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A lot of people certainly died through indifference, neglect and their resources being misappropriated (e.g. Bengal famine, Irish potato famine, Highland cleara

A lot of people certainly died through indifference, neglect and their resources being misappropriated (e.g. Bengal famine, Irish potato famine, Highland clearances etc). But I'm not aware that the British Empire ever did anything deliberately genocidal, in the way that, say, the Nazis or the Romans attempted to destroy whole peoples.

eigenket 5y ago
The Boer war might count, I'm sure there are other examples > The British response to guerrilla warfare was to set up complex nets of blockhouses, strongpoints, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. In addition, civilian farms and livestock were destroyed as part of a scorched earth policy. Survivors were forced into concentration camps. Very large proportions of these civilians died of hunger and disease, especially the children
- azalemeth 5y ago
  My grandmother's parents were in one of these concentration camps. She told stories about how the British used to arrive periodically to kill all the chickens and lifestock and try to maximise famine, and how her dad was a gun-runner for the Boers. She later emigrated to London (!).
- hermitcrab 5y ago
  Accounts of the Boer concentration camps are horrific. And the scorched earth policy was brutal. I don't think it was a deliberate attempt to exterminate the Boers though. Just to subjugate them enough so the British empire could take what it wanted.
- ArkanExplorer 5y ago
  The lesson of genocide appears to be: carry it out in the most boring way possible (starvation, exposure, disease, suppression of fertility) and people will forget about it or never realize it occurred. As soon as you introduce novel technologies or extensive record-keeping, your actions remain cemented in history and popular consciousness.
mustafa_pasi 5y ago
A colonizing force takes over your country, steals your resources and exploits your people, and your people suffer. You try to resist and you are murdered. Then some guy on the internet says, "I don't think the colonizing force ever did anything deliberately genocidal" as if that somehow excuses all the other evil they committed.
- hermitcrab 5y ago
  Genocide is: "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group." Did the British empire do plenty of bad things? Yes, I would say so. Did it deliberately commit genocide? I'm not so sure. Please feel free to provide an example.
- hermitcrab 5y ago
  Re-read your post and my answer missed the mark. You weren't accusing the British empire of genocide. My bad. Certainly I'm not out to excuse the British empire for any atrocities that were committed. Yes, times were different and other empires have been much worse. But a lot of dreadful things were done. Britain gunboats forcing China to accept Indian opium comes to mind as a particulalry shameful and inexcusable example.
fit2rule 5y ago
Australia was genocide.

eigenket 5y ago

The Boer war might count, I'm sure there are other examples > The British response to guerrilla warfare was to set up complex nets of blockhouses, strongpoints, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. In addition, civilian farms and livestock were destroyed as part of a scorched earth policy. Survivors were forced into concentration camps. Very large proportions of these civilians died of hunger and disease, especially the children

azalemeth 5y ago
My grandmother's parents were in one of these concentration camps. She told stories about how the British used to arrive periodically to kill all the chickens and lifestock and try to maximise famine, and how her dad was a gun-runner for the Boers. She later emigrated to London (!).
hermitcrab 5y ago
Accounts of the Boer concentration camps are horrific. And the scorched earth policy was brutal. I don't think it was a deliberate attempt to exterminate the Boers though. Just to subjugate them enough so the British empire could take what it wanted.
ArkanExplorer 5y ago
The lesson of genocide appears to be: carry it out in the most boring way possible (starvation, exposure, disease, suppression of fertility) and people will forget about it or never realize it occurred. As soon as you introduce novel technologies or extensive record-keeping, your actions remain cemented in history and popular consciousness.

mustafa_pasi 5y ago

A colonizing force takes over your country, steals your resources and exploits your people, and your people suffer. You try to resist and you are murdered. Then some guy on the internet says, "I don't think the colonizing force ever did anything deliberately genocidal" as if that somehow excuses all the other evil they committed.

hermitcrab 5y ago
Genocide is: "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group." Did the British empire do plenty of bad things? Yes, I would say so. Did it deliberately commit genocide? I'm not so sure. Please feel free to provide an example.
hermitcrab 5y ago
Re-read your post and my answer missed the mark. You weren't accusing the British empire of genocide. My bad. Certainly I'm not out to excuse the British empire for any atrocities that were committed. Yes, times were different and other empires have been much worse. But a lot of dreadful things were done. Britain gunboats forcing China to accept Indian opium comes to mind as a particulalry shameful and inexcusable example.

fit2rule 5y ago

Australia was genocide.