When I was at school, history lessons were mostly about the Tudors and Stuarts and, to some extent, the destiny of the English people (occasionally and grudgingly including the Celtic periphery) to conquer most of the world as part of an empire on whom the sun would never set. From time to time, colonies or subject peoples would rebel (e.g. the Indians, Americans and Mau Mau of Kenya) for no readily explicable reason other than ingratitude. Who could object to the benefits of civilization: trade, protection and the abolition of slavery?
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