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Okay I have a question, If Britain never had the empire or anything, what would the world be like today? I know it's very broad but yeah.
From what I've read, it seems that it would be fairly different. Some sites say that America wouldn't be speaking English and stuff idk.
So, would the world today be better with or without the British Empire?
Absolutely no way of knowing, it influenced far too much of world history to even hypothesise. Maybe the entire planet would be under feudal rule with no communication technology at all, maybe the Holy Roman Empire would hold everyone in fiefdom and religious dissenters would have been wiped out through force, maybe Portuguese Indian colonies would have risen to such riches they could enslave everyone. Then again maybe with any of the above or any other options 2014 would have been a year of utter peace and worldwide "perfect" living á la Brave New World. It's been too long and it had far too much reach for us to possibly know one way or another
It's likely (and as Tom has said, we don't know as anything can happen - who would have predicted the former American colonies one day displacing Britain as the world power? It would have been unthinkable in the days of the 13 colonies) that Africa would have been mainly speaking French now and that French influence would have extended further south and more to the East. It's also likely in the Indian subcontinent that France and Portugal would be the main power brokers, whereas a industrialised Japan would have invaded a sparsely populated Australia, New Zealand and North America. In terms of who would likely have arisen as world powers instead of Britain: the two candidates most likely were France and the Netherlands.
The world however, I think, it's safe to say would likely have witnessed the rise of the French Empire as the prime world power. After all, even with Britain around it very nearly happened: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo Waterloo was the turning point that established Pax Britannica.
I think for various reasons though that the world would be a lot less free and worse off had it not been for the British Empire. It's often been said that there's never been a kinder and more compassionate imperial conquest than that of the march of the British. Indeed, there's not been a Empire or superpower in world history that has had such a lasting impact on the world other than that of the British & Roman Empires.
bit different
Edited by iPhil (Forum Super Moderator): Please do not post pointlessly, thanks!