BlackHat's Journal: And the asphalt, man, is all around me/ Wa-aaaooo!

Quote:
The third great achievement of successive governments from 1650 onwards was to give aid and comfort to mercantile enterprise by a series of diplomatic forays and aggressive wars. Already by the mid-seventeenth century, the eventual domination of world trade by Britain was being worked out in the imagination of certain writers; while the overthrow of the Stuarts produced governments more responsive to their recommendations. The first problem, as has been shown, was to oust the Dutch. 'If England were once brought to a Navigation as cheape as this Country (Holland),' wrote Downing, the architect of the Navigation System, 'good night, Amsterdam.' British foreign policy later ensured that it was goodnight Madrid and goodnight Paris as well.

The Interregnum governments pointed the way. In 1650, the first Board of Trade was set up; in 1651, the Navigation Act was passed. Between 1651 and 1660, over 200 ships were added to the navy; merchant ships began to sail under protection of armed convoys; the government resumed control over the colonies across the Atlantic whose links with the home country during the Civil War had loosened; the East India Company was reconstituted and given a new charter (1657). A war with Holland (1652-4) forced her to accept the Navigation Acts; a treaty with Denmark gave English merchants access to the Baltic; a treaty with Portugal (1654) enabled the British to replace the Dutch as the carriers of the trade of the Portuguese empire; a war with Spain resulted in the annexation of Jamaica (1655).

After the Restoration (1660), the forward policy continued. New York was captured from the Dutch (1664); the territory later to become North and South Carolina was granted by Charles II to eight lord proprietors (1663); Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn (1681); the Royal West Africa Company received its charter to convey slaves across the Atlantic from bases on the west coast of Africa; the East India Company received Bombay from the king (1668) and founded Calcutta (1687). Nearer home, Scotland and Ireland were brought into subjection. The Scots gave up their own parliament for a joint Parliament of Great Britain (Treaty of Union, 1707) and were rewarded by being allowed the benefits of the Navigation system. A period of fruitful co-operation followed. To Ireland, on the other hand, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, and the Revolution brought rebellion and repression, civil conflict and international war; and the ultimate clamping down on the dispossessed Irish Catholic peasantry of the rule of an absentee, English, Protestant ascendancy. Ireland was excluded from the Navigation system, paralysed economically and forcibly turned into a colonial slum.

With the Revolution of 1688, 'Profit and Power' were pursued more aggressively than ever. British foreign policy was never single minded, of course, and the maintenance of the balance of power in Europe in order to defend the Church of England and the constitutional monarchy in a dangerous world of Roman Catholic and despotic powers was the prime consideration. But British shipping -- in the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the Atlantic -- was also threatened by these same powers, and so the interests of commerce were never far from the minds of Secretaries of State, especially when they defended their policies in Parliament. The wars were at first European, with colonial aggression as a side-show; but during the War of Spanish Succession (1702-13) and subsequent eighteenth-century conflicts, imperialistic advance came to be seen as the end and European battles only as the means. British gains at the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) signified the trend. Across the Atlantic, Britain gained Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in the north, and the Asiento, the monopoly of importing slaves into the Spanish colonies, in the south. In Europe, she gained Minorca and Gibraltar, guaranteeing her naval power in the Mediterranean; and made France demolish the fortifications at Dunkirk, the port from which privateers had damaged British shipping in the Channel.

In the eighteenth century, all British ministers were mindful of the importance of commerce, whether like Walpole they fostered it by maintaining peace, or like Pitt by waging war. In the War of Austrian Succession (1740-8) and the Seven Years' War (1756-63), Britain fought in America, the West Indies, Africa, India, and the Philippines (apart from Europe); and, by the Treaty of Paris (1763), had become the greatest colonial and sea-going power. So secure was British domination in America, in fact, that the colonists developed sufficient self-confidence to wish to break out of the shell of British economic and political control. Their successful War of American Independence (1776-83) lost to Britain her thirteen colonies there; but already the moves were being made to establish what later came to be called 'the second British Empire'. This consisted mainly in a shift to the east, and the gradual setting up of a world network of trading posts and naval bases. The East India Company extended its sway in India, and in 1788 established itself in addition at Penang in the Malay Peninsular. In the Pacific, Captain Cook made his three voyages of exploration to Australia and New Zealand (1768-80); and in 1787 the first shipment of convicts arrived to settle New South Wales.

Such were the energetic results of the successful partnership between State and society in the Britain of the Ancien Regime. 'The splendour of this Monarchy,' wrote Jonas Hanway, 'is supported by commerce and commerce by naval strength.' If further evidence is required, one has only to recall the victorious wars that Britain waged against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France in the years immediately after the period covered by this book (1793-1815). And if that is insufficient, one can point out that Britain, at the same time, was incubating two movements that would later change the world: liberal democracy and the Industrial Revolution,... --E. N. Williams

As the industrial age plays out it becomes more and more obvious that any change has been superficial at best. That/the roles[list] of the Powers-That-Be have not shifted one bit. Branches, may wither and are cut, but on the whole, the tree stands to this day. Emily! Get out of the way!

News blown off of the front of a cannon:
Imperialism is still, really, imbedded in the modern world. A summit of African leaders was thrown into confusion when Mozambique's president addressed the meeting in an African language - Swahili. Officials scrambled around looking for interpreters and President Joaquim Chissano offered to translate himself. The African Union uses Arabic, French, English and Portuguese in its summits. Mr Chissano said he made his farewell address as AU chairman in Swahili to further the AU pledge to promote African identity and languages.

And targeted by precision arms. Maj Harry Schmidt, 38, forfeited $5,672 in pay and was found guilty of "wilful misconduct" and dereliction of duty. And may paint a cable-car[4 windows[widows, surely!]] on the side of his fighter.

Paging Dr. Benway. One for re-grooving The Chinese doctor who exposed Beijing's Sars cover-up last year is undergoing "brainwashing sessions" in custody, according to media reports. Jiang Yanyong is being interrogated about his letter denouncing the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, said sources quoted by the Washington Post. The authorities have said Mr Jiang, 72, will be held until he "changes his thinking", the newspaper said.

Mayor of Kabul fails. Pipeline should be ok though.

As expected the tame puppets say it was ok after the fact. Iraq's new prime minister says his government co-operated in a US air strike on the volatile city of Falluja, which killed at least 10 people. [insert video clip of Cpt. Kirk on the pool table. ~4 seconds]

So it looks like Kerry/Edwards vs Powell/Clarke.

The Vicar spins in a new direction. Velocity unchanged at 4500 lps [Lies Per Second].

The FBI gets a summer gift from a judge. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said he was satisfied with claims by Attorney General John Ashcroft and a senior FBI official that the civil lawsuit by Sibel Edmonds could expose intelligence-gathering methods and disrupt diplomatic relations with foreign governments. The judge said he couldn't explain further because his explanation itself would expose sensitive secrets. "significant role" : A bun so secret that not even pure reality can effect it.

Texttoon:
Fumetti : Stock photo of John Kerry and John Edwards holding a hand up in semi-victory. "The Great White Dope and his sidekick The Right-White-Lite." Small oval in the corner with a man in a black hat saying; "They just had to try to prove me wrong when I said 'they couldn't find a candidate twice as bad as Joe'. I'm still right tho... 'A', singular, candidate."