Talk:British Empire

Middle East / Interwar Period

I dismantled this edit [1], as it was too vaguely worded and short on specifics. There was already something on Egypt in this section, so anything Middle East related should have gone there, but most importantly the additional material had no mention of the Arab versus Jewish "problem" and the background behind it. Lastly, the supplied reference for the added text - another encyclopaedia - wasn't optimal. The Red Hat of Pat Ferrick ^t 17:15, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Official end of Empire

Was there a date when the UK government stopped referring to its overseas territories as an, "Empire"? Thom2002 (talk) 17:39, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Probably. However good luck on getting people to agree when that was. -- Derek Ross | Talk 15:29, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

Ha ha. I checked Hansard - the last time the "Empire" was referred to as a going concern by a minister was in 1956, right before Suez. After Suez, no Minister ever called the remaining overseas territories an "Empire" again, or at least not in Parliament. Not sure if this is too OR to include though. Thom2002 (talk) 07:26, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

And it wasn't until 1966 that the Commonwealth Games ceased to be named the "British Empire' Games.Gazzster (talk) 21:03, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

Let's not forget the extant Order of the British Empire! But the Colonial Office was also renamed in 1966. The Red Hat of Pat Ferrick ^t 13:37, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Images/FA Status

As part of the FA review, the placement and number of images had to be modified to be in accordance with the manual of style. Since then, there has been some "image creep" which I'm sure would have to be addressed were this article ever have to undergo a review again. Anyone have any thoughts on this? The Red Hat of Pat Ferrick ^t 19:29, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Six images have been added since the review closed. I've removed one (File:Partion1.jpg) because of unclear licensing status; the rest appear to be appropriately licensed. Nikkimaria (talk) 20:35, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! Also I was worried about the layout aspect - any concerns there? The Red Hat of Pat Ferrick ^t 22:56, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Looks okay on my screen, but if you think it could be better give it a go. Nikkimaria (talk) 01:00, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

IIRC the rule of thumb is basically that images should alternate left/right, but they should not be placed on the left if at the start of a paragraph. So, for example, Anthony Eden should really be on the right and Robert Clive could be on the left, but the rest are fine. With a wiki the text wrapping is always a bit awkward so we have to accept that short paragraphs with large images are going to look slightly odd. Wiki-Ed (talk) 10:14, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

British A Empire?

It seems like the British more like claimed those lands then conquer. I notice some places were highlighted at which Britain never really conquered such as most of Canada the Inuit and a lot of other tribes didnt even get conquered yet. The area around the Great Lakes, and the Western part of the Easern Woodlands in the USA were not even conquered the Iroqoise, Ojibwa and other tribes. Belize just got the their coast conquered beacause a lot of he Maya died but inland their were still Mayas that were not ever conquered by the British and im sure theirs many other areas that were not conquered.NativePride98 (talk) 02:13, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Where in the article does it talk about being conquered? MilborneOne (talk) 17:09, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Genocides perpetrated by the British Empire

It seems that the wikipedia article doesn't mention any of the genocides attributed to the Empire, apart of the Mau Mau uprising. There should be a a paragraph devoted to the subject. British Genocides - No Apologies from the Fascist Empire and No Prosecutions of the Imperial Operatives

NORTH AMERICA: Using Smallpox to Eradicate the Natives Speaking of the period 1754-67, Dr. Henderson, former Director of the WHO smallpox eradication program writes, "British soldiers distributed blankets that had been used by smallpox patients with the intent of initiating outbreaks among American Indians. Epidemics occurred, killing more than 50% of many affected tribes."

NORTH AMERICA: Biological Warfare against Soldiers and Civilians During the American Revolution, the British army used infected civilians and soldiers - particularly black soldiers serving the loyalist cause in exchange for promises of freedom - to spread smallpox among the vulnerable American citizenry.

AUSTRALIA: Barbarism in Tasmania The first British colonists arrived there in 1803 - 24 prisoners, 8 soldiers and a dozen volunteers. The following year the killings began. The first massacre was by escaped prisoners - they randomly killed the natives and raped their women. The more sadistic killers chopped off the head and asked his wife to carry it round her neck...In 1829, prisoners were sent out to hunt down the natives and a £5 reward was offered for every native caught...In 1830, a chain of 5000 soldiers set out to corner all the natives into a small space. For several weeks the chain moved across the whole island. In the end just 300 natives remained.

KENYA: The Mau Mau Uprising "Dramatic evidence has unearthed such systematic British brutality in the former colony of Kenya that it may require the rewriting of imperial history. Hitherto secret files show that the then colonial secretary, Alan Lennox Boyd, sanctioned a policy of violence towards interned guerrilla suspects...The scale of suffering & death was far higher than previously thought and the Kikuyu death toll could have been as high as 50,000 [for some 35 European deaths]". John Nottingham, a district colonial officer at the time who stayed on in Kenya said: "What went on in the Kenya camps & the villages was brutal, savage torture...I feel ashamed to have come from a Britain that did what it did."

BENGAL, INDIA: Bengal Famine The British colonial masters used hunger and starvation as tools which lasted for about eighteen decades which claimed about 30 million victims. Bengal had 30 or 40 famines during 182 years of British rule in Bengal. The last big famine in Bengal occurred between 1942 and 1945. At least four million people died during these three years and the famine deaths were caused by British policies.

INDIA: British Indian Holocaust 1.8 billion excess deaths, 1757-1947; 10 million killed in post-1857 Indian Mutiny reprisals; 1 million starved, 1895-1897 Indian Famine; 6-9 million starved, 1899-1900 Indian Famine.

IRELAND: Irish Potato Famine The British caused the genocide of 2 million out of 8 million Irish subjects in four years. When it was "over," the British officials directly in charge of "Irish famine relief," particularly acting Treasury Minister Sir Charles Trevelyan, congratulated themselves and were decorated as Queen Victoria made her gala 1848 visit to Ireland.

SOUTH AFRICA: Boer (Afrikaaner) Genocide 28,000 Afrikaaner women and children died in British concentration camps, 1899-1902.

IRAQ: British Suppression of the Arab Revolt in Iraq British invaded in 1914. Bombing of Kurds using poison gas in the 1920s.

INDONESIA: A Million Deaths Bloodbath in Indonesia begins as army moves against supporters of Indonesian Communist Party, reaching around a million deaths. Declassified documents show Britain aids the Indonesian army in conducting the slaughter through covert operations and secret messages of support.

OMAN: Military Intervention by the British SAS fights covert war and RAF conducts wide-spread bombing of villages and strongholds.

NORTH YEMEN: Dirty British War In 1962, MI6 and SAS begin covert operation in North Yemen that eventually involves providing arms, funding and logistical support to royalist rebels in dirty war against pro-Egyptian republican forces. Around 200,000 die in the war.

AFRICA: Gukurahundi Massacres Britain was behind the 1980s massacres that left nearly 30,000 innocent civilians from Matabeleland and the Midlands dead.