by Tony Orman

“If you want to understand today, you have to research yesterday.” –Pearl Buck, American author and Pulitzer Prize winner in 1932

Studying history needs good teachers and interesting books

I flunked history at secondary school, almost wholly due to a history teacher who was hardly ever in the class room. There can be the odd lazy teacher! So at Palmerston North Boys’ High School, my interest in history was not kindled. It was dormant. 

However, if I had a book like John McLean’s The British Empire and a teacher like the author to inspire me, I am certain I would have scored highly in exams as I did in other subjects such as Geography, Mathematics and English.

Of course, in later years for most people, history does become much more significant. 

A well-qualified author

Author John McLean has a M.A. in History plus a law degree and is a former officer of the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve. Add in a personal deep interest in the British Empire, an obvious fascination with history plus an enthusiasm for deep, diligent delving into research and he is well qualified to write such a book as this. 

This is no ordinary history book. Although it runs to almost 600 pages, it is not a mammoth, endurance challenge to read, for the author has meticulously researched his subject and presented it in an engaging style.

“The British Empire was built by bold, enterprising and hardworking types — free from the restraining hand of government over-regulation which stifles enterprise in the 21st century,” he writes. 

A huge empire based on humanitarian principles

The story of the British Empire and its colonies was very much a success in terms of civilisation and humanitarian principles.  For instance, Britain, unlike most of the civilisations before and after it, actually ended slavery at home and in its empire.

Sadly, for all its overall success story, apart from a few small scattered colonies, the British Empire no longer exists, rues the author, and will not be reborn. 

Anti-colonial feeling can be strong, often whipped up by ideologues with self-serving agendas. John McLean is aware of this and writes “this book is not based on any such agenda but on the facts.” Nevertheless the author does express plenty of well thought out opinions based on his detailed research.

He gives accounts of an amazing number of some 101 territories — yes 101 0- that were part of the British Empire at some time or another and those that remain.

The book has quite number of surprises. For example in India, Mahatma Gandhi who I had previously thought a respected statesman was in reality, according to  McLean, “a cunning, manipulative, two-faced lawyer who seems to have been obsessed with a hatred of everything British, despite his lies to the contrary.”

Gandhi had presented himself as a “simple peasant —and even started to dress in rags like a peasant even though he had been brought up in a rich household.” Once in power, Gandhi manipulated the people to suit his own ends. During the Second World War he emerged as an enemy not only of the British Empire but of the Allied cause. He was instrumental in organising boycotts, riots, strikes and other acts in the bid to gain India its independence.

Benefits and disastrous policies

The author says probably the greatest benefit that Britain via its Empire, gave to native races was the extension of longevity to people. For example the life expectancy of Maori increased from 20 to 25 in 1840 to 77 years today.

However, as well intentioned as the British Empire was, there were some mistakes that were made such as the appalling Atlantic Slave Trade and the cruel Boer concentration camps set up in the South African War, to name but two.

“But the biggest mistake of all was to hurry backward colonies into premature independence for which they were not ready.” 

The granting of independence to African countries in the 1960s resulted in more Africans — 11 million — than were transported across the Atlantic as slaves, being granted their “freedom”.

But these mistakes were few compared to the immense benefits the British Empire brought to backward and often violent, societies.

Most Maori benefitted from being part of the Empire

Naturally as a member of the British Empire, New Zealand gets coverage with the author rebutting claims that colonisation by England had negative consequences for the Maori.

“From about 1820 the tribes were slowly brought around to the view that war was wasteful and destructive by the arguments of the missionaries. This was the mind-set that finally persuaded them to ask for a single sovereign to govern their anarchic land.” Hence the Treaty of Waitangi.

While the majority of Maori welcomed the Treaty, “there was a small minority who still craved for the olden times. One was Hone Heke, a young and impetuous chief who had been the first to sign the Treaty – and the first to break it.”

The author does not temper his words about those today who would rewrite history and in this case denigrate the British Empire and portray “white men as baddies.”

John McLean writes “the current political/academic media elite has decided (that the British Empire and colonisation) was somehow a bad thing. These products of a modern sound bite education tend to judge the past by the passing standards of the present, which is fatal to understanding true history”.

What was it like and what influence did it have?

His purpose in researching and writing The British Empire is “to give the reader an idea of what the Empire was really like and what it did — or failed to do.”

In other words he has strived to present a factual, impartial history and unbiased analysis of the history of the British Empire and its colonies. In this reader’s opinion he has admirably succeeded. 

The book deserves to be read by every fair thinking New Zealander not only for the personal interest in “Kiwi-land” but as an insight into the history of other colonies and the World.

The influence of the British Empire went far beyond the usually held concept of countries involved. In fact it gave birth to modern, powerful nations such as the United States. Today, apart from a few, scattered colonies, the British Empire no longer exists and will not be reborn.

Yet “what cannot and must not be accepted is the modern lie that it was a negative force in human development whereas it gave more freedom, safety, prosperity and enlightenment to more people than any other force in history.”

Very highly recommended.

The British Empire: A Force for Good by John McLean, published by Tross Publishing is available direct through its website www.trosspublishing.com or from Paper Plus bookshops. Recommended Retail Price $50.