Poll ,Best Colonial Empire .

Best Colonial Empire .

  • United Kingdom .

    Votes: 95 57.2%
  • French Republic .

    Votes: 6 3.6%
  • French Kingdom .

    Votes: 2 1.2%
  • Spain .

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • Portugal .

    Votes: 6 3.6%
  • Germany .

    Votes: 11 6.6%
  • Denmark .

    Votes: 24 14.5%
  • Netherlands .

    Votes: 10 6.0%
  • Italy .

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • Russia .

    Votes: 10 6.0%

  • Total voters
    166
I voted Portugal simply because when they started they were only interested in money and basically left the locals alone as long as they allowed trade to go on unhindered, none of that uplifting the natives with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other crap spouted by a lot of Spanish, British, French and US colonial governments.

Uh, Portugal was pretty heavily involved with local intervention. There's a reason why their former colonies are Catholic.
 
Uh, Portugal was pretty heavily involved with local intervention. There's a reason why their former colonies are Catholic.
And fought a particularly notorious series of wars in the 20th century to try and hold on to many of their colonies, even after everyone else had essentially given up on colonialism.

Which gets back to the point; I can't vote for any of these as being anything other than awful.

I'm also still confused as to where the USA is on the poll; even if you exclude the West, the Philippines and other island holdings qualify.
 
Uh, Portugal was pretty heavily involved with local intervention. There's a reason why their former colonies are Catholic.

I did say when they started. They became as awful as other Empires, however if you go to Macauu the locals are quite nostalgic about the colonial days but get the ferry to Hong Kong and you will struggle to find anyone with a good word to say about Britain.

As others have said it is a contest between the best mass murderers.
 
I did say when they started. They became as awful as other Empires, however if you go to Macauu the locals are quite nostalgic about the colonial days but get the ferry to Hong Kong and you will struggle to find anyone with a good word to say about Britain.

As others have said it is a contest between the best mass murderers.

Even when they started. Unless you literally mean their intention as da Gama got onto the first boat to India. Once he got there, non-intervention wasn't a thing.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
And fought a particularly notorious series of wars in the 20th century to try and hold on to many of their colonies, even after everyone else had essentially given up on colonialism.

Which gets back to the point; I can't vote for any of these as being anything other than awful.

I'm also still confused as to where the USA is on the poll; even if you exclude the West, the Philippines and other island holdings qualify.

Probably wasn't long enough lasting would be my guess. Of the territories still controlled, it seems that they want more rather than less US involvement in local affairs (Guam, Puerto Rico, etc.), and the Phillipines and Cuba were let go of both within 50 years.
 
I did say when they started. They became as awful as other Empires, however if you go to Macauu the locals are quite nostalgic about the colonial days but get the ferry to Hong Kong and you will struggle to find anyone with a good word to say about Britain.

As others have said it is a contest between the best mass murderers.

The British were all about the "Empire of Liberty" in the beginning, but greed got in the way. And I'm pretty sure there's quite a few, if not a majority of Hong Kongers who would've voted to stay British in 1997 if given the opportunity. The only reason you "won't find anyone with a good word to say about Britain" is because the Chinese government is listening.

But if that's not proof enough, a poll was done on the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence indicating that a majority of Jamaicans wish it never happened. And a majority of Jamaicans are descended from slaves who had it far worse than your average Macao...er? Macaoigan? Macaonese?

Point is, that doesn't really make the case for the benevolence of said empire at large. Nothing in history is hated by everyone.
 
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