International Angle: Monuments to an Empire Lost

I ran across this pretty cool piece on the BBC New website this morning.

I've heard about the Tegart fortresses in passing before, in Leon Uris's "The Haj," for instance.  It was kinda cool to get the behind-the-scenes story--the guy who came up with the idea, and forced it on the Empire.

I like to reflect on the British Empire.  There's a lot there.

On the one hand, an incredible resume of achievement and accomplishment.  The colonizing, the spreading of a lifestyle, the trade, money, sheer impressiveness of having a quarter of the earth under direct control.

On the other hand, the dark side.  The repression of the people who rightly owned the land.  The brutal suppression of dissent.  Exploiting the land and people, with an unequal investment back in.

It's still relevant, simply for the influence British rule has on former colonies and territories.  Most obviously in places like Australia and New Zealand, and the United States.

But also in Hong Kong, a British territory until the late 90's--they've had democratic values so strongly instilled that the Chinese government is having a hard time converting them.

Of course, there's dark sides of the influence too--one doesn't have to look too far in Africa to find the damage colonialism did there.

My point is not to glorify the British Empire, but to recognize the fact it was impressive enough to live on today, influencing the world picture 60 years after it began to break apart.