John Robert Seeley Quotes
We seem, as it were, to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind.
Seeley, John Robert. The Expansion of England: Two Courses of Lectures. Macmillan and Co., 1883, p. 8.
Cromwell had died and Charles II had not yet regained power.
Webb and others believe that President George W. Bush invaded Iraq, and unseated Saddam Hussein with no intention of leaving—that the plan was to establish a permanent American presence in the Middle East.
He didn’t quite conquer the whole world, but he did control most of it. One substantial difference between him and others, is that the Mongols were not interested in managing an Empire, All they wanted was an annual payment of tribute, and if that were forthcoming, the left the conquered cities and kingdoms to their own management and governance.
The British had, after earlier defeats, finally had great military success in India/Afghanistan on the one hand and China on the other. Note that the objects of the military expeditions were always twofold: First to expand trade and trading opportunities for England. Second to retrieve “honor” that had been lost by earlier military defeats.
There are many who disagree with Say’s claim that the ancient system of colonization produced more friends then the system was at the beginning f the 19th century. Alexander the Great may have been the only large conqueror in world history where the conquered people thought they were better off than before. Certainly the Romans did not make friends, and the French Normans who conquered England were never considered “friends” by the Saxons.
This is an incredibly prescient quotation. Dewey saw globalization starting before most realized the change. He wrote this in 1916. Almost a century later, we live with the results of the process that he described.
De Gaulle tended to see world affairs in terms of extreme, simplistic, and dramatic alternatives when reality is much more complex the truth was turned out to be for England a much more favorable outcome without either of these extremes.
Over a decade later a leading English politician realized the same possibility and took steps to prevent it {636871}. Brazil was a colony of Portugal which grew at so fast a comparative rate, that Brazil became many times the size of the original mother country.
Sir John Robert Seeley, KCMG was an English Liberal historian and political essayist. He is most known for his book The Expansion of England (1883), which has continued to influence historical discussions about the British Empire until the 21st century.
