'Our empire was an amazing thing'
. . .what was so wrong with attempts to map Africa, to ban sati (the custom of burying widows when their husbands died) in India, to lay roads and railways, and drains, to make trade follow internationally agreed laws, to try to create a system of incorruptible administration?
And you could go on, as the ancient Kikuyu lady did, about the British Empire's schools and hospitals, and then add clean water and common law and cricket and navigational maps for all the oceans and. . .
'Empire’ starts on BBC One on Feb 27 at 9pm.
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