Colonialism in the U.K.Īn often underlooked aspect of Britain’s colonial legacy is its effects at home. Today, researchers consider ethnic conflict, LBTQ oppression, and environmental injustice as a few of the issues enabled by British imperialism in former colonies. “There hasn’t been a moment in which the monarchy turned its back against empire and said, ‘No more,’ or, ‘We regret having been part of this.’” The Queen always wore them, never suggesting in any way that they be returned,” Satia says. “The crown jewels, they’re mostly made up of stones that have been stolen from various places in the British Empire. Read More: Scenes From Around the World in the Aftermath of Queen Elizabeth II’s DeathĪlthough the Queen was the head of state and not government, meaning she had limited decision-making power, as a political figure she had the opportunity to be vocal. In the following decades, many colonies sought independence and at times violent uprisings took place. While colonization did not take place under Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, Britain still had a large empire at the time of her coronation in 1952. “This is something that of course First Nations communities in Australia or New Zealand and Canada, even in the US, continue to highlight.” “Ideas about property and possession were shaped by colonialism, such as the fact that the land was empty, and was able to be possessed by colonists,” Arabindan-Kesson says. “Entire societies were changed,” Satia says. These are reflected in British-origin practices such as tea drinking, parliamentary governments, and playing cricket.īut not all practices that were passed on were as innocuous as tea drinking or sport. In many countries, British occupation lasted for generations, during which the ruling British authorities imposed various systems that many former colonies maintained after their independence. So it’s not only recent, it’s current history.” And there are other colonial holdings that Britain still has. “Or the ongoing issue between the two Irelands. “It depends on how you’re defining empire-like right now, there’s a movement for Scottish independence,” Satia says. The exact years of the British Empire and the number of colonies it held are debatable, but the empire’s effects are still widely-felt. Scholars also note the importance of remembering the British oppression and colonization closer to home, in both Scotland and Ireland. “She was not only a symbol, she was complicit in this empire.”Ī colloquial saying, “ the sun never sets on the British Empire,” rang true for arguably more than two centuries, a span over which Britain colonized or established rule over dozens of nations across the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Australasia. “For many of us from the ‘colonies,’ the death of Elizabeth II signifies in very particular ways that she was the symbol of an empire built on genocide, slavery, violence, extraction, and brutality, the legacies of which continue in our present day,” says Anna Arabindan-Kesson, a professor of Black diasporic art at Princeton University. The legacy of colonization has been well documented and often included slavery and the forced movement of people, brutal suppression, and the extraction of resources at the expense of local economies. Some critics of the royal family see last week’s death of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch as an opportunity to re-envision the monarchy’s role and to finally acknowledge the struggles of all those who were affected by British imperialism around the world and in Britain itself. Since Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1952, dozens of nations colonized by the British Empire have gained independence and continue to rebuild their societies.
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