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.

We were shafted repeatedly, it was just so long ago nobody cares.

I don't get why people hate the descendants of other people.

I think there is something in this. "English" English are a mongrel race made up of the winners from all the people who came to England. The Celts were the ones who got the rough end of the stick which may explain the attiude of Scotland and Ireland?

The Vikings are a bunch of cunts.
The Romans and Normans can fuck right off as well.

Re the World Wars. My grandfather was in the First and had no resentment of the men of his generation who fought on the other side, who were always "Jerry" not "the Hun" or other popular descriptions even much later,

He went to the cinema and saw the footage of Belsen and apparently came out sobbing and in bits but never blamed "the Germans" afterwards. He blamed "the Nazis" and the regime.

The British Empire is still pretty recent and I think there's an linguical element to the discourse too, with English being a globally dominant language.

I think we've also been better than some other countries at having these conversations and looking again at our recent role in sharing the world...we're all living with results of it. The US has a greater share of the responsibilities in some situations but the stereotype of Nasty Brit still lives in popular culture there.

@ItstheHRTpat Romans, Vikings, Normans…..

Have you got a better source on UK GDP than the Office for National Statistics? Because they consistently put Scottish GDP per head lower than English.

But go off, enjoy that grievance.

The Mongols were the most successful empire in history. Not the British

English and don’t hate anyone. It baffles me how so many nations have the time to hate us. I will do the whole ‘the fucking French’ thing but that’s mainly because I’m half French and I enjoy winding my mother up.

I have a soft spot for Harold and occasionally sigh that he didn't win (he definitely deserved to).

Going even further back, we don't resent the Romans because instead we innocently subverted everything they did. Our local "Roman Road" (and it indeed was one, back in the day) has meanders in it which the natives of the time can only have put in on purpose to be annoying. We must have been the worst posting in the empire.

I don't see people as a collective. Each country has individuals, some good, some bad. When we talk about wars of the past I expect that most people would have learned from them and be more progressive (not all obviously as it does still go on), so even if I did see the people of a country as one, I wouldn't be holding them to account for things their ancestors did.

This!

Agreed - I think 'generational trauma' seems to be a convenient excuse for some who achieve very little in life & want to blame someone else.

Indeed. Never said anything to refute that fact.

That’s simply because they don’t have the same arrangements we do with ceremonial smaller countries left, right and centre, who despite being treated probably similarly to an English peasant at the time, feel it was ‘because they’re not English’.

It makes me laugh when some of them try to make out it’s because the English are inherently bloodthirsty, conquering and superior, when simply it’s because our capital city is London and London did far better on account of its proximity to Europe. France feel the same about Parisians, Spain about people from Madrid - they feel the ‘City People’ are cold, money obsessed and crave power. If by some weird twist the Celts had moved to England the Anglo Saxons pushed into the extremities, things would simply be the other way round.

Honestly no but DH had an elderly relative (now dead) who held a grudge against Germany.

Nope. No hatred towards any nations. I can’t even muster a mild dislike.

I laugh at other nationalities hating entire other nationalities though. Especially for “crimes” they neither experienced nor anyone in the living population are responsible for.

It’s a bit childish.

Yes. And ‘reparations’!

One of the amazing things about the last world war is how quickly people got over it. I know there was some residual hatred towards the Japanese and Germans but considering it was a particularly nasty war, the reconciliation has been remarkable. They both went very quickly to being trusted friends and allies of ours and they have both gone from being absolutely hideous aggressive genocidal states to peaceful democracies.

Don’t hate anyone. Don’t think people in glass houses should throw stones. During the war I’m sure the German people didn’t know and wouldn’t have condoned the treatment of Jewish people.

I misread your post then, you said the British were the most successful and the Mongols also did well

Sometimes, and for individuals whose ancestors weren't hurt by the British Empire, I think there can be an aspect of satisfaction & enjoyment in having a common enemy.

It is a very, very long time since the Romans, Normans, Vikings etc, invaded Britain or whatever it was called then, far too far back in history for it to bother us now and, let's face it, 'we' (Britain), have certainly done a lot of invading and colonialising throughout the world since.

We were at war with Germany and still got off lightly compared to a lot of other places

@BoredZelda in WWI (according to google) 886,000 to 956,700 killed, 5 million to over 2 million wounded and survivors badly affected mentally for the rest of their lives.
I’d hardly call that getting off lightly.