Well for starters tendai it is all very well to say it was obviously an evil practice etc etc but the fact is that it was practised by every country in the world. Including the african countries.
It was an accepted norm. Clearly horrific to our modern sensibilities but not so to the mind of 300 years ago. To make a stand and change this was a very progressive step.
It is a difficult thing to try and adopt a mind set without a modern bias but I think to suggest that the merchants who originally were involved in this were in some way evil is unfair.
As for British colonialism I think you can identify many areas that weren't evil.
Of the colonial powers Britain's rule is generally accepted as being the most benevolent and is in stark contrast to those of belgium and germany and france.
Although I freely admit that massacres and the like did occur and are terrible the general philosohpy of the empire was not one of supressing and destroying the natives and I think it that many countries' inhabitants enjoyed a greater quality of life under the pax britannica than at any time in the various countries' histories and in some cases since.
Mahatma ghandi was educated in bombay and in london at the height of empire. Without the British presence would a university have existed in Bombay at that time? A simplistic example which will no doubt be attacked by the likes of tg but the it illustrates the fact that not all was evil about the empire.
The abolition of slavery was directly related to moral obligation. It was a parliamentary response to a growing popular campaign within the country to halt what was coming to be considered contrary to princples of justice etc
Well for starters tendai it is all very well to say it was obviously an evil practice etc etc but the fact is that it was practised by every country in the world. Including the african countries.
It was an accepted norm. Clearly horrific to our modern sensibilities but not so to the mind of 300 years ago. To make a stand and change this was a very progressive step.
It is a difficult thing to try and adopt a mind set without a modern bias but I think to suggest that the merchants who originally were involved in this were in some way evil is unfair.
As for British colonialism I think you can identify many areas that weren't evil.
Of the colonial powers Britain's rule is generally accepted as being the most benevolent and is in stark contrast to those of belgium and germany and france.
Although I freely admit that massacres and the like did occur and are terrible the general philosohpy of the empire was not one of supressing and destroying the natives and I think it that many countries' inhabitants enjoyed a greater quality of life under the pax britannica than at any time in the various countries' histories and in some cases since.
Mahatma ghandi was educated in bombay and in london at the height of empire. Without the British presence would a university have existed in Bombay at that time? A simplistic example which will no doubt be attacked by the likes of tg but the it illustrates the fact that not all was evil about the empire.
The abolition of slavery was directly related to moral obligation. It was a parliamentary response to a growing popular campaign within the country to halt what was coming to be considered contrary to princples of justice etc