Reddit reviews The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

Funny I'm reading Decline and Fall of the British Empire [Rise and Fall of the British Empire] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Rise-Fall-British-Empire/dp/031216985X) right now and finished the chapter on WWI not 20 minutes ago. Weird.

On phone so will paraphrase: the British Empire at least had more than enough manpower available. The question was whether to train non-Indian native populations in the craft of modern war. Whites were highly valued as soldiers and did not like fighting next to coloreds of any sort. There was also a big concern about the dangers of teaching Africans and some Asians the craft of modern European war, lest a corps of professionally trained nationalist soldiers be used against white settlers post-bellum.

So while yes, the White ranks were running thin - particularly in the French Army, indigenous soldiers from the reaches of Empire were still mostly held back as porters and quartermasters. There was one story about how the Maori from New Zealand, magnificent fighters, were frustrated at being held on garrison duty in Malta.

So logically, one would expect that if the shortage of white troops grew too severe, native soldiers would fill the combat roles well before the consideration of women.

typed on my iPhone, forgive any typos

The mi5 wasn't around when the empire was.

This is a great read about the empire by Lawrence James just if anyone is interested in history.

I would go as far as to say the whole british empire was counting peanuts compared to the US Empire.

And they should have learned from mi6 not mi5 if they want to deal with foreigners. They could share some knowledge on economical warfare.

Rise and Fall of British Empire: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/031216985X/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/182-1086876-3149244

This is a good place to start: http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/031216985X

Not really related, but I always found it interesting that Virginia got its name by virtue of an English attempt to inspire settlers to move to the territory by invoking the image of a "young virgin awaiting the loss of her maidenhead".

Source- https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-British-Empire/dp/031216985X