# Which is the most evil episode in British history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 29, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444 "2010-09-29T05:02:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/21 "2010-09-29T13:29:44Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I’m not expert on British history, but the extermination of the Tasmanians was pretty evil. They were systematically hunted down until none were left; isolated for 10,000 years from the rest of humanity only to be obliterated once found by people who made tobacco pouches out of their skin. Very Nazi-like, except more successful. Except that it’s a myth. [Cite.](http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s746130.htm) [Another cite.](http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/16/1034561211169.html) …and so on. Google “Tasmanian Aborigines” for yourself and filter out the pages that repeat the myths. There are no full-blooded Tasmanian Aborigines, but there are plenty of mixed-blood Tasmanian Aborigines. I’ve met a few of them. Without diminishing the very real horrors that happened to Tasmanian Aborigines, their descendants **are** still around and from what I hear they tend to get very offended by ill-informed people claiming they don’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Stormcrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/0ea827/32.png) [@Stormcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stormcrow)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/22 "2010-09-29T13:41:22Z")
I’m kind of partial to the Opium Wars. Call it the “War for Drugs.” Imagine the US growing all the drugs in the world, and forcing smaller countries to let us export them. ---
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/23 "2010-09-29T14:08:23Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Don’t forget that [we invented concentration camps](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War). > > The Irish famine history is considerably more complex than as portrayed above. True, the people were starving while food was being exported, but part of that was due to the free market: the landowners (some of whom were Irish), were they to have fed the dying, would have been ruined, creating an economic disaster that could possibly have exacerbated the situation even more. (One reason that “socialist” policies should have been imposed at the time, IMO. The responsibility for which inaction lay at the hands of the British parliament, for sure, though there were some strident and very vocal Brits who attempted to push such aid measures through, but were defeated.) Though the clearances of tenant farmers didn’t help much. Secondly there was a large amount of panic caused by _perceived_ starvation, leading to the abandonment of still-productive settlements. **Anyway, we were absolutely dreadful, but I believe it was criminal negligence rather than deliberate genocide.** Actually, there was a vocal minority who held that the famine would make Ireland easier to control by reducing the population. It even got an editorial in the Times. ---
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/24 "2010-09-29T14:10:04Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I’m not expert on British history, but the extermination of the Tasmanians was pretty evil. They were systematically hunted down until none were left; isolated for 10,000 years from the rest of humanity only to be obliterated once found by people \*\*who made tobacco pouches out of their skin. \*\*Very Nazi-like, except more successful. Cite? That sounds impractical. ---
**Author:** ![Dioptre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/278dde/32.png) [@Dioptre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dioptre)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/25 "2010-09-29T14:20:25Z")
Can I nominate the Boer War as one of the top contenders. Not up there with Ireland or India in terms of sheer numbers, but the tactics of systematic oppression would certainly ping the evil-meter (had some clumsy person not broken it up-thread). Long fences to restrict movement of the civilian population, scorched earth against civilians to deprive insurgents of support, collective punishment in response to insurgent activity … with the meta bonus of not even spurious claims to legitimacy of the occupation. They were a colonial power trying to oust another colonial power from resource stocks that neither rightfully owned. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/26 "2010-09-29T14:50:55Z")
The Opium Wars was an immoral disgusting time to be British. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/27 "2010-09-29T14:54:49Z")
> [@Dioptre](#): > > They were a colonial power trying to oust another colonial power from resource stocks that neither rightfully owned. I certainly won’t support the Boer’s later actions but at least initially when they landed in the area of Cape Town no one was there. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/28 "2010-09-29T14:55:48Z")
> [@Dioptre](#): > > They were a colonial power trying to oust another colonial power from resource stocks that neither rightfully owned. I don’t know that I’d exactly call the Boers a “colonial power”. They had traveled from the Cape, but it’s not like they were the Cape’s agents or the Cape controlled the Boer republics. In fact, they were fleeing British rule of the Cape. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/29 "2010-09-29T15:06:52Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > > [@Dioptre](#): > > > > They were a colonial power trying to oust another colonial power from resource stocks that neither rightfully owned. > > I don’t know that I’d exactly call the Boers a “colonial power”. They had traveled from the Cape, but it’s not like they were the Cape’s agents or the Cape controlled the Boer republics. In fact, they were fleeing British rule of the Cape. Come on, there were quite a few refugees but that was after The Dutch East India Company established the outpost. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/30 "2010-09-29T15:15:14Z")
Some would argue that it falls under ‘negligent’ rather than ‘evil’, but for sheer mass suffering, it’s unquestionably the Indian Independence Act of 1947 - or more specifically, the Partition of India. Basically, 15 million people - roughly 7.5 million Muslims, and about the same number of Hindus and other minorities - were forced to leave their homes more or less overnight, with no functioning government around to ensure their safety. It’s the largest mass migration in history, and probably killed at least half a million people. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/31 "2010-09-29T15:27:36Z")
_Benny Hill_ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/32 "2010-09-29T15:31:22Z")
[There were some massacres of Jews in medieval England.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_England#Massacres_at_London_and_York_.281189.E2.80.931190.29) And they were all expelled from the country in 1290, and not allowed to return until 1655, under Cromwell. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/33 "2010-09-29T15:32:44Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > > > I don’t know that I’d exactly call the Boers a “colonial power”. They had traveled from the Cape, but it’s not like they were the Cape’s agents or the Cape controlled the Boer republics. In fact, they were fleeing British rule of the Cape. > > Come on, there were quite a few refugees but that was after The Dutch East India Company established the outpost. 200 years after, and after the VOC didn’t have any power over them anymore. When you look at the establishment of colonies, there’s a center and a periphery, and the center sends out agents to govern or control the periphery for the benefit of the center. The Cape Colony under the Dutch and British fits that, but the Boer Republics don’t. If anything, the Boer Republics are anti-colonial. The whole point of the Great Trek is to gain independence from colonial rule and set up states where the Boers can be free of any foreign power. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/34 "2010-09-29T15:37:09Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > You’d get a strong argument from some quarters that the bombing of [Dresden](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II)and [Hamburg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Hamburg)during WW2 count as “evil” episodes. And those people would be wrong. But without getting into the details of that, I find it incredible how successfully the United States has separated itself from Operations Gomorrah and Thunderclap (?). Right or wrong (and I’d sign an order for them again tomorrow, were the situation the same), they were joint Anglo-American operations, yet know are thought of as specifically British actions. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/35 "2010-09-29T15:39:30Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I didn’t think this belonged in the Pit since my intent is essentially academic. Sure, your intent is “essentially academic.” [Guess you weren’t content with having Brits hand it to you in that thread…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=577466) What happened? Lose your girlfriend to a British guy? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/36 "2010-09-29T15:42:10Z")
Iranians remember that the Brits (with the Americans) were hip-deep in [Operation Ajax.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_ajax) ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/37 "2010-09-29T15:51:50Z")
Given that it persisted until the 1950s, I’d say the forced labor contracts and the affiliated Kipande system in Kenya should be right up there. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/38 "2010-09-29T15:56:44Z")
I’ll go with the slave trade. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/39 "2010-09-29T16:00:42Z")
^ Which the Royal Navy managed to do a lot to stop. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444/40 "2010-09-29T16:03:54Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > > [@Dioptre](#): > > > > They were a colonial power trying to oust another colonial power from resource stocks that neither rightfully owned. > > I certainly won’t support the Boer’s later actions but at least initially when they landed in the area of Cape Town no one was there. Er, no, just … fucking [no](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoikhoi), OK?:mad: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-most-evil-episode-in-british-history/555444.md?page=3)