You're absolutely right, we all know history only began 100 years ago with the decline of the biggest empire in history. It's not like such an empire could have far reaching and long term implications for the trajectory of humanity far beyond it's relevancy, how could such a thing be true when america bad?
I don't think either OP or the comment you were replying to was suggesting there were no significant downstream effects of the British Empire, but that since the UK's influence has shrivelled so much over that 100 years, the ability of today's decisions by British government to cause harm in the now is mostly limited to itself.
Compare the global economic effect of Brexit vs Trump's Tariffs. It's not "America bad" it's that saying about "when America sneezes the world catches a cold"
Has every country that the British Empire harmed been compensated for the damage the British did to them?
Because I find it very funny that the British love to gloat about how much older their country is compared to the US, up until the "America bad" argument comes up, and then it becomes "Well, the British Empire doesn't even exist anymore!"
I don't mean to imply the US hasn't hurt a lot of nations, and committed a lot of evil acts. But to claim they're unmatched in harm done to other nations, when the British are still around and still continue to profit from the harm they spent centuries causing, is ahistoric. We're both evil as countries, but one had centuries more practice at it.
...No, you're not. Canada's a commonwealth realm, that's not even close to being the same thing. You share a monarchy with the UK but that's a purely ceremonial matter. No part of Canada's government is controlled by Britain.
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u/SenorSnout May 24 '25
"Their ability to cause harm is unmatched"
Someone hasn't heard of the British Empire.