On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:42:48 -0500, Neeum Zawan <m.n### [at] ieeeorg> wrote:

>	Well, I'd like to hear more about Japan and China. I know of the 
>Nanjing Massacre, but then I also know of some events related to the 
>British in India, which are often not mentioned. Like a more or less 
>forced famine (I think over a million died).
>

I question that figure try 10 million or more than 40 million during the 200
years of British rule.

>	(Just tried looking it up - there were a bunch of famines under the 
>British - some with a lot more dead, so I don't know which one was the 
>"forced" one - basically the British insisted that the isles get their 
>share of the food output from India, even though there was a shortage 
>locally).
>

I don't think that the food came to Britian. More likely it was sent to other
colonies.
 
I was reading recently about the English starving the Irish into submission
during the 16th Century. So it was a method that was tried and tested.
Although in our ancestors defence (ha!) I don't think that it was really racist
more a class thing. They treated the Indian rulers with more respect than they
did their own poor people. 


>	In any case, it's rare that I hear a lot of "guilt" about the British 
>in India. Certainly Indians occasionally bring it up. Maybe it's much 
>more common across the Atlantic.
>
That may be more to do with the people that go there. The Indians and Pakistanis
that settle in the UK tell different stories.

>	As for slaves due to the whites vs (black on black) slavery (sorry, am 
>too lazy to put it in a better form): I never liked discussions on 
>slavery, because they often treat all slavery as equally bad, when 
>that's far from the truth. The discussions should focus on the 
>treatment, and not merely on the fact that they were slaves. Some "free" 
>people have gotten much worse treatment than other slaves have.
>

Yes indentured servants, orphans and single mothers under the care of certain
Christian churches, crofters, mill workers, in fact all poor people. Everyone
who was powerless in fact.

>	I have no idea if the English/Spanish slave trade was worse than the 
>"domestic" slave trade within Africa - I don't know much about the 
>latter. I believe the Spanish was much more brutal than the English, but 
>we rarely hear about it, perhaps because the world doesn't speak Spanish.

Ask any Jamaican they suffered under both. But African and European slavery
pales into insignificance when compared to the American idea. I don't believe
that slaves in the rest of the world were considered animals, sub-human or just
children at best.

>> I strongly suspect it's because the white folks know their own history
>> much better than they know the history of other cultures. Quick, without
>> looking, what was going on in Africa and India during the medieval ages?
>> Who were the power players?
>
Islam and Arabs

>	When's the medieval ages? I honestly don't know - sometimes I hear it 
>in the context of about 1000. Other times more like 1500's.

11th to 15th century

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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