I'm torn on my opinion of the British Empire. As a subject of Her Majesty, I was taught that in the past we explored most of the world, and where we found nativ

I'm torn on my opinion of the British Empire. As a subject of Her Majesty, I was taught that in the past we explored most of the world, and where we found native populations we did one of two things: a) educate them into being good British citizens, or b) kill them all if they wouldn't comply with 'a' because they were 'wild'. Granted, I was at primary school in the 1970s, and it was a much less enlightened time, so there was little or no balance in the retelling of the history of the Empire. We we told that the Empire did good, and those that opposed it at the time were just wrong. Even the US revolution got boiled down (pun intended) to those pesky colonialists just not liking our tea. As an adult, I can easily see both sides of it. Yes the Empire did a lot of good things, and if it had not existed a lot of technical, mechanical, dietary and cultural breakthroughs may not have happened which ultimately benefited more than just the UK. On the flip side, it treated most of it's foreign subjects as little more than slaves, and the rest literally as slaves (Although it must be pointed out here, that all western Nations with remote colonies had their own slave trades, and not only with just black slaves). I'm sure that most of the colonised regions would have been perfectly happy not being made British subjects (and then later also being forced into Christianity). It is a hard one, it's part of my cultural DNA and I'm proud of how my home country was once one of strongest and forward-thinking nations on the planet, but I can definitely see it's faults. Should I apologise for it? My personal view is 'No'. I'm not directly responsible for it, in the same way that modern Germans are not responsible for the Nazis; We don't make them apologise for World War II, so nor should modern British people apologise for the old British Empire. It boils down to this: Any group of people who wield absolute power will eventually become blind to their own faults as there's no-one to keep them in check. In this instance it was the British, but history is replete with other strong nations exploiting weaker nations wherever they could. We should learn from history and try not to repeat the mistakes. We should not use it as a tool for blaming others.