Britain: Heaven's Breed?

Britain , (England to be more precise) started its roots as nothing more than an isle country with a growing population and history.  Like any other country they started basic.  Until the 16th-century with the defeat of the Spanish Armada, England expanded greatly, evolving into the British Empire.

After the loss of the British-American colonies, the Empire focused more on domestic colonies closest.  For missionaries, it became a matter of civilizing and spreading the word of the Gospel with grace and mercy to non-civilized or peoples without salvation.  For colonizers, it became a matter of colonial settlement.  For imperial bodies, it was about conquest.

All three of these can be good and bad in and of itself because of the yields.  Ferguson brings this up in a neutral tone asking to what extremes are taken to build such empires.  Burbank and Cooper will agree that there is a good and bad nature to empires, because the empire model exists in human hands.  Parsons conflicts with this, arguing empires bring more evil than good.  Would Neil agree more with Parsons or remain neutral on this conflict, given the nature of empires involving conflict or war?  Did the era of the Axis powers diverge from the tradition of empires?

Now that's a redundant question in and of perhaps.  The fact remains the British Empire dominated about a quarter of the world's population and bested her neighbors and others in the imperial expansion game.  Heaven's Breed discusses the Annihilation of Distance, The View from the Hills, Races Apart, and Tory-entalism.  These topics share the discussion that the British Empire holds the role of civilizing and establishing British culture into the colonies.

The annihilation of distances refers to the empire maintaining control over India by continually following and updating their technology.  Newer technology became important as an emphasis to show Britain's capabilities and the politics of difference compared to the other Western empires.  The naval power of the empire loomed over that of the other nations, unquestionably the best for that time.  The question begs to ask how did the British Empire's control of India last so long?  What allowed the empire to continually keep track then of technology?

Racial tensions existed, evident in both the conqueror and the conquered.  This no doubt occurs as a natural part of empire building.  Compared to the discussion last class, a nation isolated from the experience of imperial rule too long won't have racial tension.  Instead, it becomes replaced with genocide against the conquered.