Notes & Queries response: What if the British empire never existed? Would the world be a better or a worse place?
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The Guardian is apparently no longer happy to host my comments on their site, so it is appearing here instead.
This blog is obviously not affiliated with The Guardian. Its reference to a question that appeared in Notes & Queries is presented here under the terms of fair use.
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What if the British empire never existed? Would the world be a better or a worse place?
“Without a date of construction, and a feel for what the sentiment was in regard to English colonial rule in these parts, it is very hard to say whether it was an intentional slight or was simply carelessness on the part of the builder,” he said. “Personally I would go with the latter explanation, given that all the other bricks are the right way up. If it was done deliberately, then they were very much making a rod for their own back. These bricks were designed to form a stronger structure when they were laid right-side-up.”
A prolonged commotion among a troupe of gray langur monkeys, in a nearby tree, dislodged a cloud of orange blossom that drifted fragrantly across our view. Carden took off his hat and shook down the petals that had accumulated in the brim.
“Somewhere around here, there would have been a kiln field,” he mused. “The English always made the bricks locally if they could help it; if there were the materials available. It didn't make sense to lug a job lot all the way from Great Britain, across a multiple of oceans.
“It was the architect James Weston who came up with the design for the brick. He is responsible for the Riember Arch and Wordsworth College. There is some disagreement over who concocted the actual recipe, which is arguably more revolutionary. Roy Greenland and John Rendle both fought over credit, but it was probably one of their underlings who did all the work.
“The profile of the reigning monarch was a sign that they were produced according to British standards and were of good quality. They were fired in the millions anywhere the English set down roots, which was practically everywhere at one point. Almost all of them were used in municipal construction projects. Any building that was made from these bricks, and that dated to the colonial era of a given nation, would have served some kind of official purpose. They were also used to line graves.
“You know what they used to call all these buildings collectively? The English Wall. A great disjointed edifice, staking-out occupied foreign territory.
“After the Empire went into decline large quantities of bricks were left behind by the departing colonists. Again, no point in lugging them all the way across the Seven Seas back to Blighty.
“In some cases, opportunists spirited them away and used them either to build new homes, or to expand existing properties, or in small-scale projects, such as bolstering farming terraces.
“In other cases, the English were barely over the horizon before the local leadership, who had stepped in to fill the void, had laid claim to the brick caches. At Namaksir, which is where we will be a few days from now, the bricks were distributed to the population by the village elders. Influential or high status families were given preferential consideration, which caused its own problems, as you will see in due course.
“In urban areas, arrangements were made, often with the cooperation of the departing British, for local government to take control of the brick piles. Thereafter, they continued to be used in the same spirit, in community projects – schools, hospitals, post offices. That kind of thing. So, for a while, the Empire continued to build itself under its own momentum, albeit under new management and according to a different vision.
“Then you had a situation where old properties were being demolished and the bricks, which were worth holding onto, were being repurposed in new buildings. That is why it gets a little harder to date some of these places without having a chat with someone local. Many years after the various Kings and Queens of England had passed away, the bricks bearing their likenesses were still being used to make new things.”
From the nearby tree there rose further sounds of internal discontent - a chorus that was reminiscent of dry dog barks lodged in the back of parched throats. Then another scampering commotion that was followed by another cloud of orange blossom, smaller than the one before. When it happened, Carden was kneeling down, using a metallic crayon to make rubbings of some of the bricks in his large notepad.
“Now, I'm presenting to you a somewhat halcyon picture of the relations between colonial powers and their reluctant hosts,” he said. “In territories where there was lingering bad feeling towards the United Kingdom, the use of the bricks was taboo. I've heard that, along the coast, they were often taken out in small quantities by the fishing boats and the ferries, and dumped over the side.
“This resulted in a scattered phenomenon that has become known as 'Imperial Walling,' whereby the discarded bricks on the seabed, or on the beds of lakes, appear as the rubbled foundations of buildings from antiquity that have been reclaimed by rising water. In fact, they are nothing of the sort. They've just been dumped there, sometimes in such large quantities that they have become a hazard to the decedents of the small boats that put them there. Fortunately, because of their magnetic content, which used to bamboozle English compasses, incidentally, you can detect them using modern scanning equipment. I have even heard claims that they keep away bull sharks. Apparently they dislike the magnetic field.
“My point is, these buildings that were erected either by the British Empire, or using good quality building materials that were left behind by the British Empire. There are all kinds of legacies in the wake of colonial rule and this is one of them.”
“I wonder what this place was used for,” I said.
Carden rose to his feet and wandered over to a small group of young boys, one of whom directed him to a dwelling across the unmade road. I saw him being led out a few minutes later to another darkened doorway nearby, from which he did not emerge for almost an hour.
“They asked me to have tea with them,” he said apologetically. “I thought that it was only polite to stay. There's an old man who says that the British army were using the place as a weapons store.”
“What are they doing with it now?”
“Oh, now It's being used as a school.”
I hope this is of help.
“After the Empire went into decline large quantities of bricks were left behind by the departing colonists. Again, no point in lugging them all the way across the Seven Seas back to Blighty.
“In some cases, opportunists spirited them away and used them either to build new homes, or to expand existing properties, or in small-scale projects, such as bolstering farming terraces.
“In other cases, the English were barely over the horizon before the local leadership, who had stepped in to fill the void, had laid claim to the brick caches. At Namaksir, which is where we will be a few days from now, the bricks were distributed to the population by the village elders. Influential or high status families were given preferential consideration, which caused its own problems, as you will see in due course.
“In urban areas, arrangements were made, often with the cooperation of the departing British, for local government to take control of the brick piles. Thereafter, they continued to be used in the same spirit, in community projects – schools, hospitals, post offices. That kind of thing. So, for a while, the Empire continued to build itself under its own momentum, albeit under new management and according to a different vision.
“Then you had a situation where old properties were being demolished and the bricks, which were worth holding onto, were being repurposed in new buildings. That is why it gets a little harder to date some of these places without having a chat with someone local. Many years after the various Kings and Queens of England had passed away, the bricks bearing their likenesses were still being used to make new things.”
From the nearby tree there rose further sounds of internal discontent - a chorus that was reminiscent of dry dog barks lodged in the back of parched throats. Then another scampering commotion that was followed by another cloud of orange blossom, smaller than the one before. When it happened, Carden was kneeling down, using a metallic crayon to make rubbings of some of the bricks in his large notepad.
“Now, I'm presenting to you a somewhat halcyon picture of the relations between colonial powers and their reluctant hosts,” he said. “In territories where there was lingering bad feeling towards the United Kingdom, the use of the bricks was taboo. I've heard that, along the coast, they were often taken out in small quantities by the fishing boats and the ferries, and dumped over the side.
“This resulted in a scattered phenomenon that has become known as 'Imperial Walling,' whereby the discarded bricks on the seabed, or on the beds of lakes, appear as the rubbled foundations of buildings from antiquity that have been reclaimed by rising water. In fact, they are nothing of the sort. They've just been dumped there, sometimes in such large quantities that they have become a hazard to the decedents of the small boats that put them there. Fortunately, because of their magnetic content, which used to bamboozle English compasses, incidentally, you can detect them using modern scanning equipment. I have even heard claims that they keep away bull sharks. Apparently they dislike the magnetic field.
“My point is, these buildings that were erected either by the British Empire, or using good quality building materials that were left behind by the British Empire. There are all kinds of legacies in the wake of colonial rule and this is one of them.”
“I wonder what this place was used for,” I said.
Carden rose to his feet and wandered over to a small group of young boys, one of whom directed him to a dwelling across the unmade road. I saw him being led out a few minutes later to another darkened doorway nearby, from which he did not emerge for almost an hour.
“They asked me to have tea with them,” he said apologetically. “I thought that it was only polite to stay. There's an old man who says that the British army were using the place as a weapons store.”
“What are they doing with it now?”
“Oh, now It's being used as a school.”
I hope this is of help.
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| image generated by Craiyon |
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