EMPIRE- did you know this history?

[Needacupofteaandcrackers]

Just watched Empire on BBC….. I didn’t realise the timelines of how long it was tolerated. I’ve been to a few trust sites and only now I’m made to connections on wealth. 🥹

James I was actually Scottish by birth, not English, though. He was king of Scotland before he became king of England, too. And many plantations in Ireland were granted to Scots, too.

When it came to joining in with imperial activity, later on, Scots and Irish (both Catholic and Protestant) were disproportionately represented in the British Empire. Any 19th century cemetery in India will reveal this.

I say this as someone with Scottish, English and both Irish Catholic and Irish Protestant ancestry. The Irish Catholic ancestor was transported to Australia for stealing a ribbon or a piece of lace (!) and her great-great granddaughter could have afforded to buy a whole shop of whatever clothes she wanted. I daresay this acquisition of wealth involved taking land originally belonging to the indigenous population.

We did nothing in school. I didn't do history for GCSE but up to that point it wasn't covered.

thats how England got them to sign the act of union in 1707 by offering them access to the transatlantic trade and slavery - wouldn’t that be why they are In The cemeteries.

but yes Scot’s also active in Ulster plantations

It’s the precise opposite. In Haiti the former slaves paid the compensation to Paris.

In the British colonies Westminster paid the compensation to slave owners. So ordinary taxpayer people in the United Kingdom who had never owned or a slave paid rich slave owners in those self-governing colonies the market rate for each slave to set them free. Even before that, English abolitionists were paying privately to free slaves. Often hundreds at a time.

Watched the last one. This talked about Australia and how the British government wanted an alternative to sending prisoners to America. Also how the slave owners in Jamaica and Barbados planned for after slavery was abolished by recruiting indentured labour from India.

3www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/15/the-islamic-world-silent-on-its-history-of-slavery/?fbclid=IwdGRjcAOLjU9jbGNrA4uNSGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHr9ttLZLaujDJTBzShwAd1pmIz89nahP4J5vjnaEFyhMR3Il8QBHMkV1TGDi_aem_Tl-xJYE_DaDi7vlnr0CGOw

I always find it jarring to see a statue of Cromwell outside the Houses of Parliament.

I don't follow you @XWKD.

Cromwell led Parliament's armies during the Civil War. He was at the forefront of establishing the precedent that the Monarch can only rule and levy taxes with the consent of the House of Commons.

Yes that's why his statue is outside Parliament. But he was responsible for English/Protestant colonisation of Ireland, confiscation of land oppression of catholics and death of up to 20% of the population. A good example of how history is not a simple story of goodies and baddies.

Four centuries later and he’s still infamous in Ireland for his brutality.

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