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Reply 20
Original post by Clip
Although we did have loads of pretty big fights with them and ended up taking half the country, before they eventually decided being British was a good idea.


Still never conquered it! Is that why we get the Ghurkas?
Reply 21
Original post by iSoftie
Still never conquered it! Is that why we get the Ghurkas?


It wasn't quite that straightforward, and if there's anywhere you're going to colonize, Nepal would surely be very low down on that list.

We (the British East India Company) started taking over a whole bunch of provinces neighbouring Nepal. The Gurkhas, being the incumbent war-mongers weren't having any of it, so they started fighting. We initially assumed this to be no problem, but in the early battles got absolutely spanked by them.

We called for more serious reinforcements and handed the Gurkhas a few beatings - and the Gurkha War went on backward and forward like this for a few years. The British way has generally been to get such people onside rather than fight them (hence the Malayan Emergency vs Vietnam), so we eventually offered them a peace deal. At the time, we also subscribed to various racial theories as to which locals were good, warlike peoples and which weren't (it was later widely discredited, but that's partly an explanation of why there were so many Sikhs in the Army).

Bottom line, they were impressed with us, we were impressed with them and as part of the peace deal, they got to be recruited into the British-Indian Army - and their warlords tended to be extremely pro-British. Later, the Gurkhas supported us universally during the Indian Mutiny. Upon the partition of India, the Gurkha regiments were split up - most going to the Indian Army, but a fair few stayed with the British. It's notable that the Indian ones (today) are nowhere near as good, and all recruits try out for the British Army first.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 22
Colonialism was the best thing to happen to the world. When the Europeans were in charge, all of the backwards countries found themselves lifted up to new heights. It truly was a golden age...

Just look at the countries now the Europeans have left? Very few of them have progressed, South Africa for example is now a crime infested, disease ridden **** hole.

Of course, braindead lib-tards get their guilt hat on about colonialism but those with intelligence, such as myself, see the true merits what it brings.

Famed human rights activist Liu Xiabo is in agreement. He quoted when asked what it would take for China to progress "300 years of colonialism. In 100 years of colonialism, Hong Kong has changed to what we see today. With China being so big, of course it would require 300 years as a colony for it to be able to transform into how Hong Kong is today. I have my doubts as to whether 300 years would be enough"

He stated "Modernization means whole-sale westernization, choosing a human life is choosing Western way of life. Difference between Western and Chinese governing system is humane vs in-humane, there's no middle ground... Westernization is not a choice of a nation, but a choice for the human race."


Therefore, for the world to progress westernization needs to take place and in the glory days of European colonialism, it did. Sadly political correctness and uneducated people failing to realise what's good for them has put an end to that and the world has entered a fresh spiral of despair, greed, crime and poverty.
Original post by Claymatser
The Middle East was never colonized nor Arabia.


Err... yes it was...

What is now Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain were all British in 1914.

British Mandate of Mesopotamia (Iraq) 1916-1932.
British Mandate for Palestine (where Israel is now) 1923-1948
British Mandate for Transjordan 1922-1946

etc, etc.

Except British people have apparently never counted themselves as European anyway, so the British Empire doesn't count :colone: Opens up a lot more possibilities in this debate if we believe Niggle Farridge MEP, doesn't it?
Original post by Zeffy
Colonialism was the best thing to happen to the world. When the Europeans were in charge, all of the backwards countries found themselves lifted up to new heights. It truly was a golden age...

Just look at the countries now the Europeans have left? Very few of them have progressed, South Africa for example is now a crime infested, disease ridden **** hole.

Of course, braindead lib-tards get their guilt hat on about colonialism but those with intelligence, such as myself, see the true merits what it brings.

Famed human rights activist Liu Xiabo is in agreement. He quoted when asked what it would take for China to progress "300 years of colonialism. In 100 years of colonialism, Hong Kong has changed to what we see today. With China being so big, of course it would require 300 years as a colony for it to be able to transform into how Hong Kong is today. I have my doubts as to whether 300 years would be enough"

He stated "Modernization means whole-sale westernization, choosing a human life is choosing Western way of life. Difference between Western and Chinese governing system is humane vs in-humane, there's no middle ground... Westernization is not a choice of a nation, but a choice for the human race."


Therefore, for the world to progress westernization needs to take place and in the glory days of European colonialism, it did. Sadly political correctness and uneducated people failing to realise what's good for them has put an end to that and the world has entered a fresh spiral of despair, greed, crime and poverty.


There is that side of it, I suppose. But the main reasons that Africa is currently in such a mess is not because colonialism was removed, but how it was instigated, and how it was removed.

It is of course often forgotten that many of the worst headline stories about European colonisation, such as transatlantic slavery, were instigated by the native people who were present in the early colony; the vast majority of new slaves were not kidnapped by Europeans, they merely bought them from members of a local tribe who were in the middle of a war with another tribe down the road.

There were, no doubt, many benefits to colonialism, including almost guarenteed trade deals, political stability etc. There were more benefits if the colony happened to be a port, such as Hong Kong.

With hugely powerful colonial powers in position in Africa, as much as we don't like to say it, order was maintained effectively- like it is in any dictatorship. Once a territory had been conquered, that was usually it, that territory was conquered and subjugated. Power was kept with a few civil servants and army commanders but also very often, the colonial power chose one tribe, one caste from their territory to appoint to high positions. When you take into account this inter-African subjugation, the arbitrary borders drawn up by the colonial powers, and the iron fist discipline shown by so many of them, it is easy to see why when they left, many countries descended into chaos in the power gap that followed.

I do not agree when you say that colonialism = westernisation. A country that is colonised by a European power is not a European country, it is in fact more like China, a dictatorship. I highly doubt that Liu Xiabo's visions of the westernisation of China involved copying a colonial model, it would rather have involved copying the colonial power itself - the ideas of democracy and such like that the colonies never had.
Zeffy must be the new troll it's compulsory to have at least one of on these forums for some reason.
Original post by Ferdowsi
Ethiopia was never colonised, it was "occupied" for about five?? years but not "colonised".

It was colonised, it was a modern colonisation but still counts.
Reply 27
Original post by tehFrance
It was colonised, it was a modern colonisation but still counts.


Occupation is not colonisation. If so, France, Belgium, Poland were all colonised by Nazi Germany. But that is not the case.

During the brief Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1936-1941), the Italians were effectively living in garrisons. The occupation itself was made possible only through the widespread italian use of banned chemical & biological weapons. In the occupation, even after killing 30,000 ethiopian partisans, the Italians decided they were simply unable to subdue these people. After ethiopia was liberated, anecdotal evidence suggests the erstwhile occupying italian force were frankly 'relieved' to be free of this difficult task.

Ethiopia was never colonised.
Reply 28
Japan


did a very good job of closing its doors and pretending the rest of the world didn't exist ...


then some foreign devils forced their door open and they got all pissed and decided to try and conquer half of Asia ...

or something like that
Original post by frenchfries
Antartica, nobody wants to live there.


(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 30
Iran certainly was. Ever hear of Alexander the great?
Reply 31
Original post by Ferdowsi
Iran was never colonised. Russia and Britain fought each other for power in Iran, but it was never colonised.

Ethiopia was never colonised, it was "occupied" for about five?? years but not "colonised".


Alexander the great took Iran as part of his empire. Perhaps not colonised in the 18th century sense, but completely taking over the place is even more extreme
Everything has been colonized by humans
Reply 33
It was not "Europe" that colonised - rather several Western European countries. Most of central and eastern Europe either does not have an imperial History or was 'colonised'/subjugated by other imperial powers in the 19th century (Austro-Hungary, Germany, Russia, Ottoman Empire).

The Europeans were not the only Imperial powers of the period by any margin. China, Mexico and Turkey in this period were both considered "Empires" as well. The British effectively took control of India by defeating the Maratha Empire there, weakened by its wars with the old Mughal Empire. There is a very good case to be made for the 19th century USA being an Empire too. Newly independent Brazil was also considered itself and was considered an Empire.
Reply 34
The thing is even the places that were not colonised were still under European influence and forced to do the bidding of European nations.

For example, Britain directly controlled 1/4 of the world, but nations such as Iran, China and Brazil were still economically and politically tied to Britain in such a way that they were considered part of Britain's 'informal empire'
Reply 35
Original post by KCosmo
Alexander the great took Iran as part of his empire. Perhaps not colonised in the 18th century sense, but completely taking over the place is even more extreme


lol well yeah. I think we are talking about the European colonial period!
Afghanistan was never colonized.... Russians and the Britain did try many times but were defeated ever single time.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 37
To steal from another thread, Oman was barely colonized. The Portuguese were in there but only really in a few ports and that was it. The Omani royal family have been in control of the country independently for centuries.
Reply 38
Original post by Xyrish
China was never officially colonized by Europeans APART from a few coastal regions. Even the Shanghai International Settlement was sovereign Chinese territory but operated by different rules.


The Russians tore huge chunks out of China, some became part of Russia and some of it became Mongolia.
Reply 39
Original post by 99luft Balons
I can think of Thailand and Japan but that's it.Hmm China?Turkey?

All of Africa and the Middle East were carved up between western european countries. All of North and South America were colonized, including Caribbean. Southeast Asia was colonized minus Thailand. I think China was colonized in parts. India was colonized or occupied by Britain for many years. Australia was a former British colony. All of the South Pacific was in German, french or British hands until after WW2 when the Germans had to turn over their territories to allies countries. I can't think of a place on earth where Europe didn't invade and take it over.


At the end of WWII, Germans had no Pacific Islands, nor at the beginning of WWII. The Germans lost all their Pacific Islands during WWI. During WWI, the Japanese entered WWI on the side of the Allies due to the Anglo-Japanese treaty and occupied all German Pacific Islands. Since the Spanish-American war Guam has been part of the United States(which although isn't European has been a colonial power.) Japan was never colonized but was occupied for a few years after WWII. Difference between being occupied after WWII by the Americans and being colonized was that the US no intention of making Japan part of the US.

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