General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The United States is the most hated country in the world. [View all]treestar
(82,383 posts)Eventually, I think so. The British did free most colonies over time, but had they not would they not have applied the same standards? Some of those countries have a parliamentary system they might not have had without their years as British colonies. I can admit the British did contribute to the world and were first out in front in increasing freedom and self government - the fact it was the British we were a colony of is what gave us our inspiration. Our Founders knew the history of Britain, the writings of Burke and Montesquieu, to add the French in.
I had run across some information on Rhodesia. There was a British "rule" that a country could not be independent until they had majority rule. The Rhodesians - the white ones in charge - refused to go along with that. They looked like the jerks more than the British did. At least by that time the British had the idea that the peoples they had formerly colonized had the right to self determination. They didn't make them win a war for it, and in fact had the standard of majority rule.
Whereas, when the Germans took over a territory, we know how they handled it.
We have our flaws, but we don't directly colonize, we have a significant chunk of population that is against exploiting other countries because they have oil, we kicked Bush out of office - I can look at us and say we aren't the worst that could ever be when it comes to superpower-dom. In fact the world is better off because the other one in living memory, the USSR, fell apart. So we should work to improve rather than whip ourselves.