As an Englishman, I can’t help but feel a rush of pride at all the votes for my country but I am humbled when I look at timelines that show how long the Egyptians ran the show or, say, the Minoans or the Sumerians.
http://www.timelines.info/history/empires_and_civilizations/ancient_civilisations/
Need I point out the Gandhi (not Ghandi dammit) was born a British subject ?
Quantity vs quality, IMHO. 
Again, it all depends on what one means by ‘Greatest History’.
-XT
I’m not following your reasoning for preferring labels over reality. Reality trumps all in everything I can think of.
If you want to say that the UK is a monarchy, then go ahead, but so long as we’re agreed that I would call it a Republic and you understand my reasoning, then you should be able to take my point.
They fed Christians to the lions for Jesus. I think Gandhi’s influence has spread far beyond India into South Africa, America, everywhere people fight societal injustice through peaceful means.
Yes, and Jesus was a part of the Roman empire as well. =)
To be fair, Gandhi got his sense of justice from British law schools that applied principles of justice fairly well in Britain. Then he saw the version of British justice that was applied in the colonies.
Reminds me of that famous Disraeli quote;
“Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.”
I also vote Egypt, Italy (Roman Empire + Renaissance), China. Not necessarily in that order.
Which wasn’t unjustified when it was said, but latest archeological findings strongly suggest the existence of some high cultures very early in Europe that were totally unknown to us twenty years ago, are still pretty obscure but not so much that anyone knowledgeable can still seriously evoke the image of a backwater region when the middle east was already civilized.
As usual, our history was likely much more complex than we have come to believe.
And he also said himself that his tactics would have only worked against someone as benevolent in nature as the English.
I dont think that he would have been so effective against the Nazis or the Soviets or the Chinese.
You think it would work against the Zionists?
That’s because of the compartmentalized way history is taught. We open a chapter on China and it’s all about China, out of any global context, until we get to a chapter on labor unions or Reconstruction, which are ALSO taken out of any context.
Sometimes I wonder if this is done intentionally to reduce a sense of competition, so to speak – so ethnic one group of kids won’t be saying, “our people had gunpowder before yours had the wheel!” Sometimes I think it’s just laziness. But whatever the reason, it’s very disorienting.
Tom Clancy does. In his novel, The Sum of All Their Fears, the moment the Palestinian youths lie down in front of the Israelis and begin chanting peacefully, provoking a harsh Israeli response, one of Clancy’s American characters thinks, “They’ve finally found the way to destroy Israel!”