Spain and Portugal are not “civilized Western countries?” Both ended legal slavery after the USA (1873 and 1869, respectively). The Netherlands barely so, 1863. I assume you don’t consider Brazil worth mentioning.
Spain and Portugal are not “civilized Western countries?” Both ended legal slavery after the USA (1873 and 1869, respectively). The Netherlands barely so, 1863. I assume you don’t consider Brazil worth mentioning.
OOOPS! I was wrong here. That slavery continued only in the colonies of Spain and Portugal and not in the motherlands doesn't change the fact that slavery continued in those empires.
I correct: The USA were one of the last civilized western countries to abolish slavery. Thank You for bringing this error of mine to my attention. Doesn't make a big difference for my argument though...
"Civilized Western Countries" lumps Brazil, China, the Ottoman Empire, etc as what - uncivilized? Barbarians?
Having said that, the only other nations that would seem to fit your definition are Great Britain and France who ended slavery in their empires ~1840. It seems rather hard to discern anything relevant from the fact that your selected basket of nations, who had utilized slavery for a few centuries, all ended it within 30-40 years of each other.
I would just summarize as "Slavery existed globally from ancient times. European nations, Brazil and the US had all abolished it by the latter part of the 19th century. Other nations mostly abolished it in the 20th century. Slavery still exists in isolated pockets of Earth."
China and the Ottoman Empire are definitely no western countries. They cannot be considered part of western civilization. They were/are part to other civilizations with a much different cultural history.
It's still an interesting fact of history, that Americans claim their war of independence was about freedom and in fact it meant the continuance of slavery for a significant part of the American people for a significant amount of time. If You were born black in the year of American independence in the USA You were most likely born a slave and You would most likely die a slave too. One way to avoid slavery was to escape from the "free" America into Canada, still part of the British empire, to gain Your freedom. Pretty strange concept of freedom we can still find in American history books. Don't You think?
I believe one reason why racism persistently exists in the USA is that there has never been an honest approach to American history. In order to hold up the myth of American exceptionalism Americans created a whole bunch of other myths to keep the core of the ugly truths about American history securely locked in the closet. Not just racism against blacks and the legacy of slavery, but also racism against the aboriginal inhabitants of US territory and racism against European immigrants like for example Jews, catholics, Italians or Irish.
I believe as long as Americans perpetuate the myth of that "shining city on the hill", which is American exceptionalism, they will be profoundly unable to deal with their past in a rational and reasonable way. Unless Americans admit, that their's is just another normal country on our planet with both strong suits and some ugly flaws, they will continue to have a way to flattering view of their country, overestimate themselves and try to impose their power on other countries for mostly quite selfish reasons. Which constitutes another can of worms, I haven't even opened yet, which is the reason why the US has been much more often at war with the outside world than at peace and still are.
It's about time that the USA starts reflecting about itself in a more realistic and honest way. That has to happen first before America can start defeating flaws like racism. I do not deny that well intended people have been fighting racism throughout the history of the USA and made at least some progress, but these efforts have all been fallen short of ending racism in the US and I have just laid out my opinion about why that is. Americans as a people have no history of being honest to themselves.
Spain and Portugal are not “civilized Western countries?” Both ended legal slavery after the USA (1873 and 1869, respectively). The Netherlands barely so, 1863. I assume you don’t consider Brazil worth mentioning.
OOOPS! I was wrong here. That slavery continued only in the colonies of Spain and Portugal and not in the motherlands doesn't change the fact that slavery continued in those empires.
I correct: The USA were one of the last civilized western countries to abolish slavery. Thank You for bringing this error of mine to my attention. Doesn't make a big difference for my argument though...
"Civilized Western Countries" lumps Brazil, China, the Ottoman Empire, etc as what - uncivilized? Barbarians?
Having said that, the only other nations that would seem to fit your definition are Great Britain and France who ended slavery in their empires ~1840. It seems rather hard to discern anything relevant from the fact that your selected basket of nations, who had utilized slavery for a few centuries, all ended it within 30-40 years of each other.
I would just summarize as "Slavery existed globally from ancient times. European nations, Brazil and the US had all abolished it by the latter part of the 19th century. Other nations mostly abolished it in the 20th century. Slavery still exists in isolated pockets of Earth."
China and the Ottoman Empire are definitely no western countries. They cannot be considered part of western civilization. They were/are part to other civilizations with a much different cultural history.
It's still an interesting fact of history, that Americans claim their war of independence was about freedom and in fact it meant the continuance of slavery for a significant part of the American people for a significant amount of time. If You were born black in the year of American independence in the USA You were most likely born a slave and You would most likely die a slave too. One way to avoid slavery was to escape from the "free" America into Canada, still part of the British empire, to gain Your freedom. Pretty strange concept of freedom we can still find in American history books. Don't You think?
I believe one reason why racism persistently exists in the USA is that there has never been an honest approach to American history. In order to hold up the myth of American exceptionalism Americans created a whole bunch of other myths to keep the core of the ugly truths about American history securely locked in the closet. Not just racism against blacks and the legacy of slavery, but also racism against the aboriginal inhabitants of US territory and racism against European immigrants like for example Jews, catholics, Italians or Irish.
I believe as long as Americans perpetuate the myth of that "shining city on the hill", which is American exceptionalism, they will be profoundly unable to deal with their past in a rational and reasonable way. Unless Americans admit, that their's is just another normal country on our planet with both strong suits and some ugly flaws, they will continue to have a way to flattering view of their country, overestimate themselves and try to impose their power on other countries for mostly quite selfish reasons. Which constitutes another can of worms, I haven't even opened yet, which is the reason why the US has been much more often at war with the outside world than at peace and still are.
It's about time that the USA starts reflecting about itself in a more realistic and honest way. That has to happen first before America can start defeating flaws like racism. I do not deny that well intended people have been fighting racism throughout the history of the USA and made at least some progress, but these efforts have all been fallen short of ending racism in the US and I have just laid out my opinion about why that is. Americans as a people have no history of being honest to themselves.