World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

(www.theguardian.com)

424 points notamy | 1 comments | 15 Oct 24 03:12 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

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oblio ◴[15 Oct 24 08:08 UTC] No.41846124[source]▶

The British are living proof of the fact that amazing things[1] can be achieved when the place you live in is extremely boring.

[1] For varied definitions of "amazing", such as "conquer countries 10x your size", "invent 20 sports the entire world plays", etc.

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sjwod ◴[15 Oct 24 08:43 UTC] No.41846396[source]▶

>>41846124 #

I would argue that "Counquer countries 10x your size" is a misrepresentation as generally the British (and other European powers) conquered lands in which there were multiple small kingdoms or relatively sparse populations of tribes or similar. That is certainly the case in North America and Oceania and I would argue also the case in India and Africa too.

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1. oblio ◴[15 Oct 24 08:52 UTC] No.41846454[source]▶

>>41846396 #

India for sure wasn't conquered that way. Yes, there was a lot of "divide et impera" going on, but just one simple example, the population of Bengal was about 40 million in 1800 while that of the UK was only around 10 million.

Britain didn't actually "overpower" India as much as gain traction by presenting themselves as a less bad alternative than some of the existing ones, for several major regions they conquered. They were even financed by major Bengali bankers for their conquest.

India was possibly the big outlier in this regard, ergo the whole "crown jewel of the empire" angle.

Read this: https://a.co/d/7r25CnA - The Anarchy by William Dalrymple.

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