On Tue, 22 May 2007 11:47:17 GMT, Eeyore
wrote:



John Fields wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
John Fields wrote:

So why do you find it necessary to denigrate the US, who kept you
from being swallowed up by Germany? Not once, but twice

Certainly not twice. The USA pretty much only turned up for the celebrations the
first time round.

---
Geez, I guess we had no troops or equipment in Europe the second
time around? Must have been those history books we rewrote that had
me thinking we did.

Thanks for the correction.

Why do you find it neceesary to make up lies about the Britsh Empire being run by ppl
with rampant blood-lust whilst we're at it ?

---
Me???

I'm just quoting Wikipedia.

No you're not.

There was very little blood spilt in building the Empire btw. It would have been
counter-productive, unsustainable (and quite simply unaffordable) to have had hundreds of
thousands of British troops stationed overseas to subjugate various populations. In fact
the British Army of the time never had that many troops to begin with anyway !

Most of the aquisition of foreign territory which had some existing level of simple
government (even if was only the local ruler such as a sultan, maharajah or nawab ) was
based on defence pacts in return for trade concessions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiary_Alliance

---
All very nice and tidy, but the fact remains that if you wanted
those "trade concessions" and you couldn't get them, then your
reaction would have been to take what you wanted by force. After
all, even a tiny army should be enough to convince a single sultan
to give in without a fight.


--
JF