Hmmm, so many holes to pick, so little time.
1. Chinese laborers treated as inferiors who smoked opium? Google “Opium Wars”, Mr. Schama; opium only became a common drug in China because it was forced upon the culture by colonial powers who sought to keep China pacified, and who used military force to ensure this. The powers in question being France and Great Britain.
2. Slavery? Google “Middle Passage”. The African slave trade started with African tribes selling prisoners taken in internecine tribal wars to Arab traders, who in turn sold them to European traders, mainly Dutch and… British. This trade predated the existence of the United States by 150+ years, beginning with slaves being bought to work on plantations in the Crown colonies in the early 17th Century. To their credit, the Royal Navy joined in the anti-slavery blockade of the 1800s to put an end to the trade, after being challenged to do so by… the United States. Also, when slavery was outlawed in Britain in the 1820s, it was still quite legal to own slaves in the foreign colonies. Furthermore, while transporting slaves was illegal under British law after 1825, nearly half of the slave ships taken by the patrol in the next three decades were British-flagged, owned, and/or officered. The money was apparently simply too good to pass up.
3. As for “American bigotry”, name another nation that fought a civil war to abolish the mistreatment of any group solely based on their ethnicity.
Mr. Schama needs to go back to school, study World History again… and this time, actually pass the course.
clear ether
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