I was using Caesar to highlight the British approach 
Was it really so different from the Roman one, or the Normans ? Imperialism is imperialism. I don’t think the Brits were much better or worse behaved than average. Circumstances just allowed us to cover more square miles and population number than anyone else ever has. We’ve also moved out of more places than anyone before us. It’s very hard to do that, especially if you do it over a short space of time, without factional fighting breaking out to fill the power vacuum. The Romans left the same problems behind. The Normans didn’t because they never left (here, at least).
VB
I was surprised to hear recently that the British occupation of India caused about a 30% drop in GDP there. I had thought that the influx of industrialisation, railways etc had on balance been a good thing, kinda like the Romans bringing roads, sanitation etc. Now I’m not so sure.
Always with these things you don’t have a control, so you can never know whether it was a benefit to the country economically. It’s even harder to tell socially - while we (and the Romans etc) were undoubtedly guilty of shocking crimes against the people there, there’s nothing like an oppressor to unite a country.
Except in India our occupation eventually led to partition.
I’m not sure how much of an influx there was. India has had a very great deal of very basic subsistence farming for a very long time, and it still does.
In a previous job my brother, who’s a retail designer, was involved in a store design contract with a large Indian pharmacy chain. He visited quite a few times and was given an insight into the way things work in most of the country. He said he was surprised, to say the least, to be told that 60% of Indians have never seen money. The advanced parts of the country are very advanced (space programme, nuclear weapons, Nobel science laureates). The rest really isn’t.
Is your 30% figure overall GDP or per capita ? Over what period did the fall occur ?
EDIT: And while this is interesting, what’s it got to do with speakers ?
VB
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True, there’s nothing like religion to divide a country…
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Were there any other partitions…
?
gosh , thanks for that link . i never thought in a million years they would do that . having been all over pakistan and lahore . bagpipes yes , footballs yes , mango`s yes and wonderful trains and buses but hi fi 
dread to think how hot those valves get there in summer , you could fry an egg on the pavement
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yes, I used to avoid going to S Asia in the summer - mind you avoiding there, meant I was sent to HKG or KL etc
I am guessing if you can afford the pig ugly hifi, you can afford airconditioning.
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Cyprus, Palestine and I’m thinking Ireland too but you knew that 
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I think that Cyprus wasn’t (much) our fault - it was largely an issue between Greeks and Turks. Obviously we didn’t help much, but it was a lost cause before we stuck our oar in.
Cyprus became independent from Britain in 1960 and partition took place in 1974 so I think you’re right that it wasn’t our fault but I studied this stuff quite a while ago and don’t remember the details.
I thought it was a bit of a scam, remember being told that the British Army & RAF were charging the UN a huge amount of money to be there as a “peacekeeping force”
The UN are the peacekeepers in Cyprus not the British.
Commies!
The British had sovereign bases in Cyprus but were being paid by the UN to perform peacekeeping duties alongside the UN but not under the UN remit.
The Army & RAF have only recently started getting the UN peacekeeping medal for Cyprus, prior to the late 90’s it was the GSM (general service medal)
I was told this arrangement was so the Govt could charge the UN a small fortune.
It was a great posting until some muppet green jacket decided to wrap a shovel around a girls head.
awaiting obligatory Python “what have the Romans ever done for us?” quote
PS vikings weren’t invading, nor even a race
They were fucking quick at rowing though
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The brish pioneered the subjugation of people through addiction. Opium from India, sold to China led to us getting good old Hong Kong. The Americans did similar with Whiskey to the Indians. The British again with the Aborigines. Bestowing a cuntish affliction on native peoples is immeasurably cruel but highly effective. Trump’s ruse to export dumb is equally mind numbing.
Stronzetto places his full glue stock in these tactics with plans to seize whats left of the hearts and minds of Plymouth and beyond.
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