[susie q]

Originally Posted by Livia

I learned about this at school. I learned about slaves... of course I also learned about men like William Wilberforce. I learned about the damaging greed of the Empire, and also the legacies that are still used... railway, system of government etc. I also learned that the Empire for all its faults, gave birth to the Commonwealth, which is nothing but positive. So positive that countries that were never part of our Empire, chose to join it.

What I didn't learn about at school but kind of stumbled upon on my own was the German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese colonies... Maybe because those countries have come to terms with their terrible past and now work in the present.

Sounds like my experience of learning about the empire. Few things are really Black & White, and that includes the Empire.