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Colonialism | Munk Debates

August 22, 2023

Colonialism

Be it Resolved, the British Empire did more harm than good.

Guests
James Heartfield
Nigel Biggar
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About this episode

In 1933, at the height of the British Empire, a small island off the north east coast of Europe controlled 25% of the world’s population and land mass. India, Canada, Australia, the British West Indies, parts of South America and Africa were all under British sway to one degree or another for the better part of the preceding century or longer. In its heyday, this mighty colonial power was admired for the innovation and enlightened principles it brought to newly conquered lands. Now, however, some modern historians want to set the record straight and reconsider British colonialism by its true nature: one defined by mass torture, rape, censorship, and starvation. The British so-called commitment to virtue and social progress, they argue, was a fallacy used to hide the cruelty with which they dominated their underlings.  For these historians, the Brits were no less violent or savage than Russia’s Stalin or Japan’s Hideki Tojo. Other historians see the vilification of Britain by modern historians as lacking in context; Britain was no better or worse than all the other empires that preceded it. The British Empire is being unfairly blamed for the current economic and political woes of the global south, while the positive attributes they introduced to their colonies - such as free markets, the rule of law, and public transport - fail to receive the acknowledgement they deserve. Lest we are prepared to demand apologies from every colonial power that sought to grow their empire over the last two thousand years, Britain should be left well enough alone.

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Guests

James Heartfield

"Englishmen, in the wrong circumstances, under significant pressures, were capable of taking some spectacularly wicked decisions."

James Heartfield

"Englishmen, in the wrong circumstances, under significant pressures, were capable of taking some spectacularly wicked decisions."

Historian and writer James Heartfield has been publishing on the history of the British Empire since writing The Aborigines’ Protection Society (2011). A long-standing campaigner for social justice he is author of An Unpatriotic History of the Second World War (2013), The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (2016) Who’s Afraid of the Easter Rising? (with Kevin Rooney, 2016). His most recent book is Britain’s Empires, 1600-2020 (2023).

James has worked as a lecturer, journalist and TV producer. He has been active in campaigns against deportations and race discrimination and more recently in favour of Britain leaving the European Union. He lives and works in North London.

Nigel Biggar

“I don't disagree that the Empire caused sometimes very grave, very atrocious harm, but it also did some very great good. You can't weigh those two things up together in some kind of quantitative fashion.”

Nigel Biggar

“I don't disagree that the Empire caused sometimes very grave, very atrocious harm, but it also did some very great good. You can't weigh those two things up together in some kind of quantitative fashion.”

NIGEL BIGGAR is Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford, where he directs the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life. He holds a B.A. in Modern History from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. in Christian Theology & Ethics from the University of Chicago. 

Described as “one of the leading living Western ethicists” (by John Gray, formerly Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics, in New Statesman, 25 November 2020), Professor Biggar was appointed Commander of the British Empire “for services to higher education” in Her Majesty the Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours list.  

Among hisecent books are Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning (William Collins, 2023), What’s Wrong with Rights? (Oxford University Press, 2020), and In Defence of War (OUP, 2013).

In the press he has written on the possibility of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Northern Ireland in the Irish Times, on the Iraq war in the Financial Times, on Scottish independence in Standpoint magazine, on the morality of Britain’s nuclear deterrent in The Scottish Review, and on Charlie Hebdo and freedom of speech in The Times. 

He has lectured at the Royal College of Defence Studies, London; the UK Defence Academy, Shrivenham; the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr, Hamburg; the US Military Academy, West Point; the US Naval Academy, Annapolis; and the National Defense University, Washington, DC. 

His hobbies include walking over battlefields. In 1973 he drove a Morris Traveller from Scotland to Afghanistan; and in 2015 and 2017 he trekked across the mountains of central Crete in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh-Fermor and his comrades, when they abducted General Kreipe in April-May 1944.

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