James Clavell Quotes
First the priests arrive. Then the conquistadores.
Clavell, James. Shōgun. New York: Atheneum, 1975.
Conceptually this is one of the most absurd documents in history, written by a European King to the native Indians of the new world, virtually all of whom were illiterate, knew nothing of Christianity or of European politics.
When the British first colonized South Africa, the area they used was not inhabited or very sparcely so. However, some Black tribes (including the Zulus) were moving from the north and themselves were colonizing or annexing the sparcely populated areas to their kingdom. The British were most interested in Trading so did not have large land asperations. The Dutch white Boer Africanners, in contrast, wanted to farm the lands and use the range for their cattle. They wanted the land. The English policy was that there would be friendly relations with the Black tribes surrounding their Cape Colony and no one should take their land. However the Boers started attacking the Black areas and seizing their farms and villages. At first, the English assumed that the Blacks would easily be able to ward off the invasion as the Afrikanners had no professional troops like the British. However, the neighboring native tribes were not very warlike or good fighters. They were being overrun by the Zulus coming from the North and the Boers from the South. The British Government had a real problem in that they would have to have British soldiers fight the white Afrikanners if they wanted to stop the illegal white invasions. This was the root of the Boer War where the British would be fully at war with the Africanners.
The Sultan, led 17 different military expeditions to India to spread the Muslim faith He is one of the few major conquerors of the world who was never defeated in Battle. He conquered the Lahore area and others of India that became Muslim and eventually became Pakistan. He was the first Islamic leader to bear the Title of Sultan demonstrating the separation of the civil power from the Caliph.
Paine was describing the conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror.
The Newspaper acknowledged that the conquest of Mexico was tantamount to a rape, but the editors were convinced that the Mexicans would be very happy once they were in the American orbit. In almost every case in American history where we invaded and occupied a country, the political leadership, most of Congress, and many American citizens were convinced that American freedom and democracy were so much better than any other form of government that the conquered people would not only welcome the Americans but would voluntarily reorganize their governmental structures to have a democracy. While there were always some people in each country who did feel that way, the majority rarely did, much to American surprise.
James Clavell, was an Australian (and later naturalized American) novelist, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known as the author of his Asian Saga novels, a number of which have had television adaptations. Clavell also authored such screenplays as those for The Fly (1958) (based on the short story by George Langelaan) and The Great Escape (1963) (based on the personal account of Paul Brickhill). He directed the popular 1967 film To Sir, with Love for which he also wrote the script.
