The most "humane" colonial empire?

Well as any coin has the opposite side, I think Britain will claim all the good things as well

Originally posted by pinguin The genocide of Native Americans was the inspiration for ethnic cleaning in Europe.

I thought the royal proclamation of 1763 was supposed to prevent westward expansion of the colonies and give the native peoples of north America inherent rights to their lands.

Originally posted by pinguin Perhaps a little bit more human, but the scale of the British empire was bigger. Britain should accept its past and not pretend it was a perfect nation, because it wasn't.

Gcle2003, the point you make about population defining the size of economy is not entirely correct, some nations,  such as Denmark and Sweden have very large economies with small populations, due in no large part to their access to natural resources. The focus of the economy and the resources available to the economy is probably more important than the population available for it, even though population is still of course important.

Ah but the focus of the economy is manufacturing of high value goods, tax breaks for big companies and high foreign investment..So Ireland actually furthers my point. I didn't want to mention it, as I have been described as quite eurocentric in my outlook, and didnt want to make myself look even worse

Originally posted by HEROI ....Is true that the British where priding themselves on their human rights record,but that was because they were the best in hiding their crimes aswell.Just check their crimes against the Kenian people held in concentration camps that rival the ones of the NAZIS.   My vote on the most inhumane colonial empire Goes to Belgium and their barbaric behaviour in the Congo.

They don't, the English do ;)

Hmm so true, the 'descendants of warriors' myth, which dissapeared off the Radar real fast. Seems that as far as the Vikings is concerned, it was bollucks too, theose mighty warrious of empire have to make do with just a Danish farmer for a grand dad.

while in English such terms didn't even exist

Not strictly true, the British invented the term 'Eurasian' to refer to people of mixed Indian/European ancestry (its original meaning, before the Americans hijacked it), and adopted mulatto for the Afro/euro mix. What they didn't have was the complex caste system that the French and to a much lesser extent, the Spanish and Portuges had. The British approach was very much black and white with little grey, on which side you fell was more a matter of socio-economics than anything else.
But this came later on in the imperial misadventure, in the 1600s and 1700s for example, intermarriage with British soldiers and Indian women in India was very high, but by the 1800s, much rarer and somewhat taboo.
This change in attitude is found throughout the European colonial empires, just that with Britian being culturaly dominant in the 1800s, had the biggest mark on the period.

As for the Dutch, ironicly, the founders of the Indische Partij were AFAIK largely of mixed Euro/Inddonesian (IndoEuropean as the Dutch called them AFAIK) ancestry, who turned against Dutch rule towards the end of the 1800s when the Dutch, like everyone else caught the purity bug.

You are right about anglophone countries and the use of colour codes as official ethnic classification. Everywhere else that i know of uses either proper ethicity, or assumed nation of origin (Dutch system).

Originally posted by calvo �the British might not have invented this idea of white supremacism, but if you've look around the world, all the countries that are (or had been) most obsessed with "whiteness" are the former British colonies: USA, Australia, Canada.....; while in other countries�the concept of "whiteness" as an ethnicity is considerably weaker.

Yeah, the Oranje Vry Staat was so much more racially tolerant than places like British North America ... not!

White supremacism has its roots in so-called scientific racism, which didn't emerge until the 1800s, and attained widespread currency among all colonial powers without exception and with very little difference in degree.

Humane? Why would they bother to come in the first place then?