Bird's Eye View

Reading time: 5 mins

‘No other discipline has its portals so wide open to the general public as history.’ - Johan Huizinga, Dutch historian (1872-1945)

A more common sight today, one which would have drawn awe and fright in times past, is the sight of drones flying overhead. They are a stark reminder of our technological development. Perhaps they can also remind us of the position we now find ourselves in, if we can take advantage of it.

Just as drones can survey an entire landscape, we have the tools needed to survey history from a bird’s eye view.

Centres of education, religion and media can and have whitewashed history to suit an agenda or perpetuate a narrative. It is said, after all, that ‘history is written by the victors’. The difference now is that we have the internet and a wealth of information sources, whereby if we train ourselves to be disciplined and discerning, we can filter through truths and untruths to learn things for ourselves on a broad scale.

Take for example, Britain’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. At its height, Britain was the principal slave-trading nation and was dependent on slaves for its economic growth. Racist ideology provided further fuel for the crimes against the ‘dark continent’. This is historical evil which pains us to this day.

That is only one side of the story, however. Britain did not start slavery, and where victims of it under the Roman Empire and the Barbary Slave trade before they were perpetrators. Britain stepped into an existing mechanism which had been the status–quo throughout human history.

But more importantly, unlike the major world powers before her, after abolition in 1833, Britain actually launched the West African Squadron to police the high seas and force an end to slave-trading between nations.[1] Seeking to demolish the status-quo. If you count from that period up until the present day, when considering the key role Britain has played in human rights development, you could take a bird’s eye historical view and argue that Britain has spent just as long fighting against slavery, as it did benefiting from it.

Adopting a bird’s eye view in this way helps us gather facts and develop reasonable conclusions, all of which fosters informed and progressive discussion in society at large.

[1] For more, read: Britain's War Against the Slave Trade: The Operations of the Royal Navys West Africa Squadron, 18071867: Amazon.co.uk: Anthony Sullivan: 9781399000017: Books