If the UK has to pay reparations, will other countries?

[Controversialname]

If the UK is made to pay reparations where will that leave other nations who were or indeed still are involved in slavery?

Exactly.

UK isn't being made to pay reparations though. These posts just bring the racists out who say why should they pay; whilst completely ignoring the fact that slaveowner descendants were paid out, via taxpayers. But they don't mind that, as slave owners were white.

I couldn't care less about reparations. Most people I know don't even mention it. Make money here, acquire land (or make use of land you've inherited) build in your heritage country (especially if it's a haven for tourists) for a mere fraction of the silly house prices here. AirBnB it or rent out to professionals. Travel back and forth if you so choose.

& don't listen to people who try to convince you that you can't survive where your own people are, without facing micro-aggressions regularly. You'll stay here working till you drop.

I've worked hard towards that life. It's worth it. Any non-white who takes UK as their promised land must be mad. Get the money, use it to make life elsewhere. That's it. Leave the reparations talk to dog-whistlers

But where does it end?

The UK would be a very different place if it wasn't for the Normans/Romans/Vikings/Angles etc...where are our reparations?

No country has clean hands. The vast majority of British people have never benefitted from slavery. Indeed many suffered horrendously themselves.

I think they have a bloody cheek.

These posts just bring the racists out who say why should they pay - just because you claim something is racist, doesn't mean it is. Saying no to these ludicrous demands from corrupt officials overseas doesn't even begin to fit the definition of racism.

completely ignoring the fact that... all of which covered in detail upthread, nooone had ignored anything

where your own people are so you don't consider British people 'your' people.. are you British?

Any non-white who takes UK as their promised land must be mad can you elaborate on that a bit more? You seem to have a thing about white people.

This argument always annoys me. If anyone needs to pay reparations for slavery it's the families who directly benefitted. This means those in Africa as well as those in the UK and elsewhere. The whole population of thid country didn't benefit. The working classes working in mills didn't benefit, neither did Irish workers brought over to undercut the wages of others. The children of the Windrush generation didn't benefit. For what it's worth it's mad thing to demand. However if I had inherited wealth some of which I knew came from slavery (the Middletons for example) then I'd want to do something with it to help the descendants of those slaves.

Exactly, it’s basically the rich landowners who benefitted. I certainly didn’t. I also agree that Africa, and the Arabic nations, who used slavery far more than we did, also pay. They benefitted immensely.

When we were trying to stop slavery it was African nations who largely made the Navy’s job impossible. Look up the West Africa Squadron. I think one of our better moments in history.

Even amongst the decendents of slave owners it would be impossible, to work out how much of their wealth comes from slavery. How much is before slavery and what is accumulated later.

The rich must have had money to buy slaves, before slavery made them richer, ie certainly wasn't the average scullarymaid or peasent who became a slave owner.
How do you decide how much of their wealth is from slaves?

They'll be many generations between current decendents and the slave owners. Some will have invested their wealth more wisely than others.
Some the big houses and estates will have gone to the eldest son, others will have been sold, and split between decendents

No saviour complex at all.

Nor do I believe that the UK colonised other countries to help them.

But neither do I that the world would have been a utopia if the UK hadn't colonised most of it. There were many other countries out there at the time colonising other countries and many other groups doing the same thing on a smaller scale.

I am continually surprised by those that seem to believe that slavery wasn't happening till the UK arrived.
That Colonisation wasn't a thing till the UK did it.
That genocide was only something that the UK did.

It's as if posters on here don't know or understand history at all.

It's as if posters on here don't know or understand history at all.

I have in all seriousness seen an often-repeated narrative on X that any bad in the world stems from "white settler colonialism". Apparently the rest of the world lived in total peace, harmony and equality. Even understanding that humans have two sexes is an evil white (writted "yt") system of oppression.

I'm not sure what is being taught at schools now but not history, or any ability to think critically.

And yet some of those people were happy to sell opponents and and others that wanted to be left alone in to slavery

The United Kingdom took significant actions against the global slave trade after formally abolishing it within the British Empire in 1807 - and as the first country in the world to abolish it this had massive ramifications.

The Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron, formed shortly after this ban, became the primary force tasked with intercepting slave ships along the West African coast.

The operation, costly both in financial resources and human lives, aimed to enforce anti-slavery laws and was maintained for over 50 years. During this time, it seized around 1,600 vessels and liberated approximately 150,000 enslaved Africans.

This campaign came at a substantial expense, estimated at around 40 percent of the budget at the time, with thousands of sailors lost to violent encounters with slave traders
Historic UK

All That's Interesting

Royal Museums Greenwich

The UK leading the way forced France and the USA to follow suit.

For thousands of years Africans and Arabs took slaves, look at Morocco, Alegeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Chad and Maii and Benin who captured slaves and sold them on to the UK. The UK was involved for a tiny fraction of that time and have already made their reparations in full.

The British anti slavery movement was critical in driving a wider international anti-slavery stance, with the Royal Navy’s persistent efforts highlighting the harsh realities of the slave trade and setting a precedent for future anti-slavery actions globally.

But sure, if they mean they want to pay the UK back for the money they spent stopping the slave trade and rescuing slaves, that would be great.

Oh, and lots of countries in the world still sell slaves, such as Libya.

Not Britain or any of the Commonwealth Countries though.

Careful, with facts like that you will be accused of having a saviour complex, or worse a white saviour complex, or the ultimate in badness a YT saviour complex.

On a more sensible note, thank you for posting that as I do not believe that some on the thread understand just how much effort, money and manpower it took to stop the slave trade at that time.

Show me any country where slavery did not exist at some time in their history.

Some historical accuracy on this thread. I watched a documentary about the west Africa squadron and recently was learning about it at the national maritime museum (an amazing museum as a side note). Really interesting to read the personal testimonies of the W Africa Squadron, it was called the ‘White Man’s Grave’… as it was so dangerous.

Often as a British person we’re just made to feel awful about history, but it’s been nice to learn about the steps we took, at great expense, financially, politically, and at great human cost to morally do the right thing.

Many years ago history was taught with a bias towards the 'victors', there was a phase that was more balanced, now it seems to have swung the other way.

Lots of history is washed over. Too difficult to talk about so schools stuck to 'safe' topics Ancient Egyptians, Vikings and Roman invasions of the UK.
Great fire of London, plagues, etc.

Even the plague was presented as something that affected the densely populated London. I nearly feel over when I was told about a mass grave for plague victims in Dunfermline.

We won't mention the Lowland or Highland clearances, the reformation, slave trades, the poor conditions that our own working classes lived in.

We learnt about the slave trade, the American West, Ireland conflict at school- it was pretty balanced and not at all this was great; we also learnt about workhouses, history of medicine which highlighted living conditions of the poor and the affect this had etc. Not saying it's perfect, but I don't agree that nothing like this gets taught at school? Most of these are on the NC but not compulsory or are taught for GCSE so not everyone gets them. Your examples seem very primary school level stuff which is age appropriate.

In our history classes there was actually a big focus on how the working classes lived. History began in 1901 🧐 then suffragists, suffragettes, ww1, the vote for women huzzah! Depression, ww2, then we spent ages looking at the changes for the working classes formation of NHS, the move from tenements into high rises and the impact that had within society. History ended in 1960.

I am continually surprised by those that seem to believe that slavery wasn't happening till the UK arrived
That Colonisation wasn't a thing till the UK did it ...

It fits the self-flagellation that's very fashionable at the moment, @FrippEnos, and doubtless this has been identified as a good opportunity to top up those Swiss bank accounts so popular among despots, even while blaming colonialism for them being despots in the first place

However as @Lavenderblossoms wisely said a better approach might be to put more effort into ensuring it can never happen again - even though a different form of slavery is doing in parts of the Middle East and Africa, and good luck expecting payouts there

I didn't do history as an O grade subject, but even secondary school I remember doing the Romans, and centurian armies again. I can't remember what else we did but it seemed irrelevant hence opting not to take it to O grade level.

O levels were scrapped in 1988, the curriculum and what is taught in schools since then has changed. Makes sense that your comment is dated!

I think this is quite naive. There were tribes of people all over the world who were working very hard to slaughter or enslave their neighbours. They weren't generally sitting around minding their own business unless there weren't other groups around. Groups that have access to each other generally either trade, or compete, or both.

In many cases where Europeans appeared they indigenous groups were very happy to set up trade relationships with them in order to secure arms so they could have an advantage over their enemies. This happened in Asia, Africa, North America. In some cases groups like this insisted on military alliance in return for trading privileges.

Human beings everywhere tend to have very similar basic motives. What kind of history education have you had that would make you think non-Europeans were just sitting around nicely keeping to themselves. Trade, warfare, torture, genocide, driving people out of their lands, and slavery, are common things everywhere.

Those who benefited most should be paying reparations and by that I mean the royals. Elizabeth the first funded the first slave ship sent from England and successive royals enriched themselves further via the slave trade . The current crop sit atop a pile of stolen gold and jewels which they say represents the uk . It represents nothing but their own violence and greed.

Of course the Windsors won’t even pay the tax they owe to help support the struggling uk population so they won’t lift a finger.
What do they cost us now ? Half a billion a year ? Donate that Charlie if you are really sorry for your family’s direct role in the slave trade. Or pay your inheritance tax and donate that , how many hundreds of millions would that be?
ps inheritance tax was paid by so called royals in the past , but Elizabeth had it stopped in 1993 as a result of another of her self enriching deals.

And yes some families have acknowledged their role in the slave trade and have attempted to made amends. Charles can’t even apologise .