Colonialism and the European Imagination

File: BritishRaj.jpg (941KB, 1800x1557px) Image search: [Google]

941KB, 1800x1557px

One things about the British I admire? Colonialism. The period in which Britain, more so than any other European nation, spread its influence around the global is perhaps one of the most striking periods in all of human history. From a tiny island located in northwest Europe, conquered by the Romans in 55 B.C., then by the Angles and Saxons, following by the Normans, the British gain dominance in an age in which power was determined on the seas. The English made their way across the Atlantic to North America. India was one of England's most interesting colonial possessions.

Now, and I writing this, because English colonialism had a tremendous effect on the European imagination. British exploration of Africa raises notions of wild, exotic animals roaming free in a virgin land, undeveloped, free from governmental limitations. Even more interesting is English colonialism in India. India was something quite foreign to Europe. We have never been connected to the East - and for this reason, the European imagination was fixed upon the rain forest of Bengal, its beautiful wild life, its strange people, the Caste System, the ancient Ganges river. The British Raj even reached down into Indo-China, on the edge of the world.

From this, I have to things to say:
1) We ought to appreciate Indian - though modernism has destroyed much of what made India great
2) Thank you, Englishmen, for stoking the European imagination