BBC History Magazine

The shadow of empire

A recent episode of BBC Radio long- running debate series The Moral Maze on the morality of the British empire (available to listen to on BBC Sounds) prompted an impassioned discussion which extended far beyond the programme.

(@KimAtiWagner) tweeted: “If you wouldn’t do a programme on the (@purisamir1) responded directly: “This kind of relativisation is not helpful… You are comparing 12 years of Nazi Germany to circa five centuries of British empire. Different spans of time give rise to moral questions of a different nature.” As (@JoshNeicho) put it: “Isn’t the point of The to include people with very different ideological convictions, ideally including those you as a listener passionately disagree with – and might think ‘evil’?”

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