Yes, it was meant in a light-hearted way. I was fully in support of Scottish independence, but not for that reason.
While We Wait: (Almost) Anything Goes
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Yes, it was meant in a light-hearted way. I was fully in support of Scottish independence, but not for that reason.
thomas.berubeg
Wandering the World
Arguably, a French Colonial Empire (At least in the Americas) left the Natives better off than a British one.
hoplitejoe
Top fun-poster
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I think the French colonial empire is generally better than the UK's one in terms of not being awful to native peoples.
Worst-Germans-Belgians-Spanish-British-Portugese-Netherlands-French-Still worst but less worst
Worst-Germans-Belgians-Spanish-British-Portugese-Netherlands-French-Still worst but less worst
Civ'ed
I ain't gotta explain a thing
Dutchman here
The Dutch didn't have a large empire, but...
To quote (and translate) from Gerben Graddesz Hellinga's History of the Netherlands:
The Dutch didn't have a large empire, but...
Spoiler image involves some meathooks in contact with people :
To quote (and translate) from Gerben Graddesz Hellinga's History of the Netherlands:
As for Indonesia, let's just say we called a war "police actions". And also the good old VOC (where would the boers be without you, sweet multinational)
Your list is missing the American colonial empire, which did technically exist, even if we did just give them all freedom relatively painlessly. Ah, the days before we realized that it was easier to run an empire if the subjects think they're independent.
Lord_Herobrine
Back in the Saddle
The only territories that I can recall the United States giving independence to are the Philippines, and we didn't exactly colonize that (We received it from Spain as war concessions, along with most of our other territories). In fact there was a small war between the Philippines and the US military wherein about 220,000 Filipinos (Including Civilians) and 4,200 Americans lost their lives [1]. I may be missing some vague pacific islands and perhaps a Caribbean archipelago or two. In many ways, we are still an empire, seeing as we reign over islands like Puerto Rico and fight mostly overseas wars.
Well to be fair, we've tried to give Puerto Rico independence or statehood, but they just can't seem to make up their minds on the matter.
J.K. Stockholme
Right Opposition
They [the Philippines] weren't concessions to give - the territories were largely under rebel control, and as you point out, the US had to prosecute a war of colonial conquest just to validate the paper treaty that stipulated the archipelago's transfer. The US government then went on the to brutally exploit that colony as a testing ground for police tactics and domestic counter-revolutionary practices which would end up being used in the US later on.
You're also forgetting Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and of course Panama - which were all the site of imperial intervention, usually giving Americans such stupendous preference and preponderance of power they might as well have been colonies.
Darksaber1
Secret Emperor
Don't forget Hawaii, which haws fully annexed! And true, mostly they might not have been technical colonies, but only in the sense that EIC run India was not technically a colony. The economic and political power wielded in those states by the US...
SamSniped
DJ Goodboye
A while ago, this happened on #fiftychat:
23:41 Takhisis btw Chrome sucks
23:41 Takhisis it's Google's spy
23:42 SamSniped I'm more afraid of my dad's spying than googles
23:42 bhsup …
23:42 bhsup Sam, didn't you know?
23:42 bhsup Your father is google...
23:42 Takhisis Google IS your father
23:42 bhsup Google is your father...
23:42 bhsup
23:42 Takhisis dammit, V ninja'd me
23:42 SamSniped HE IS NOT MY FATHER! D:
23:42 Takhisis wait, i ninja'd him
23:42 LOUDBOT THEY TOTALLY ARE
When I recently revealed LOUDBOT's sentient powers to IOTchat, we came to two conclusions:
SouthernEmperor: So if google is your father
SouthernEmperor: and Sone is also your father
SouthernEmperor: Then...Sone is Google?
SamSnipedAKAMarcus: THE SONSPIRACY GROWS
Snover64: and sam
Snover64: who was your mother
Snover64: but me?
SouthernEmperor: That means one thing
Snover64: son plowed me like a farm?
SouthernEmperor: Sam is the true heir to the throne of IOT
SouthernEmperor: and the position of Protector of Vichy NES
(@Megs) SouthernEmperor: Well, yes, that too
It is known.
23:41 Takhisis btw Chrome sucks
23:41 Takhisis it's Google's spy
23:42 SamSniped I'm more afraid of my dad's spying than googles
23:42 bhsup …
23:42 bhsup Sam, didn't you know?
23:42 bhsup Your father is google...
23:42 Takhisis Google IS your father
23:42 bhsup Google is your father...
23:42 bhsup
23:42 Takhisis dammit, V ninja'd me
23:42 SamSniped HE IS NOT MY FATHER! D:
23:42 Takhisis wait, i ninja'd him
23:42 LOUDBOT THEY TOTALLY ARE
When I recently revealed LOUDBOT's sentient powers to IOTchat, we came to two conclusions:
SouthernEmperor: So if google is your father
SouthernEmperor: and Sone is also your father
SouthernEmperor: Then...Sone is Google?
SamSnipedAKAMarcus: THE SONSPIRACY GROWS
Snover64: and sam
Snover64: who was your mother
Snover64: but me?
SouthernEmperor: That means one thing
Snover64: son plowed me like a farm?
SouthernEmperor: Sam is the true heir to the throne of IOT
SouthernEmperor: and the position of Protector of Vichy NES
(@Megs) SouthernEmperor: Well, yes, that too
It is known.
Daftpanzer
canonically ambiguous
If the French ever moved significant number of their people to America it could've been a different story. They simply didn't have the numbers to do any different.
Also remember the British wanted to restrict their zone east of the Appalachians. Who wanted to go beyond that? The colonsits! Hence, war of independence.
Yeah, the British were totally evil in comparison...
Lord_Herobrine
Back in the Saddle
To be fair, the Philippines initiated that war upon themselves. Part of the reason they lost so many lives is that they attempted a normal war campaign in the beginning, before moving to a guerrilla war style of fighting. That is not to say that there was not possibility of slaughters or village raids by the American military.
Daftpanzer
canonically ambiguous
Lord_Herobrine said:
Oh right
Nintz
King of the Britons
That is one of the reasons I dislike America. The imperialism it has portrayed in the past (arguably still in the present) is rather less than inspiring to be under. I say this as an American as well. Though I suspect America's realistic impact is perhaps less than it could have been given how late American imperialism really took off, unless you consider the continental US being taken from natives/European colonists.
Daftpanzer
canonically ambiguous
"To be fair, the [occupied peoples] initiated that war upon themselves" is a great line to use. Thanks, Lord_Herobrine, I will use this in future stories
"The moral high ground comes at a cost, unfortunately few - if any - nations have been truly willing to sacrifice the power, wealth and security they think they might otherwise gain by acting outside their professed moral standards." - Daftpanzer, 2014
"The moral high ground comes at a cost, unfortunately few - if any - nations have been truly willing to sacrifice the power, wealth and security they think they might otherwise gain by acting outside their professed moral standards." - Daftpanzer, 2014
Lord_Herobrine
Back in the Saddle
"To be fair, the [occupied peoples] initiated that war upon themselves" is a great line to use. Thanks, Lord_Herobrine, I will use this in future stories
I am not saying that America is better than the typical imperialist nation, of course obscene incidents will happen. If you include the conquest of the continental US, in many ways we were worse than colonial powers such as Spain and Germany. As an American, there are some periods in our history that I find morally grey at best, even outright inhumane like the Trail of Tears.
EDIT: I find it amusing that I am playing EUIV as France and colonizing the New World at the same time, acting on some of the imperialist urges that we are speaking of.
Nintz
King of the Britons
Come to think of it, is there ANY example of this? As far as I know, the only times nations have ever willingly given up power is when it was blatantly obvious that they could not hold on to said power, and chose partial control or diplomatic pressure as the alternative to complete loss of control and creation of an enemy. Such as Canada, Australia for example.
The irony is too strong
. In all legitimacy, I sometimes wonder if a game of EU is indicative of how generals might have felt. Considering that the motivations in said game are supposed to be reflections of many motivations from actual life.
Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
I'm thinking of getting back into WoW. Especially with WoD on the horizon, the setting really intrigues me, like Mists actually also did. Any of you guys still play it?
I'm ashamed to admit that I still actually am a partial WoW addict. A few others are also on these days, we've got a guild on Arthas. Personally I refuse to do much of the endgame stuff these days. I got enough of that grind with Vanilla, BC, and WotLK, and just haven't wanted to do that again. Personally I'm not sure about the setting, but some of the introduced mechanics are interesting. Whenever you introduce time travel as a central plot, it always throws everything else into chaos and can really wreck immersion in any medium. The intro cinematic was cool though.
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