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A History Of Knowledge
What The Modern Age Knew
Chapter 4: The British Empire
Piero Scaruffi (2004) www.scaruffi.com
Edited and revised by Chris Hastings (2013)
“An eye for an eye
makes the whole world
blind”
- Mahatma Gandhi "The size of the lie is a
definite factor
in causing it to be
believed”
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
“We are not shooting
enough professors”
- Lenin’s telegram
"Pacifism is objectively
pro-Fascist.”
- George Orwell, 1942
“What good fortune for
governments that the
people do not think”
- Adolf Hitler
Part 1: The Age Of World Wars
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British Empire
Sole superpower after end of Austrian and Ottoman empires,
French humiliation, Russian Revolution, and Great Depression in
USA
58 countries (36 million square kms), 400 million people
2
British Empire
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3
British Empire
Britain and its dominions "equal in status" and "freely
associated" in Commonwealth of Nations (1926)
Britannia the pacifier
British Empire
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4
British Empire
Britain replaces alliance with Japan with alliance with USA
(1922)
Cinema, radio, and gramophone promote values of British Empire
(royal ceremonies, military parades, speeches, mythology)
British Empire
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5
Britannia Pacificatrix (1919) Brittania Pacificatrix (1919)
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Sigismund Goetze’s mural decoration at Foreign Office in
London
Britain shakes hands with America, wearing cap of Liberty and
holding scales of Justice
Britannia Pacificatrix (1919) Brittania Pacificatrix (1919)
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Italy carries 'fasces' emblem of Roman Law
France holds sword to 'Scrap of Paper' and broken Crucifix
Britannia Pacificatrix (1919) Brittania Pacificatrix (1919)
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Japan carries wild cherry-blossom
Russia in mourning at extreme left
To right, colonies: South Africa, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, India, Arabia
Britannia Pacificatrix (1919) Brittania Pacificatrix (1919)
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9
British Empire Exhibition (1924) British Empire Exhibit
(1924)
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10
British Empire Exhibit Poster (1936) Exhibit Poster (1936)
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11
British Empire
No longer benevolent empire after Indian, Irish, and Boer
insurrections
Anti-imperialist movement (Orwell, 77% of Britons in 1939)
Influence of USA (liberal) and Soviet (socialist) rhetoric
British Empire
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12
British Empire
Political experiment
Very few British administrators control huge populations (1,200
British administrators and 1,000 cops for whole of Africa)
British Empire
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13
British Empire
Britain controls local elites through customized administrative
systems
Symbol of racial/class discrimination: Club that limits
“gentlemanliness” to British men
British Empire
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14
British Empire
Balance of power in Far East shifting towards Japan
Britain’s inability to stop Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia
(Ethiopia) shows Mediterranean is no longer controlled by
Britain
British Empire
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15
British Empire
Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia (1935) shows Africans that Britain
is impotent
Munich conference (1938) shows Europe that Britain is
impotent
British Empire
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16
British Empire
Fragile pretension to still be global empire
“Colonel Blimp” syndrome: Character over competence
British Empire
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This is a chapter in Piero Scaruffi’s “A
History Of Knowledge:”
http://www.scaruffi.com/know
http://www.scaruffi.com/know