Can English people explain how they feel about this?

[Green215]

As an English person, do you hold resentment towards any country based on historical grievances like war, invasion, famine, colonialism etc? If so, which; if not, why?

The reason I ask is because I’ve always found it odd how the English tend to be the only people in the world who do not hold such grievances.

Irish people are always complaining about British colonialism; many Scots and Welsh likewise complain about England on a historical basis; Greeks and Turks complain about one another; Africans, Indians, Arabs etc complain about European colonialism and American invasions; China complains about Japanese atrocities and vice versa; Russia complains about German atrocities; post-Soviet states complain about Russian occupation; France and Germany complain about one another; America often complains about the Revolution; Canada complains about the War of 1812; Mexico and Latin American countries and Caribbean countries complain about American invasions or interference or colonialism; some Australians resent British rule etc.

But, rarely do English people demand reparations or sing “rebel songs” or complain about historical grievances. Why?

I could understand if maybe some English people resented Germany due to the two world balls or resented America for things like the Suez crisis and the funding of the IRA. And truth be told, I have come across some English people that are like that. But, they are very few compared to the other peoples I described.

I understand that this is sort of an academic question, but I wanted to come on this forum to ask ordinary English people how they felt and I hope you can give some honest answers rather than sarcastic responses or not answering the question properly.

They win us over with their wine and pastries. We are a country of food lovers.

Just watching another worthy American drama where they are all sardonic and sneery and then they go to another country and they meet a local and the local takes them to their 'family home' where grandparents had chickens and goats blah blah and... they are always proud people and the American is all humbled. You never see a British version of this unless it's some student at Oxford meeting a Brit and goes to the country pile or it's a rich person going to a Northern pit town ! Thing is I have been had very positive reactions to being English whenever I have travelled (and I have travelled widely and for many decades) but not from other Brits when I say I love England. Strange phenomenon.

There plenty of others like them. Not everyone experiences history in the same manner.

I used to work with some guys from India and they told me that many people in their older generation would in all seriousness go about how things were better under the British.

To add, I have no hate in me for any race! I have worked extensively all over the UK in a field with a very high percentage of immigrants and as usual there are ace and funny people and some dickheads.

Isnt it the Fawlty Towers test - where Basil is unable to serve a German guest without making remarks like “Colditz salads” and eventually loses it by saying “yes you started it, you invaded Poland”.

The point is Basil is a small minded idiot and we laughed at him!

I dont think people hate English because of past events but are upset/annoyed that many English people are ignorant of things that are Big News (quite rightly) in, say Irish history (The Famine).

Its important that some understand this because relations with America are still influenced by Irish emigration before we even think about potential Irish reunification.

I'm not Irish btw.

If you think that we are more guilty of historical sins than other countries you need to study history. We colonised but did not go in for mass slaughter like some countries. Look at the Spaniards in Mexico and South America, the Russians under Stalin. The Dutch in Indonesia and the Portugese in Brazil and Angola were not more benign than we were. The difference is that other countries defend their records while we bring out the sackcloth and ashes.

I'm from Kent - I'm pretty sure I read that we (well, I'm not native kentish, but I was born and raised there so whatever) basically said 'the people you want are over there' - pointed towards the home counties and waved them through.

Which is why Kent has the Invicta as it's symbol - 'Undefeated'*

*Because we didn't attempt to fight that one.

Modern England has benefitted immensely from every "invader" that ever landed here. Were a melting pot of culture, knowledge, religion and architecture. Granted, the people of the times may not have seen it that way but each and every "invader" has shaped our country into what it is today. We can't hold grudges for that, besides, there's noone alive today to remember Roman brutality or the bloody norman conquest or the Viking raids. And arrivals in more recent history have generally been allies.

Just picking up on one point in your post. I believe Germany paid reparations to the allies after ww1 so it wouldn’t be right to say that England/ Britain never asked for reparations etc.

There is a brilliant scene in The White Lotus where some rich Italian Americans search out their Italian cousins, show up at their humble abode, declare their kinship only to be told in no uncertain terms to clear off

@BerryTwisterI don’t disagree with you. We don’t keep insisting that the Germans atone for Nazism - the feeling is that they’ve done that. I’m descended from miners and farmers - no direct gain from slavery to them.

The only person I’ve known to hold that sort of resentment was my grandfather, who was a POW of the Japanese during WWII. According to him, the Nazis had nothing on the Japanese, their cruelty was beyond words. He never got over his experiences and struggled with flashbacks all his life. He owned an electronics shop after the war and would never stock Japanese products for that reason.

Criticising Americans for their treatment of native Americans - but the original settlers were Europeans and Mexicans and ? Others, …..they became American

The Normans, the Vikings, the Romans . . . yes, all a long time ago. We had wars with the French for centuries, BUT they tended to be wars fought by the English on behalf of largely French ruling classes.

I think myself that being an island has helped as we haven't been invaded every 50 years or so by someone else.

I think our ancestors may disagree with you. The Romans made slaves of the English, William the Bastard virtually destroyed the North. Rape and pillage by the Vikings. I think they may well have felt occupied

Edited to add I don't hate any other nation but am sad we are so hated

yup, the "Pals" regiments.

@OhSoSalty theres no one alive today to remember the slave traders in Bristol but Bristolian kids are still taught in school about how awful their ancestors were. And buildings have been renamed to show how guilty we feel.

I am only replying to the very first post, from the OP, and my answer is No. I don't feel any anger towards the Vikings or Normans who changed the dynamic of our islands.

I shall now go and read the thread, and probably get cross at all the confected idiocy.

@Green215 You mention the reason. British colonialism.

The British were the colonial occupiers, rather than the oppressed.

When we play them at football, grudges towards Germany surface: Dam Busters March played etc.

It doesn’t sound as though you’re coming from a place of reconciliation in your post. I think I mentioned the issues you’re referring to, I’d imagine it’s pretty obvious that I’m not proud of ‘raping and pillaging.’ I actually can’t imagine accusing somebody else of that, based on their nationality, in a respectful conversation. Perhaps that’s the way I was brought up, though.

Fil too. His grandfather, uncle and father were killed by the Japanese.

There've been a fair few hopeless misunderstandings about the Normans in this thread. They were utter bastards. The English didn't assimilate them, we were completely subjugated. They changed the language we speak. They confiscated property and replaced the ruling classes with their own people. William's 'harrying' was a systematic campaign of total annihilation from the north Midlands to the Scots border.

And yet here we are, lovingly discussing our Norman heritage and how much we love the French.

@Whyamiherenow but it was later acknowledged that the financial strain put on Germany by the post WW1 reparations were in part responsible for the unhappiness of the population, that led to Hitler’s success. So after WW2 we went the other way and gave Germany loads of financial help.

But it isn't odd, is it? Along with France, Belgium and Germany, we carved up the globe between us. We weren't oppressed or occupied by a foreign power, we were the ones doing the oppressing and occupying. That really only stopped in the 1970s, and not by our choice - we just couldn't afford it after the Second World War. Several historians think we couldn't afford it after the First.