Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: History can teach us important lessons, and I have chosen to talk about lessons that we Americans can learn from the rise and fall of the British Empire, and from the legacy that empire has left us. The history of the British Empire, or of any empire for that matter, illustrates an important lesson for the US — that one’s dominance in the world can be relatively fleeting in the grand scheme of things. I’d like to give a short review of the history of the British Empire to provide a feel for the active time frame of a modern empire, and then review some of the legacies that empire has left us. Then I’d like to turn and look at some of the possible legacies that we, as citizens of the United States, might leave to future generations. The British Empire was the largest physical empire in history, and for over 2 centuries the foremost global power. The emphasis that England put on discovery, in the form of maritime exploration, formed the roots of the British Empire in the 15th century. For the US, discovery in the form of science and technology forms the basis of much of our dominance today. Britain’s
DOI: 10.1172/jci37558
Author: Judith L. Swain
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2087922226