Chapter 5

When England ruled.

I think we all know that there are no native Britons left, well maybe a few Welsh, but the Saxons, Romans and Normans pretty much took over the country, then a few French and Germans, but Oh Well.

For almost 750 years the little island of Britain was a sea power. (Another author here, Argon, has an excellent series about England and it's Navy too. Read it to get some background.)

The point is that all good things must come to an end. By the end of WWII England began a decline, which until recent investments and oil prices started to produce vast profits. If you look at India, Canada, Indonesia, America, Africa, Thailand and Hong Kong you might see the vestiges of English culture with The Club, polo and cricket but not much else.

Today much of the land cheaply bought by England has de-valued even more. The English oil firms try to hide the real damage of their sloppy work in favour of more profit. WWI and WWII have shown Britain's willingness to sacrifice men to make a good show for inept leaders and not many people really think having The Royals makes up for the Jolly Good Times the country is having.

Around the turn of the century, the King/HRH was given a gift of 100 million pounds of silver. It came from a very minor Raja in India to help pay for a war the King wanted to fight. Well, if a minor prince had so much, then by Jove, the rest were ripe for the plucking.

Ask how long the great city of Singapore lasted under British control during WWII or Indonesia; even India was almost lost. Thank goodness there were enough natives to spend till those Japs ran out of bullets, everyone knew they were not Gentlemen.

If there is any point, it is that Britain now is so much smaller in the minds of the world except to a true English gentleman. After all no other race was worthy enough to mate or marry with a true Gentleman's family, Eh, Right Old Bean. They won't have a go with his sister, or daughter or niece, she needed a real Gentleman.

I really like the British though; one can get great fish and chips, joust while driving on a road and see one of Gordon Ramsey's eateries there. Oh yes, tea and crumpets with real jam.

England is as good or bad as every other major country. All have problems and most always blame others rather than themselves.

In a recent news article (2009/2010 I think), a US Naval ship made a stop in Mozambique, Africa. It had been many years since the US Navy had been there. The officers went ashore and instead of heading to the polo club bar, as Naval officers had been granted membership when at sea, they went to meet the people there, talked to them, traded with them and gave them small gifts, which seemed trivial to the Officers. It seemed though that in over 200 years no Naval officer had ever done that and the event made national news. They experienced no crime, no hatred, no beheadings or canning, they had made friends.

Is there anything to be learned from that?

Read Argon's posts on SOL, I cannot begin to add anything about Olde England than he already has in his stories.

Britain was an old land, full of myth and fable. I guess 6,000 years of Chinese, Indian and Persian history was not as impressive as 2,000 years to the English, but no matter, after all they were not gentlemen.

There was quite a bit one could say about the British, they never had a colony, let alone a soldier they were not willing to sacrifice. I really like the stories told about Merlin, Arthur and that girl, what was her name, you know Arthur's wife, Gwenn or Verna, something like that.

It had been said Arthur had 2 swords, one he pulled from a rock, and the other magically rose from a pond of water. I did not know that they had palm and fingerprint identification on weapons back then, but that was nice to know.