Wow! This is approaching the stoush over the old Dutch architect and his chairs. I also find difficulty in where to begin. This discussion has ranged far and wide, and if each individual point (on all sides) were examined, then it would be full time employment.
I've got to be brief today, as am approaching some deadlines at work.
1. Craig, I'm also under that impression. Some of the texts I wrote were post dinner and some red wine. Apologies if muddled.
2. Driver, my attempt at obtuse humour. George Santayana/Savonorola sound similar. Also considered Santianna (spelling?) but given he got Bowie thought it more US bashing.
3. We'll have to disagree. John Company was first and foremost a commercial enterprise. Their ships etc were first class and army may well have been efficient. At that time, and it still lingers, the Poms looked down on 'trade' and the establishment did not encourage sons etc to take up commercial positions.
Unlike yourself, my reading says that the Indian force, this is around the time Wellington got his first big win, did not attract the best candidates. You may well be correct in terms of their efficacy tho. Wellington had to be quite harsh to get his boys up to scratch.
4. Diatribe? hardly. Not that emotive.
I continue to beleive that the US is currently the worlds foremost colonial power. The nature of the exercise of the power has changed, that's all. The dosh still rolls in, just like all the other colonialists. They're better than some, worse than others.
As far as change occuring in the British Empire, of course it did. If you consider the BE in the context of its time and mores, change occured quite rapidly. If you had to be colonised, the Poms were probably the best of the bunch. Look at India, for example. They left behind an educated and trained civil service - the best young Indian men would be recruited and trained in England, a railway network, a pluralistic democracy, a justice system, the end of the Thugees and more. Gandhi, apart from a short imprisonment, was not executed or persecuted, in fact he was a lawyer trained in the UK to illustrate a previous point. Not too many colonial masters behave thus toward such a revolutionary.
19th century Britain changed radically thru the influence of people power. Industrial laws in particular. I'd like to list the changes in that century, it would probably get axed for taking up too much storage.
Finally, I'm not upset. I thought I detected some nay-saying for the sake of it and I was getting played.
I'll leave comment on the other Empires to others, know bugger all about it.
