How did the British Empire change the world?

[VALIS]

I'm trying to think of ways the British Empire influenced the world and what it gave to civilization. All you history buffs can chime in and correct me if I'm wrong, heres a few that sprung to my mind:
PS, if I'm not sure if I'm right I'll put a question mark in brackets afterward.

English language
Parliamentary system
Imperial measurement system
First past the post voting system (?)
The concept of having two chambers in a parliament (?)
Many modern economic systems and methods used all over the world. (Keynesian economics)
Massively contributed to the spread of capitalism and ideas of capitalism through great thinkers thinkers (ie Adam Smith)
Influence of common law over statutory law in justice.

Any more?

[shikaka]

English language

I think it is mainly a new thing, so mostly USA is 'responsible'.

Parliamentary system

rather french influence?

The concept of having two chambers in a parliament (?)

I'm not knowledgeable, but for exampe in Hungary there is 1. Is the '2 chamber parliament' common?

Massively contributed to the spread of capitalism and ideas of capitalism through great thinkers thinkers (ie Adam Smith)

I don't know, but excluding british colonoies, for which this is true, I think most countries had their own capitalist theorists. A-H empire definietly had.

Influence of common law over statutory law in justice.

Maybe in former colonies? Definietly not here...



What you should add:

- discoveries and colonization
- unifying and founding India and Pakistan
- football!

[VALIS]

I think it is mainly a new thing, so mostly USA is 'responsible'.

USA is responsible for English language?

[shikaka]

USA is responsible for English language?

As I understand english became 'lingua franca' in the last 20-30 years, when there was no british empire.

[Primvs Sextvs Loverlord]

As I understand english became 'lingua franca' in the last 20-30 years, when there was no british empire.

USA is responsible for English language?

I think it is mainly a new thing, so mostly USA is 'responsible'.

Duke is correct.

shikaka, English did not become the lingua franca in ex-British colonies in just the last 20-30 years. English had been the preferred language as well as the official language of the ruling elite and the middle classes of all the countries from Kenya to Bangladesh since roughly the beginning of the 20th century itself and in some cases, well before that.

The United States has promoted American pop culture, which happens to in English but the use of English as an official language as well as the only language in which knowledge/education is imparted in a lot of countries around the world began during the era of American isolationism.

[shikaka]

Duke is correct.

nope, he is not.

shikaka, English did not become the lingua franca in ex-British colonies in just the last 20-30 years. English had been the preferred language as well as the official language of the ruling elite and the middle classes of all the countries from Kenya to Bangladesh since roughly the beginning of the 20th century itself and in some cases, well before that.

That's why I said that it was mostly used in former English colonies _during the period of we talk about_.

English became universal with american popular culture, globalisation and multinational companies, and english language software.
This was _not_ in the times when Britain was an empire.

[Mr. Scott]

USA is responsible for English language?

Its the combination of the two. The British established it throughout the world and the Americans concreted it into the world.

[General Brittanicus]

Depending on which set of information you look at the top four countries for gdp per person which have a population of over 20 million are the US, Australia, Canada and the UK. They are all anglicised countires that are also former colonies of the British Empire, i would say that it is a pretty big contribution to the world, since without British settlement of these areas, they would not exist in their current form.

Its the combination of the two. The British established it throughout the world and the Americans concreted it into the world.

Well pretty much all of the countries who were once part of the British Empire (which includes the US) either have English as the offical language or have a significant amount of their population who speak English. The US just made it into the official language of business and helped to spread it to the few remaining corners of the globe, which didn't already have a large number of English speakers already.

[Dr. Croccer]

Its the combination of the two. The British established it throughout the world and the Americans concreted it into the world.

And the US is a product of the British Empire.

[CiviC]

English language

Shikaka is right, US made English lingua franca, untill WWII French language had this status, in Europe at least, then came Hollywood and American music industry ...

Parliamentary system

Only in the Commonwealth ...

Imperial measurement system

Metric system (a product of French Revolution was the winner worldwide - it's more logical as being decimal)

The concept of having two chambers in a parliament (?)

It could be, though bicameralism has many sources, and not all bicameralisms are inspired from UK.

Influence of common law over statutory law in justice.

Limited to only British Empire. Civil law based on Roman/Napoleonic tradition/model is at least as widespread.

Any more?

Left hand drive in half former British colonies (but Japan also).



Blue - drives on the left.
Orange (light red) - drove on the left, now drives on the right
Light blue - drove on the right, now drives on the left
Red - drives on the right
Purple - had different rules of the road within borders, now drives on the right

[Azog 150]

Limited to only British Empire. Civil law based on Roman/Napoleonic tradition/model is at least as widespread.

'Only' constituted 2/5ths of the worlds surface and 1/4 of the worlds population. Even then, to say that Britain only influenced within its own Empire is wrong.







You can add technological and scientific advances. And to much of Britain's colonies, there was the bringing of infrastructure, banking systems and general governance.

[CiviC]

'Only' constituted 2/5ths of the worlds surface and 1/4 of the worlds population. Even then, to say that Britain only influenced within its own Empire is wrong.

Common Law has less "charisma" then civil law.


Common law remains limited to former British Empire as a legacy, but it wasn't an apealing model for other countries like the French, Austrian, German codes were.

Really what makes it more logical?

Oh sure you can say it base ten and that but it equally logical to use a distance measure based on something you can roughly estimate by your foot. Beside what so logical about the meter in and of itself and were is the bloody metric clock anyway if it all so good?

1 km=1,000 m; 1m=100cm; 1 cm=10mm; 1m=1,000mm; etc. you can easily convert units in subunits, and subunits in smaller subunits, etc.

now

1 mile=1760yd; 1yd=3ft; 1 ft=12in. How the hell to work with these units and convert them???????? It's chaotic and impractical.

And that's only with lenght.

And why is logical to use your foot as standard? Do Americans have feet of same lenght?

[Odovacar]

Parlamentarism itself is an english invention.

While the hungarian parliament (and many similar) isn't a 2 chamber one, every parlamentarian democracy is a successor -so to say- the english political traditions.

[conon394]

it's more logical as being decimal

Really what makes it more logical?

Oh sure you can say it base ten and that but it equally logical to use a distance measure based on something you can roughly estimate by your foot. Beside what so logical about the meter in and of itself and were is the bloody metric clock anyway if it all so good?

[gsoxx]

Really what makes it more logical?

Oh sure you can say it base ten and that but it equally logical to use a distance measure based on something you can roughly estimate by your foot. Beside what so logical about the meter in and of itself and were is the bloody metric clock anyway if it all so good?

Really? Even the US has accepted it. Ask any engineer.

[Dr. Croccer]

Really what makes it more logical?

Oh sure you can say it base ten and that but it equally logical to use a distance measure based on something you can roughly estimate by your foot. Beside what so logical about the meter in and of itself and were is the bloody metric clock anyway if it all so good?

The imperial system has no logical interrelation. If you know how long a metre is roughly you can easily estimate how long a kilometre is. The reason the metric system was created was because the imperial system was incredibly illogical and often varied greatly by region and even by individual.

[VALIS]

Just because some of the influences only extend to former colonies doesn't discount those influences, same way the influence of Greek democracy or Roman roads and baths doesn't discount those achievements just because not every single region of the world had them.




You gotta admit, we used to be friggin badass.

[Stavroforos]

You gotta admit, we used to be friggin badass.

Yeah, subduing native populations through disease and vastly superior firepower is pretty badass.

Reminds me of my old avatar,

[VALIS]

Yeah, subduing native populations through disease and vastly superior firepower is pretty badass.

Rule Britannia, baby.

[conon394]

1 mile=1760yd; 1yd=3ft; 1 ft=12in. How the hell to work with these units and convert them???????? It's chaotic and impractical.

Is it? I guess the question I have the comparable metric system while based on 10s still depends on a meter what makes a meter logical?

Is the fact that Kilometer is 1000 meters any more logical than a mile - which one has any relation to human experience?

The metric system might be more say rational in that its measures are all a factor of ten but after that so what? There is nothing particularly not logical or problematic with Fahrenheit's scale it is just based on a different starting point from the centigrade one. Again if the base 10 system is so great so logical show me is the metric clock we should all be using instead of some Babylonian rubbish - care of classical Greeks BS for telling time?

Or consider the Meter again it what some made up fraction of some incorrectly measured arc of the Earth's circumference - oh that's so logical. because you know that the first I think of when I look look a piece of wood - umm how many fractions of the Earth's circumference of this do I need only what three?

Honestly be realistic you use what you have if your ruler and screws and calipers a calibrated for metric and that is what you learned it what you do if not not ... because would the meter be any more logical if it was based on the the 10 aristocratic heads cut off and rolled together but than converted into a base 10 units up and down? no it would be about the same a base ten system but no mare logical than any other.