The Telegraph, April 10, Robert Tombs
It was inevitable that the monarchy would be attacked for involvement in 17th- and 18th-century slavery. Nearly every other national institution has been already. A new King and the forthcoming Coronation make it a tempting target.
The King, quite understandably, has expressed support for a historical investigation, and perhaps this will calm things down until after the Coronation. But the monarchy would sooner or later have become a target as the symbol of the nation, its unity and its history – the very things that “anti-racist” and “anti-colonial” activists aim to undermine. They have an ally in Vladimir Putin, who attacks the West’s “centuries of colonialism”.
We play along with the pretext that the obsession with slavery and colonialism is about history. We even acquiesce in activists’ claims that the aim is uncovering some long-hidden aspect of our past and “facing up to it”. But real history seeks above all to understand and it aims at getting the complete story. Trawling through the past in a search for something discreditable is crude propaganda.
There is no serious historical purpose when institutions such as the Church of England, Cambridge University, Kew Gardens, the National Trust, or the Bank of England solemnly announce that they are investigating their guilty past. It is perfectly well known that Britain, and hence the monarchy and many other institutions, were involved in the slave economy. It is equally well known that nearly every other country was – not only European countries, but African, American, Asian and Middle Eastern ones too.
Click here to read the piece in full.