France should be happy they don't speak German after they dropped so many rifles in 2 world wars.
Most definitely want to see a video of Simon trying to awkwardly smile his way through Mongol atrocities or weird Mongol related horse facts.
Yep. An Empire that made such an impact through murder and rape that they changed the actual carbon foot print of the the human race as it was then (millions killed in such a short period, as in a few years that the amount of wood/fuels at the time burned reduced drammaticly, and 1 in 200 men in the human race share DNA direct to the Khans!).
What, you think that the Mongols were unique in their atrocities. Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands were all able to shovel their problems under the rug. Winners write the history books, especially when most of those books were written after World War 1, mostly by the aforementioned powers. The most recent example of great atrocities is the infamous Mao Zedong, who from 1949 to 1979 (30 years) may have had 50-75 million killed through his actions. Even Genghis Khan did not do that, we do not know how many people Genghis killed, all is heresy written by others.
Whataboutery
What the Mongol Empire did doesn't change what the British Empire did.
@@roisinmalone3015 Not whataboutery as this thread is asking about a videon about the Mongols...
@@roisinmalone3015 he’s not saying the British didn’t commit similar atrocities. He’s just saying he would like to see a video of Simon trying to smile through talking about it. Bring up another video idea isn’t shoving this under the rug
Spectacular objectivity. Nicely done.
19:23 "...essentially started the slave trade." That's horseshit, Simon. The slave trade - or at least slavery - in Africa has been going on for *thousands* of years, and it was the Portuguese who first landed on African shores to *buy* slave from local slave traders.
Additionally, slavery only became associated with ethnicity during the slave trade to America; slave traders in Africa (particularly the Barbary pirates) would capture people of any ethnicity, including whites - but no one likes to talk about that. For more on White Slavery, start here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_slavery
arabs had been trading slaves long before the europeans
Its because Simon is your typical British left wing millennial, only giving you the information that fits there narrative about how evil their country was.
@@MrWansty First off, slavery was something that has been accepted in many different cultures, so long as it wasn't applied to the in-group
Second- ok... So the Arabs were doing it. Does that make it OK? Whom would you like enslaved today to make up for it?
Third, white slavery was and is terrible- the numbers simply skew heavily toward African chattel slavery. And that's kinda the point. Nobody is saying it didn't happen, but you SEEM to be saying that the short period of Barbary pirates taking slaves from Spain, England and france should be taught entirely instead of the millions of Africans over hundreds of years who were brutally abducted and made into property.
Growing up in America, we did learn that one of the early years of our navy was slapping some sense into the Barbary pirates and securing treaties with the north africans to stop it. So-
4a- we stopped that pretty early
4b- people actually do get taught about it
4c- you're welcome
4d- funny how even then, we got pissed over white people being enslaved but not black people
4e- maybe thats why people like you are laughed and heckled in public.
Prince Andrew, Jeffrey Epstein, Leslie Wexner, Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Charles, Johnny Savile, British Foreign Office Of The Crown, Mossad, CIA, Stephen Hawking also abusing children on one of Jeffrey Epstein's child abuse islands I believe per unsealed records in pre trail hearings of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein would fly out of Royal Airforce Bases, native residential schools in Canada, Lord Mountbatten...and it goes on and on and on.
@@unclejoeoakland the Barbary piracy wasn’t just a short period thing. It went on for longer than the transatlantic slave trade.
The amount of power the ussr was able to exert over its people to enact the 13 different 5 year plans was astonishing, we would love to hear the other 12
I am hoping they will do it. Simon said that they were thinking about doing the rest but the first video didn’t do that well.
@@matthewdopler8997 yeah I know thats why I keep commenting here and the side projects channel hoping he'll see it a realize many of us want them
Yes, we've had first Five Year Plan, but what about second Five Year Plan?
@@SkuLLetjaH there's 12 others
It's actually pretty simple: Every Soviet Citizen was given a stipend of vodka. Even when bread lines extended for miles and toilet paper was as rare as gold-pressed latinum, the USSR managed to keep the vodka flowing as if the supply was inexhaustible. THAT is a megaproject if evvrr thhrr wwss 1! 🥃🥴👌
Dare I say the British Empire was the largest Megaproject in human history.
AND GREATEST
Make the British empire great again!
#MTBEGA
@@noworriesnoproblems6382 American Empire beat your British Empire, heck, the US doesn't even call it an empire. Get rekt mate, the metropole of the previous empire is now their bish. Britannia rules the its part of the waves for the US.
@@BallyBoy95 Can you write that again do its readable? I'll take it you said Britain is the best. TA LA!
@@noworriesnoproblems6382 Can I write it again do its readable? I'll take it you said Britain is the best at taking in immigrants as is your responsible.
Simon's point about the French not supporting the second Iraq war is well met. I was one of the people who went along with the propaganda and fervor that lead us into that war, and derided the French for their opposition. Now I realize they were right, and I was wrong. Another reason to reject the idea of America as the World Police.
There wasn't WMDs the Iraq war was propaganda!
Better the USA than China. I won't even mention Russia,pretenders to top spot as they are, a nation with the 5th largest economy in Europe and even a smaller economy than Texas.
However someone has to maintain the peace...
@@angloirishcad well if anything it shouldn't be the nation who is the biggest exporter of weapons and has the most nuclear powered arms than any other nation in the world
good on you for admitting that. However I was deeply skeptical at the time though. Despite repeated claims of WMD nothing was actually shown on TV or anywhere else for that matter. I still believe that the US had to be seen to do something after 9/11 and we were obliged to go along with them, it's as simple as that. Saddam Hussein was no real threat to us and weapons inspector Dr David Kelly was silenced before he could talk.
“History can be a dark place to delve into, but not looking back and examining closely is usually even worse.” Well put megaprojects, well put.
The worst thing you can do with history is to take the wrong lessons from it. Today many liberals are seeking revenge against the British empire by being...racist to Whites...
A few things you did not mention, and perhaps should have done:
The actual enslavement in Africa was mostly by one African tribe enslaving another and selling the slaves to traders from other countries;
The slave trade in Britain was private enterprise and not state enterprise;
After we changed our mind about slavery, we actively set about ending the global slave trade.
The Royal Navy was ordered to intercept slave ships of other nations and turn them back to Africa. In this, the Navy returned about 150,000 Africans to Africa.
Wikipedia has a good article on the topic.
Thank you so much for covering the true history of your home country with honesty. There is a good and bad to all things. History is always teaching.
I'm not entirely sure that this is entirely honest. Parts of this feel as though he's just saying what will get the approval of UA-cam.
I'm gonna spend the next hour or two reading.
Very infromtive videos , keep up the good work
The British Empire abolished Slavery and ended the slave trade. Worth praise in my humble opinion.
They did nothing during the famine in Ireland at the same time , but they did force ireland to export enough food to feed the population to Britain
@@daithideburca98 True.
@@daithideburca98 ye, one of the empires greatest mistakes. Sending more food aid could have saved many lives
After starting it! 😂
@@SecondTake123 After Starting What ?
Perfectly synchronised with Overly sarcastic production's channel
As all things should be...
I was wondering about that, is it a British holiday or something?
@@lejibus not that I know of; school year starts 4th September, then nothing else till Explodey Day on 5th November.
@@williamchamberlain2263 I love that. Explodey Day. Fabulous.
I too came to see this video because of Blue's recent one hehe
There allegedly is a saying "if you see two fish fighting in a river an Englishman must have just passed by"
The stupidest quote ever.
Hahaha so damn true
@@theinformationbomber7102 explain
The British Empire evil, oh, compared to what, compared to which other empires. Ridding the Indian sub continent of it’s actually evil empire? Ffs get real.
@@drstrangelove4998 yes the British empire was evil.
"Throwing hand grenades into the comment section" must be one of the best lines I've heard on UA-cam 😄
As a Brit I don’t find it hard to see the past of my ancestors because it’s the past and it was very different times. All we can do is use the past as a lesson and not make the same mistakes ago
Yep. The Bible is very clear, that we are not held accountable, responsible, or guilty for the sins of our ancestors. Anyone who believes in god believes in this.
@@robfer5370 Isn't one of the central ideas of Christianity that EVERYONE is held accountable/ responsible for a fruit-related transgression of an ancestor in the Garden of Eden?
@@NJards-zt4fp * Deity class beings may apply exceptions unilaterally. Deal with it, mortals
Actually u can't make those mistakes again
“not make the same mistakes” then get tf out of Ireland
"and yes everyone, the past was the worst"
Possibly the future: Hey hold my beer!
Hello from a worse future.
Not one mention of Canada, taken by conquest from France and the largest colony by far in its day. Having lost what was then called British North America, perhaps Louis XIV said it best: "It was just a few acres of snow." 🙂
So...?
Dof.not France +.England both invade
indigenous 1st Nations?
Louis XIV died in 1715, well before the Treaty of Paris. New France was not the largest colony in 1759, it was the Portuguese colony of Brazil.
..
Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven
There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today
Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell
Come to Jesus Christ today
Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
Holy Spirit Can give you peace guidance and purpose and the Lord will
John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Mark 1.15
15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Jesus
It was Voltaire said of Canada " it was just a few acres of snow" and Louis XIV died long before the Treaty of Paris gave New France to Britain. You really need to get your history straight. Although not mentioning Canada is a true oversight.
We here in Ireland would like to thank the British empire for their input into civilising us. Only for them we probably wouldn't speak English as our first language, millions would not have died in a famine or spread to all parts of the world to escape it, they partitioned our country that lead to civil War and years of troubles.. I could go on.. Thanks again.
No problem 👍🥰
I find it an interesting comment on nature of bureaucracy is that, as the empire disintegrated post WWII, the Colonial Office was expanding at a ridiculous rate.
The birth of the Overseas Development industry
They were busy with operation Legacy, destroying any materials showing atrocities committed by the British in occupied nations.
That last line about looking back at history for all the things we have done is gold.
there is no "we" however unless you're attributing generational, blood based collective responsibility. If people are collectively responsible for slavery, they are also collectively responsible for the modern world and all its luxuries.
So, are you sure "we" want to go down this road?
The British empire still exists
@@iseeundeadpeople9 In your head
@@Mute040404 It's called the Commonwealth.
The english definitely didnt "start" the slave trade... Slavery has been around as long as people have been around to do it. They didnt end it either slavery is still going on today.
'The slave trade' is not the same as 'trading in slaves'. The slave trade, in this context, is the term used to decribe the atlantic slave triangle. I think he is aware slavery existed before an after the british empire.
we are talking about chattel slavery
@@terrancehall9762 yes... and?
@@allytg1 It really suits the narrative of certain countries to label the Atlantic slave trade as "the slave trade". The reality is that the slave network developed by Muslims that developed into the Barbary Pirates was the largest network of slaves ever seen. Americans just love attention too much.
@@SharpeBalth I mean if its amaericans talking about slavery then its not that weird for them to call it 'the slave trade'. Simularly to how they call it the civil war. There were other civil wars but when talking about their own they don't need to specify.
Thank you for this excellent swift survey of the British Empire. I noticed you did not mention New Zealand (Aotearoa) which was last to be colonized by the British. It was conceived as the Britain of the South Pacific. Here, there was a treaty between the local Maori tribes (iwi) and no wholesale slaughter or famine, but there were the Land Wars of the 1860s. Reparations are still being made by the government to iwi to this day.
Well NZ was first colonised by New South Wales, as a sub-colony of it, then later NZ was transferred to Britain as a colony after NSW had sorted out the treaty, or most of it to be fair.
There was no wholesale slaughter and famine in any places of the empire. They would only go to war if provoked or to destroy evil like the enslaving ashanti etc.
@@dominicomucci3014people just like to blame us brits because it's easier than accountability.
The reasons we did things are never brought up, neither is the fact the entire world as it stands now was shaped by us.
@@seanlander9321 legally transferred to those who ran the who shebang. Sounds like an Australian mad they got bit on the ass by a spider today while taking a shit.
Nah the mass killings were just done by the tribes, don’t forget the musket wars, oh and you maori pretty much wiped out the moriori people..
“The bow and arrow was once the pinnacle of weapons technology. It allowed the great Ghengis Khan to rule from the Pacific, to Ukraine. An empire twice the size of Alexander the Great’s. And four times the size of the Roman Empire.”
- Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar
The great Genghis Khan.? The man was a murderer and rapist on an unimaginable scale. He should be spoken in the same breath as Hitler in my book. But that's just my view.
so i remember my dad telling me when i was young about how the British and their advancements developed our country and cursed it at the same time,he told me about how the empire handed power/backed a certain tribe and till this day that tribe continues to rule our country one way or another.
well yes, but what about before that? the other tribe was ruling over the latter one.
Rwanda?
Where are you talking about?
Washington DC is an interesting remain
Too many people today don't understand that anyone can be, and every country has at one time or another been both remarkably good, and unimaginably bad. Everything has to be absolute nowadays, there's no room for disagreement and discussion, and that is insanity, and it's dangerous.
Yeah, but slavery was far worse to their own people in each country that had factories. Those conditions now have been civilized, so no one really suffers any of this.
You’re right. Nothing is completely black or white and thinking in extremes can lead to dangerous path
Huh saying this because they are talking about Britain which is pride for most of you westners😂😂
It's also however a whataboutism... Everyone else did it so that's OK yeah?
The thing is, that if you actually have a conscience, and try to better yourself, which western societies in general do, unlike less developed societies, you will be called out, for exposing yourself. Even though other countries and cultures have done the exact same thing, sometimes much worse, they are not called out for it, and they are sure as hell not going to admit to ANYTHING. And that is essentially, why they are not able to better themselves and create better societies for their people.
if their inferior minds, you are exposing yourself. In a western context it's sometimes good to sometimes admit mistakes, so that there is a chance for you to better yourself.
Thank You, Simon 🌞
The British didn't start the slave trade, it had been going for a long time before the British Empire.
I agree black African tribesmen were selling rival tribesmen taken battle and raids to Dutch merchants long before Britain got involved but that gets ignored cos we apologize and the Dutch don't.
The British STOPPED it, but unfortunately many people of colour still indulge in it. Anyway the British were victims of slavery for many hundreds of years before Africans.
@@chalky7285 what? The Egyptians were doing it 5000 years ago. They didn't invent it either.
@@randomuser6306 I totally agree my friend it is a humanity problem and it will probably never end but can hope
Up until the British abolition of slavery, slavery has been practiced on every continent, by virtually all people. In no way, shape or form is it a "British" thing.
The Portuguese started the trans-Atlantic triangle slave trade, then the Spanish, then the Dutch, then the English and the French later. As for all the slaughter, bondage and slavery (initially) in the British Empire (and it wasn't British until 1707), it's like what John Cleese's character said in the Life of Brian; "what did the Romans do for us?"
The slave trade itself was started by the muslim arabs in the 7th century after they *Invaded* *Occupied* *Colonized* North Africa , they converted the berbers and then the Othoman Turks came , all these 3 muslim groups established History's *Largest* and *Longest* slavetrade (7th to 20th century) , they enslaved millions of Black africans and millions of Europeans (they raided european coasts and ships) .... when Europe finaly broke out of the islamic siege in the 16th century they became Clients of the islamic SlaveTrade ,they bought slaves from the muslims , even many Pagan African tribes became SlaveTraders and raided neighboring tribes to sell them to both muslims and europeans
When the Roman empire left Britain, it turned into the dark ages
Can we all please agree that slavery predates history and wasn't a creation of the British Empire?
Of course Brits didn’t invented it but they just used it to build their empire for centuries
They didn’t invent it they just excelled it
Defo. Portugal was a lot more prolific at it too.
@@anoopkl4u Yes! The same as the the Mogul empire in India (and those before it), Egyptians, Chin Dynasty, Islamic states (espescially in Afirca where it was bigger and lasted longer than the Atlantic slave trade) etc... Infact every civilisation ever........ they also excelled at it.
@@anoopkl4u the Portuguese and Dutch were the experts on that that's leftist distortion of history
Agreed
Always got the remember to first judge history through the lense of what was normal back then and then judge history by the values of today.
One thing you can hand to the Brits is their willingness to openly discuss the evils committed in the name of empire. Would that other countries could do the same... looking at you, Japan.
I'm not sure if that's entirely true. There are some examples of the British starting to face up to their past but it's slow and patchy. There is no formal mention in school curriculums and the current government is trying to ban the national trusts from mentioning links to slavery attached to historic buildings. The conversations are just starting but not in full swing.
They were visited by the fat man and his little boy. Arguably more than enough payment long term
@@twofortyrida It's not a matter of payment. It's a matter of recognizing that their grandfathers and great-grandfathers committed some unspeakable crimes. Japan does not recognize historical events such as the rape of Nanking, medical and chemical experimentation conducted on Chinese citizens, the plight of Korean and Dutch comfort women. Young Japanese grow up believing that their country was an innocent victim of World War II which culminated in unprovoked atomic attacks.
@@wtorules4743 Do you have any evidence of that?
@@wtorules4743 slavery gets taught in secondary schools lol
Roanoke Island and the colony after which is was named, was in North Carolina, not South Carolina.
well, was there a north or south carolina then?
@@ursodermatt8809 I suppose at the time, no.
Strangely it seems that only people from the carolinas actually care whether it was in north or south carolina. the rest of the states could care less.
@@lucienfury2606 It's prolly cuz while the names are similar, they both have their own vibe and character.
Natives: But this is our land!
British: Yes, but do you have a flag?...
I believe they did not have a flag. Viva Espana
Not "British Empire". Justly, "British Kleptomony."
11:08: the army of 250,000 men was a very late development in the East India Company's history. Until the wars with the French in the mid-18th century, they usually made do with small security forces at their fortified trading posts, but then they gradually expanded, exceeding 70,000 by the end of the century
". Until the wars with the French in the mid-18th century,"
Which is when they actually started having an empire?
@@Ravi9A Ultimately, yes. Robert Clive originally worked for the East India Company as a junior administrator/clerk. Then in 1746 the French captured the trading post of Fort St. George where he worked. After a few weeks he managed to lead an escape and soon turned out to have a fine military mind.
However, even after he sneakily defeated the Nawab of Bengal over a decade later, the policy was to instal a more "sympathetic" Nawab rather than rule Bengal directly. That took years more.
@@PastPresented yes, the Brits reckon the empire to hav e begun in 1757.
@@Ravi9A Some do, but I don't think Robert Clive would have at the time. They were simply solving a business problem, with the help of some of the Bengalis with whom they traded and who were also affected by the same problem. Apart from the name of the Nawab, and the very generous awards to Clive personally and the Company in general, not much changed until 1764 (and even that was still just in Bengal).
@@PastPresented Some? Thats the official position of the empire itself.
Speaking of megaprojects, could you perhaps do a video on the eventual abolishment of slavery throughout the world? It would be interesting to see the inception of the abolitionism movement, the slow implementation of laws prohibiting the African slave trade, and how different countries reacted to these laws at the time. Love the videos, keep it up?
Great video idea!
You understand slavery STILL exists, right? Slavery is very popular in the Far East, the Middle East, and wait for it………. Africa. The idea that slavery was abolished is true if you are referring to the western world.
Boring
Get yourself to libya….. you can buy your own today
Get yourself to libya. You can buy one of your own today
"British started the slave trade" utter bollocks.
We definitley ended it though
the transatlantic...
@@mcmarkmarkson7115 he didn't say transatlantic
Surely the Spanish began the Transatlantic slave trade moving slaves from Ceuta to the Caribbean replacing the poor Taino across the Atlantic Ocean. In a crossing motion. In a Transatlantic kind of way?
Not condoning Slavery, slavery is 'orrible but Britain was relative late comers to the party. We just did it an absolute shit load over a relatively short period. We were also the first major player to stop it and then started enforcing everyone else to submit to ship searches to make sure everyone else stopped it also.
An over simplification, the British empire was one of the primary and initiating proponents of the Atlantic slave trade though, that specific one. People do tend to think of this specific one when they hear the phrase ‘slave trade’, because it was probably the worst slaves were treated in history if only because there were so many people being treated like utter shit. In the ancient world there would of course have been slaves treated worse I imagine, but not on such a massive scale.
Great summary at the end
An equally critical video about the US-American empire would be interesting.
2nd this
That would be a good watch.
US was Europeans who brought there practices here…. Eventually US has done trillion times more good than harm to the 🌎
@@gk4539 that's a very huge overestimation. And no, the US is not so great that it counterweights it's past and current misdeeds. It's very good at redirecting people's blame tho.
@@gk4539 Really? How?
Love the channels and long time fan but I noticed a mistake in this video, the first colony wasn't in south carolina, it was in north carolina. I grew up on roanoke island and worked backstage with my father running the concessions for the actors and actresses of the Lost Colony outdoor reenactments. Honest mistake but yea, roanoke island north carolina is where sir walter raleigh set down the first colony where the first baby colonist to be born into the new world virginia dare. Love your shows though brotherman, keep up the good work and take care
He was also wrong about Brittan "basically starting the slave trade", ludicrous. Still love his content though, great stuff
Witch!
He gets a lot wrong. There is a major Bias and he is very selective about what parts of history to tell. He has a left wing Bias.
@@Purgar316 Yeah, slaves were captured and relocated since ancient times. Even if you were talking about the specific trade of slaves from africa to north america, Portugal was the first.
@@Plainsburner didn't know Portugal was first. Cheers for an interesting tidbit
Hi Simon!! You must take to task the writer of this program! I live in the American colonies, North Carolina! The Roanoke colony was located on an island among the NC Outer Banks and NOT South Carolina!! Roanoke was not too far from Virginia but too far for the ship's captain with a storm coming. So he dumped the colonists on this uninhabited island off North Carolina . Love your videos! And you are a cutie!
Britain lost its geographical Empire but gained its financial Empire in the City of London.
Is it still the real deal or did 2008 end it?
@@mrsentencename73342008 end it
Britain hasn't been the same since.
The square mile isn't a part of Britain. It is a separate sovereign state run by the Bank of England. Similar to the State of Colombia, Washington DC and the Vatican in Rome.
Please please please do a video (showing my age lol) on the Mongolian Empire. I am a disabled man who when not creating art likes to spends his time educating himself and you are the most educational channel on youtube (i watch your other channels too) Keep up the great work :D
We are destroying ourselves with self loathing. We are judging ourselves by our faults and everyone else by their virtues.
Not "we" but mentally ill leftists.
And looking at the comments on this video no matter how much you feel bad people will still see you as a cartoonish villain.
They will claim that all British people touch themselves constantly thinking of imperialism.
Then when you say you are sorry for things long dead people possibly not even related to you did, they will demand more and more while still demonising you.
Screw them.
‘The British started the slave trade’. Where are you getting your “facts” from? 😂😂 the Portuguese started what we call “the slave trade” and we finished it. But let’s not forget, the concept of slavery has literally been around since the dawn of civilisation and every single person alive today, has benefited from it.
Actually the Portuguese banned before the British but the rest in correct.
If your referring to the Atlantic slave trade probably right. But the Arabs and other Muslim countries were trading in sub Saharan African slaves long before the Atlantic slave trade and they continued it into the 20th century.
Mohammad started slave trade
@@T30-z5w It's kind of a no brainer that the British Empire invented it's own slave trade between its colonies. I mean who else was going to do it? Germany? France? Egypt?
@@Snagprophet Nothing is ever a no-brainer. There’s always more to the story. The Atlantic slave trade of which several European countries (England, Portugal and Spain come to mind) participated in was indeed intense for a specific period of time. But it dwarfed the East African slave trade in sheer numbers. Trade to Muslim countries began much earlier and lasted much longer. If it hadn’t been for England’s ability to project force on the high seas against the slave trade after 1807 the Atlantic slave trade would have continued on for much longer. So yes, not a no brainer but a complicated history as always.
We need a much longer video on this...
In spite of the black effects you mentioned, you did not speak to one of the most recognizable effects of the British Empire: the establishment of the English language as the dominant language in the world today. And many of the former areas of the empire still rely on the precepts of English Common Law to guide their judicial systems.
I believe thats a quite literal thing too.
Apparently if a crime or some random arse scenario ends up in a court, if the courts have no precident or clue on how to manage it, they'll look to see if Britain has dealt with the issue. If British courts have ruled on that paticular strange scenario then the courts overseeing the case will follow that set precident.
Its pretty interesting how the court systems are so interlinked and how a court can literally change the law by ruling differently, law set by precident is a quirk not many acknowledge or appreciate.
Gary .i very much do agree on this point. And here's I think is a simple example .....When you look at the Nuremberg trials .Im sure it followed english common law .Even those vile creatures had the right to face their accusers and give their side of the story .If starlin had his way he would have simply taken them out and have them shot NO trial .
You should have contextualised the slave trade segment. Britain did play a role, but it neither created the slave trade, neither was it the first to take slaves across the atlantic. All major powers of the time were invested in the slave trade, and the trade was done with the full participation of the African states that benefitted greatly from it.
I have no issue with confronting dark points of our past. The issue I have is when it is not put in a wider context of the time. Slave trading British were no better or worse than the states and cultures that existed at the time or came before.
In comparison to other empires the British slave trade was short lived
The biggest problem for the history of the British Empire, are the self flagelating Britons who for some reason get a big kick from blaming themselves and the rest of the British (English) people of this century!
It was one of the last European powers to take slaves across the Atlantic. Whilst it wasn't unique in being involved it was unique in the resources and efforts it expended to abolish slavery, globally. Half the world stopped slaving because of the British empire.
They didn't stop anti slaving patrols off East Africa till the 1970's.
He doesn't claim Britain created it. He says they were involved in it.
@@spiritualanarchist8162 wasn’t nearly every country in their turn.
Touchy subject, much like the British Empire, but you should cover the tobacco lords that made Glasgow so rich. As you say, as touchy as it might be, not talking about history doesn't get us very far.
Also, more 5 year plans fact boi!
Not talking about history is better then talking about it inaccurately like Simon. Roanoke, in north Carolina? Simons an idiot, it doesn't take a history expert to know it's in Virginia....his stuff is always wrong in several places...it's embarrassing how often he's wrong
@@jamesmeppler6375 fair point, but Simon doesn't claim to be an historian. The man is making 10 or more videos a week lol, things go wrong.
@@froggystyle642 fair point, my thought was like the man records 10 videos a week, that's like getting 1/10 facts on your homework wrong, right?
Though I guess I should be calling on Danny or the editor, I'm guessing I'm the one pedantic person who fact checks everything I can. ^_^
@@jamesmeppler6375 nothing wrong with fact checking at all, I see these videos as a way to get a rough idea on things, and often I'll go look up the subject!
@@jamesmeppler6375 just so you know the original Roanoke colony was in fact in North Carolina
The modern day city of Roanoke is in Virginia
A channel called Megaprojects spending only 20 minutes talking about the British Empire is peak irony.
I'd love to see the Mongolian empire as a topic. Its one of those historical events that is so significant, so notable, but don't know so much about... speaking personally of course.
Britain did not "start the slave trade" and it had been going for centuries if not millennia prior to Britain getting involved.
Oh, ok. It's fine 'cus some other nations did it first. Thanks for your input.
@@CannaCJ "Oh, ok. It's fine 'cus some other nations did it first."
If you can't win the argument, just accuse your opponent of supporting slavery!
nobody ever really complaines about the early empire's slave practices
But they had a lot to do with the Transatlantic slave trade, which is what he was referring to.
@@stephenj4937 And they *still* weren’t the first to do that; Spain and Portugal had been buying and exporting slaves from Africa for a century before English merchants got involved.
Did you really say the British Empire started the slave trade at 19:24? The slave trade was well established literally thousands of years before the British Empire in the first civilisations even before the Roman Empire which had a huge prominent slave trade.
He was literally talking about The Atlantic Slave Trade, which britain did start. Pay attention next time.
@@foosic1742 Can you provide evidence that Britain created the trans-Atlantic slave trade?
Participants, yes. Creator, no.
@@foosic1742 no the portugese did. also he didnt stae the atlantic slave trade either
The first slaves were white and slavic which is where the name came from
@@foosic1742 no, Britain was one of the last European nations to get involved in the transatlantic slave trade.
Surely the most poignant aspect of the British Empire’s involvement in the slave trade was the abolishment of slavery and then the enforcement of this ban around the globe at the cost of much blood and treasure.
So you’d like the british empire to be better recognised for solving the problem they helped create and profited from?
Fair: thank you, Britain, for stopping the thing you massively contributed to industrialising and profited from. It was nice of you to compensate your slave owning subjects to make sure it ends. Pity about the slaves, who were simply told they were now free and then were left with no choice but to largely continue to do what they were doing before to survive, but the MAIN thing here is the huge sacrifices Britain made to end slavery. Britain are the true heroes and victims here. The centre of the story.
Thank you so much for bringing this up. Someone simply HAD to speak up for the British Empire.
The British did not end slavery, only replaced it with indentured labor largely from India and largely on similar terms
As a British MP of Nigerian descent noted recently in parliament the largest statue in Nigeria is of a Queen of an African empire who made a fortune from trading in slaves, in competition with the slave traders from North Africa (the US marines sing about the shores of Tripoli because they went there as part of a punitive expedition to discourage the Barbary Pirates from enslaving the crews of US ships). The British did not invent the slave trade, they exploited an existing trade at the time and a trade that still exists today with greater numbers of affected people than ever before. It was, and remains, an abomination but the danger in characterising it as a 'British Empire thing' the assumption will be it is over. Slavery is, was and probably will be disgusting, but the British did not 'invent it' they exploited it (no more morally justified but it helps to get your facts right when forming an opinion). If you dig a little deeper it was more a 'Norman' empire than a British one, the Normans and their kin folk have had a major impact on history, from making Britain the class ridden society it became (thereby facilitating many of the excesses of the British Empire), to protecting the Ottoman sultans and subtly colonising places mostly around the Mediterranean. It is dangerous to start trying to group people by arbitrary features (skin colour, nationality, what scale their model railway is in etc.) the problem is they are all people, prone to delusional paranoia, riddled with insecurities, clever at some things (putting a satellite in orbit around a far flung asteroid is damned clever) absolute rubbish at other (religion being one of the worst). A more fruitful approach, if understanding is the goal, would be 'comparative empires', comparing and contrasting the features of various examples (with reference to the work of psychologists, in particular those researching conformity and obedience such as Asch, Maslow, et. seq.), however if 'clicks' are the goal then carry on making vague references lacking the essential context that serve to reinforce people's prejudices. Culture is just the way humans seek to organise to confront their environment, as the environment changes so the culture must evolve (but humans hate that kind of change). Politics is what we resort to when we don't know, ideology is what we fall back on when we find out but don't like it and dogma is the last bastion of ego-protecting ignorance. Politics at it's best is the art of expediency and diplomacy is the art of obscuring that ugly fact, but politics at its worst is thinly veiled criminality (but hey, humans innit as they say in westminster - Allegedly). Personally I think knowing is a better option, I am less interested in politics than in the results of double-blind, placebo-controlled, peer-reviewed and published experiments that have been replicated, but given human insecurities and the need for self justification (and if possible aggrandisement) the research suggests that would not be a popular position to take (the Seligman Gove Problem, as I choose to call it).
Right you are!
Thanks for sharing your insight.
Britain did not start the slave trade,it already existed prior to the british joining in. The Arabs had been trading slaves for centuries and the Spanish and Portuguese were buying slaves from the Arabs long before the British muscled in on the deal.
sounds like you are being an apologist. we are talking about the atlantic slave trade
@Aitch love your deflections
@@terrancehall9762 The spanish started first, The British started with shipping prisoners from England to the Caribbean for working the plantations but the plantation owners were so beastly to the prisoners and treated them so badly flogging and hanging the prisoners for the slightest infringement that the government of the time decided that if the plantation owners paid for the worker prisoners that they would be treated more fairly and not killed off so fast. But of course the Christian ethics then came into play and you cannot sell a white Christian into slavery so they looked elsewhere and came up with buying black slaves from the Arabs who of course were "heathens" and therefore could be bought and sold with a clear Christian conscience.
@Aitch ok stormfront
@@Equiluxe1 you are doing alot of excusemaking just to say the africans were inferior so they deserved it
As a Brit being born in England having a Sierra Leonian mother gives me a very good perspective. Both on the empire and on slavery. Considering my mothers people decend from freed slaves. British colonists exploited something that was already there however in Sierra Leone the slave trade had been started by Portuguese and Spanish slavers which resulted in the slave fortress of Lomboko and bunce island, which took slaves to the Caribbean and from there to the United States and South America. It is with good authority that a lot of black peoples residing in these areas come from and decend from those belonging to the tribes of Sierra leonne. A film known as la amistad based on real events talks about the journey of a select group of liberated slaves of the Temne and Mende being tricked into sailing to the United States which sparks off a legal case and then is the spark that sets off the American civil war. Slavery had been abolished in England at least since 1066 but not in the empire, and was abolished eventually in 1806. All in all a lot of criticism of the Atlantic slave trade goes to the British but honestly not enough attention is given to the Spanish or Portuguese slavers. It is my belief that although we should be taking responsibility and acknowledging the evils the British empire brought on the world, the blame should not solely rest at its feet simply because it was the largest.
No one is denying the role of the Portuguese and Spaniard. In fact, most of the Europeans did it
@@opola1432 In anglosphere discourse we gloss over it because we are English speakers sharing some stock with the English the focus is generally on Atlantic and indigenous slavery our states engaged in. I've seen it among educated people, they think there's something uniquely savage about white people and the colonial era, the states of south America are just 'poor browns' in their mental space. Kind of ignoring the larger scale of African slavery in places like Brazil or the 1400 year old sub-saharan slave routes to Arab markets from west Africa.
Ultimately a lot of anglos who go woke still take pride in white people being special, even if its being exceptional in inhumanity so they can act enlightened on the topic. Christian cultures still take great pleasure in self-flagellation.
@@chinogambino9375 exactly couldn’t agree more, there isn’t so much of a debate in the Latin realms of the impact of slavery in the southern americas.
Martin Luther king jr often said to beware of white liberals “when the issues were joined concerning local conditions, only the language was polite; the rejection was firm and unequivocal.”
Malcom X had the same view as that they both believed that the liberal or woke liberals in the north would simply use the cause of black community to further their own gains for white liberals, but when it comes to issues concerning both groups of even just black people they would simply but politely say no and disagree.
A lot of people will forget the first suffragettes did not allow black women to protest with them. Most woke liberals forget that the latins are white Europeans, but you often here just simply how bad the English or even the British are.
Reason you dont hear much is because many deniers use it as a scapegoat.
Aren't you glossing over the role of other Africans in the trade? In the end the British fought wars to stop Africans from trading other Africans.
Always enjoyable Simon.
i feel like we need more open animosity between England and France, it just helps the world make sense.
every nations looking ackwardly towards Britain and France knowing far too well if those two did not exist it probably would have be them that would be the most hated nation in the world.
Portugal started the slave trade as far as I know quickly followed by Spain but Arab countries took whites & blacks years before then then there was the Roman Empire , I’m sure they’ve been taking slaves since time began tbh ,I’m not saying it’s right but that’s how empires are built mainly , look at the Egyptians , but yeah great work mate
@@standalby6949 Even before the pyramids were built in Egypt slavery was a thing. It's stupid to say Britain started it, because in reality they just took part in it for a while and then ended it everywhere
Lets hope they dont meet in the World Cup (football)
@@paulgearing3018 They will play next week😂
Literally laughed the whole time u talked about the opium wars in such a “careful” way 😂
Simon’s facial expression in the first 10 seconds of the video was that of a man knowing just how bad this was going to get 😂
@@manzelli1981 But he never gets tired pointing the finger during ww2 at germany.
Yeah its weird rights the Chinese have smoked opium in Europe since medieval times then all of a sudden they have a problem with those selling them it
Hey, you skipped the horrendous border drawing in the middle east (which is still haunting us until this very day).
Kind of a big deal.
Also, eating baked beans for breakfast. The Horror.
Have you ever tried those sausages? Take my advice, don’t!!
Yeah, but it's really difficult to blame that one on the British when the natives were pushed out of their home over 1000 years ago, and have been repeatedly persecuted in Europe since migrating there, from being massacred in the 14th century due to being blamed for the black death, all the way up to what happened in WW2. None of this was the fault of the British, nor was it their fault when huge numbers of Jews started turning up in the middle east immediately post WW2. That should have been on the collective shoulders of the international community to deal with. We could have all chipped in to buy some land somewhere in the world to resettle them in a new country of their own.
@@BigBoomOfDoom2 To me it sounded like he meant the Iraq/Syria border from the "Sykes-Picot Agreement"
@@fjooyou Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying.
Of the 20 minute video 15 minutes is slavery, colonialism, and war. 2 minutes discussing health care and infrastructure. 3 minutes of ads. There I just saved you 10 minutes!
Simon when talking about the good the bad and the ugly about the Great British Empire, you should have pointed out that it ended widow burning in India, as well as crusading against the slave trade and were the first major power to stop slavery !
Charles Napier is my hero.
Here in NZ the local custom of taking members of neighbouring iwi's (tribes) as slaves, and eating them if it was a hard winter, was also ended by the terrible British.
They didn't ended it
It was already in decline
And it was already banned in many kingdoms
Britain should have ended witch hunt in the UK
There stopping of slavery doesn't mean it was innocent
Good thing don't wash away bad things
@@Ankit-d9f4u so black people who keep talking about it should just leave it in the past !, When was the last time you heard a white person complain about another race who owned white slaves ?
You know what’s worse than ignoring the past atrocities, ignoring the present ones
@Bluegrass Banjo Classic. They were involved in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and so on.
@Bluegrass Banjo Yup
@Bluegrass Banjo especially Japan, Cambodia, and America to name a few. For Japan,
Nanking Massacre (you probably learned this)
Cambodia: Pol Pot Shenanigans that led to living skulls being stockpiled (you may have learned this)
America: Massacred vietnamese villages and committed war crimes in vietnam killing rice farmers with baskets on heads, bombed afghani hospitals, homes, shelters and communities, and under o🅱️ama, self bombed its own hospitals.
@@FlatEarthKiller The British Empire stole over 40 trillion dollars worth of food and resources from India causing nearly 2 billion deaths from famines in the few centuries they colonized the sub continent. India should just launch a nuclear warhead at London and turn that city into glass. The British Empire has and probably will never pay any reparations to any of its former colonies. Not unless India threatened the UK with nuclear war.
@@Yes_Fantasy_419 yes.
The most enlightening covno's I've ever had on Brit colonialism has been with friends from India and Pakistan. Convo's of good, bad, and a whole lot of grey. Definitely advise others to have chats with those on the other side of colonialism (my father is English), as its both humbling and inspiring.
It was a nightmare
bad? How? Higher GDP growth than Mughals and 🍆 worshipping kings. Much benevolent than the Portuguese and Spanish. Higher literacy than Lindhoo reign.
Today India is a more horrid state than ever under the British.
India is hundreds of years away from a democratic system.
@@YuddhaVeera: Wait until you hear about the Delhi Sultanate. The Brits were amateurs by comparison.
@@donquixote3927 British were a class apart in the damage they did through economy and culture. Islamic invaders were another class. 😂
i know you're committed to this youtube 20 minute format but i think this warrants more depth.
People: Roman Empire was great and big
Same people: British Empire was bad
??? You cannot like Rome and not bow to the British Empire, and I’m not even British, I’m just not a hypocrite
Strawman
Na you can still recognize that they did terrible things instead of glorifying them. The Romans caused a lot of misery to anyone who wasn't them for their personal gain. The only reason we remember the cool stories are because they wrote history from their point of view
@@blink182bfsftw in 500 years the British will be glorified along side the Romans and Mongols because humans are hypocrites and condone things when they aren’t personally related to them. The British colonies were a harsh time which propelled progressive first world nations such as Australia, NZ and North America with advanced medicines, technologies and forms of government. It’s so progressive history is now more focused on the evils rather than the successes.
@@rockstar450 agreed, Dan Carlin talks about this, eg the Mongol empire. I feel like British crimes in India aren't spoken about enough though. Good to see Simon talk about it
It's very strategic. There are interests in the world would like to condemn people they see as competition
I suppose one could consider establishing (and running) an empire a (mega) project of sorts...certainly a long-term one.
Imagine the gantt chart - terrifying.
You say that you tried to be balanced but there were far more negative aspects you went into detail with and simply glossed over anything positive. Also the British Empire did not start slavery, that is just false and you are a fool if you believe that.
Toke to the 19th minute to say anything positive, and that lasted 30 seconds
I think he said the slave trade. Slavery has been around for eons up to today, and will be here tomorrow but he means the British started the business of the slave trade across the Atlantic to the Americas and Caribbean.
@@Catkilledmeowbob Actually it was the Portuguese in 1526 who started the Atlantic Slave Trade. The British were not even the largest, that was also the Portuguese. It was also the British who eventually stopped the trade all together and forced the other nations to comply. Always do your own research.
@@Denazon you’re right, it was the Portuguese. Not sure what source he was drawing his info from. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I thought your argument was based on the “act of enslaving people” which has been around since human civilization, not the slave trade which was also an incorrect assertion that it was started by the British Empire.
@@Denazon Yeah, it was the Portugese and Spanish who started the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, with the Portugese having the largest numbers overall - and both those countries did it for the longest period around 1500-1875. Britain was particularly bad in the 1700's, but before 1650 there was very little by comparison, and between 1807 and 1833 it was hugely reduced and then banned by Britain.
Did you just claim that the British started slavery? That’s patiently ridiculous. Even just transportation of slaves across oceans is not a British invention. You fail to mention the civilian deaths in the Indian uprising that really crossed lines with the British. Frankly, this was not a good episode.