The British Empire

Banbury – London, via Bourne End, England

Biking through the British Isles affords plenty of opportunity to think about, well, all things British. 

Pubs. Fancy cars. British accents. Guinness. Royalty. 

But also the British Empire.

And it’s this last piece that I want to focus on today. 

Over the past several years I’ve felt like the trend is to discount anything positive about the Empire because we’ve concluded that colonialism was bad, and, therefore, anything having to do with colonialism is also bad. 

I guess I’m not so sure. I mean, obviously, through our perfect-hindsight, today’s-values prism of course the Brits were terrible. But so was virtually every other civilization or tribe ever in the history of the world. People are just generally kind of brutish and mean. The best civilizations hopefully put a lid on mankind’s savagery, holding it in check with police officers and laws and such . . . But, in the end, it’s pretty difficult to make human nature go away completely . . .

Once you accept this terrible fact, I think you can make a pretty good argument that the British have actually been a pretty powerful force for slow-but-steady progress in the world. From my point of view, most of the stable, long-term democracies on our planet sprouted from the seeds of British colonialism: the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Irish Republic. But also places like Egypt, Turkey, and India. 

Of course, the whole world is a bit shaky on this front right now – with strong man leaders seeming to pop up all over the place. Nonetheless, I’d still rather be in one of these countries than in places like Russia or China – where there are no guardrails to protect democracy at all – it’s just full-on authoritarianism . . .

What do I ascribe the Brit’s success in building and spreading democracy to? Two related things . . .

First are the social norms. Politeness. Decency. Respect. Respect for one’s enemy. But also a respect for the institutions upon which a nation is built. 

And second, Britain’s slow, plodding style of government. Gradualism, if you will. 

I could go on about why I think these ingredients have been key to building stable democracies. But this blog is probably not the place. If you are interested, someday – once we are back in Minneota, you can buy me a beer or a cider and we can have a good chat . . .

For now, I can include a few pictures that Diana and I snapped as we entered London. The British definitely know how to honor and respect their governmental institutions. 

The last few days of riding? Definitely in keeping with the British pattern. Banbury to Bourne End was another day of putting our heads down and pedaling. Implacable grey skies – and a forecast that (accurately) called for a steady rain starting at 2 p.m. The good news is that we were done biking by 3:30 or so – so we only had to ride in the rain for an hour-and-a-half or so. Still, we managed to land not too far from a good pub – the White Horse – so there was that . . .

And then yesterday was just a short ride into London – but with another daunting forecast. This time – wind. Howling wind – with gusts up to 40 miles-per-hour. I guess a fitting end to the European chapter of our journey. And, as I guess there should be under the circumstances, there was, literally, a rainbow at the end of this great British biking tunnel. That’s because we had our daily dose of heavy rain along the way – with the sun peeking out again afterwards. 

Doesn’t matter. We made it to an Oriental Food Hall before it started pouring, and then we enjoyed a stop at Abbey Road (where the Beatles recorded and created their iconic album cover)

before hitting Buckingham Palace,

the National Gallery,

London Tower

and the Tower Bridge. 

We agreed that London is one of the absolutely amazing cities of the world. Big grand public displays and people from all over the world. 

In the end, we landed at Diana’s cousin Angie’s house and enjoyed a wonderful home cooked Thai curry with Angie, her husband Marc, and their daughter – who starred in the blog a few weeks ago, when she gave us a tour of Oxford – Ariana.. 

I’m still feeling under the weather, so I’m enjoying a day off with my blankie while Diana wanders around this great city on the Thames. 

Well, I guess that’s not quite accurate. Once I finish with the blog I need to clean the bikes and pack them away in our newfound bike boxes for our final airplane hop – back to the Big Apple. 

And then it’s just a hop, skip and a jump back to Minnesota . . .