One fact always forgotten. Great Britain became the only empire throughout history to ever use it's power & wealth to actively abolish slavery throughout the known world, even though it was detrimental to it's economy and business interests. It became a moral crusade to see that every man/woman/child who stepped foot upon British soil was automatically a free human being. Slavery had been a way of life for every nation on this earth throughout history , until the British came along.
Unfortunately, to do it, they paid off the UK slavers' vast sums of money to make up for the loss of their income. Some of that money was turned into a government annuity and was still being paid up until 2015, meaning some families were still technically profiting off slavery until then. Since I've only heard rumours of which families they might have been, I can only assume those families are still rich enough to put a gagging order on being outed.
And the UK gave a fortune in reparations to the charities set up for ex slaves to be returned home with compensation. The UK also paid off the West African Kings/Arabic slavers as well to stop a slave trade from Africa into the middle East, that sadly continued up until recent history. Or do your morals only apply to white people being paid off to stop slaving while ignoring the West African & Islamic slave routes that were over 1500 yrs old before the West or a white man arrived. They didn't pay off the Barbary White Slaver pirates who raided the coastlines of Ireland/Cornwall/Iceland/Norway for over 100yrs, they just hunted them down and killed them. Weird how people like you never mention why the is not larger African communities in and around the middle east after they used more African slaves than anyone else over a longer period than anyone else. Maybe because ALL African men were castrated as the norm before transportation as slaves into the middle east might have something to do with it. Where is your condemnation for them ?.....@@swanchamp5136
@@swanchamp5136 And I can only assume you are a shining light of moral virtue and purity. Since you have the foresight and charisma to seize the legal property of hundreds of thousands of people without recompense and they will just accept it without protest. Or perhaps you agree with the American solution where they voted not to compensate legal slave owners because the cost was too high and simply killed a vast number of their citizens instead leaving a legacy of bitterness and hatred that continues to haunt their race relations to this day.
@@swanchamp5136 ah the ignorance becomes clearer. I'm "defending" people who legally owned property which they needed to run profitable businesses in competition with other businesses using the same practices. I'm also "defending" the government which found a way to end those abhorrent business practices without stealing from honest citizen's or causing economic collapse in poor areas or a bloody civil war. Perhaps if you learned to read properly you would be able to understand the more nuanced and grey area's of human morality and history instead of criticizing better men who worked hard and sacrificed to create the very world from which you draw the moral framework and your sense of smug superiority.
He's amazing. He will speak to dozens of people throughout a show and come back to them several times while remembering their names and what they told him about themselves. He weaves it into the show and it's really rather remarkable. I've never seen any other comedian do that.
You're right Al Murray is a historian he does cover every nation the British Empire had been including the Middle East. In Al Murray Nations of the world. He covers a lot of subjects in his character the pub landlord. Great reaction thank you. X
If you want to know about Al Murray's view on the Middle East then you must watch his Nations of the World skit where he has an inflatable Earth and goes round each country, starting at Britain of course. Al Murray is in fact a historian with a degree from Cambridge University. His persona is the pub landlord when on stage, a very knowledgeable person, everyone's perfect history teacher!
Al Murray has described the Middle East in one of his shows... but he does say that its so complicated, him explaining it could possibly make it worse lol
Partition in middle east was also done after ww1. First troops to capture Damascus were the 10th Australian lighthorse ( horse mounted infantryman) . Al knows his history he does a lot of interesting comedy.
Most comedians tell a joke, you laugh and next day you have forgotten it. Al Murray tells a joke, you laugh but you learn or reinforce knowledge. He also has a wide range of different accents.
So with his logic in regards to the Middle East most of it was controlled by Turkey pre-world war 1. England defeated Turkey in WW1 which resulted in a lot of Middle East countries being or recreated. So with logic of them defeating Turkey most of the MIddle East has been defeated by England.
Wrong, it is Britain not England and the Middle East was divided up between Britain and France by the forerunner of the UN called the League of Nations.
@@ianphillips9455True, but also Great Britain, rather than Britain. The French got Syria, etc., and we (Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or UK for short) got Jordan, Israel/Palastine, etc. It's fair to say neither us or the French did good jobs there, but I'd argue that _no_ country could sort the middle eastern countries out: it's an ancient riddle, inside of a conundrum wrapped in an enigma. In fact, Al Murray once said that by actually outlining the issues facing the Middle East, we would only make the situation worse. It was a joke, but in comedy, as with inebriated chatter, there always lies a kernel of truth inside it. Edit: spelling / grammar.
This comedy special is legend. You could do 10 videos on this one show. That isn't just a working bar, he drove it on to the stage from the street, as well. That's arguably the greatest golf cart/car/mobile business ever made, beers on tap, and comedy while you drink them.
The War of 1812 is a tie. The US saw an opportunity at cheap and quick territorial expansion at the cost of a Britain that was fighting a life and death struggle with Napoleon Britain still did amazingly well. The US were defeated in several invasion attempts of Canada The UK counter-invaded but met with a massive defeat at the Battle of Plattsburgh Another invasion from the sea got to Washington, after defeating the US at the Battle of Battle of Bladensburg. Gen. Ross took the Amreican capital and burnt it, and then went on to attack Baltimore but was defeated (a defeat that inspired the anthem "The Star Spangled Banner") The US won a 'sea' battle on Lake Erie Singular British naval victories such as the USS Chesapeake (1799) destroyed by HMS Shannon Eventually both sides wanted peace and the treaty simply returned to the status ante-bellum After the treaty but before the news got back, the US won a battle at New Orleans that would make Andrew Jackson super famous - and he'd later cash in on this and become President So in short, the US didn't lose the War of 1812 It did remind them that the UK were a MAJOR power So much so that during the US Civil War the US did its utter best to not antoginise the British The ship Trent was illegally stopped by the USN and two men taken off it and the Brisith protested and Lincoln quickly handed them back over and said "One war at a time" meaning he wasn't prepared to fight the UK And earlier in the 1840s some war hawks wanted to fight the UK over where the border should be between the US and Canada at the Oregon Territory They had the slogan "Fifty-four Forty or Fight!" (meaning they wanted the border on the 54°40′ parallel north, or they'd go to war. Calmer heads in the US realised that the UK was a major power and they settled the border on the 49th parallel, much further south than what the war hawks wanted
As well as being a comedian, Al Murray has a degree in Modern History from St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. He certainly knows his stuff, having almost perfect instant recall on a number of aspects of European and World History.
Great reaction, I am British and if you go back centuries our little island was wanted by everyone around us, so we were always fighting invaders from Europe and we were occupied by the Romans for quite a bit of time then I guess eventually we decided to invade everyone else, I think for commercial reasons mainly but I wish we hadn't.
Nah, it was a good thing that we invaded everywhere. Because if it wasn't us, it would have been the Spanish, French or Germans. Can you imagine it? The horror! 😄
I think Mahatma Gandhi put it best when he'd said had India needed to come under the rule of a foreign power, he'd much prefer it to be the British since he found we had guaranted his freedoms but governed with the least firm of hands. He much preferred India to rule herself though obvs aha. Point being never take shame or guilt for our past, it may just serve inspiration for future democratic and equal collaboration or even union if that is what any part of the Commonwealth wants and agrees to.
If you look back through the history of the UK & England, we were invaded and colonised by various people over manhood centuries. There were the Angles and Saxons, the Vikings, the Romans, who ruled the place for centuries, and finally William the Conqueror came over from Gaul, now France, and took over. Their version of French was spoken by the elite and so eventually merged with the local Anglo-Saxon, so now English is a mixture of Germanic, French, Latin and various words imported due to the British Empire. We are basically a real mixture of races. 😁
5:47 Not actually true UK/England has been colonised by MANY peoples, Celts, Saxons, Normans Romans, possibly Phoenicians very early on, before 1500 UK was basically the whipping boys of Eeurope/North Africa...EVERYONE invaded the UK from about 1000BC to 1500AD. 2500+ years of invasion after invasion. From around 1500 onwards though, the UK became a super power and dominated the seas/navy so basically , that is when the British Empire really started, but before that, pretty much everyone in Europe invaded the UK
Not true mate. The last time England was successfully invaded was in 1066. Hasn't happened since. Also to be strictly accurate England as a sovereign state didn't exist before the 10th century and the UK didn't exist before the 17th century.
@@tommydavies4365 Not really. OK the union officially took place in 1707 but James the 6th & 1st was King of England & Scotland (a united kingdom) from 1603 so my comment still stands.
The last time the British Islands were colonised or occupied was by the Vikings and even then, the Vikings never ruled the entire territory. It’s why Britain has no Independence Day. Unless you also consider our civil wars
Al Murray is not only a Comedian here in Britain but he has a degree in history from Oxford University. What he says in this video is actual facts and tòtally right. 💂♂️💂♂️💂♂️💂♂️🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🏴🏴🏴🏴💙💛🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
Al Murray has a degree in history - as others have already said - and written a bunch of comedic books inspired by history, but also a serious one, "Command: How The Allies Learned To Win The Second World War". Keeps busy, that man.
just to answer a couple of your questions maybe, the british, americans and french leaders sat down and just the 3 men drew up the new maps for the ottoman empire and eastern europe, most of the middle east was split between the UK and france (Syria + lebanon) during ww2 syria + lebanon backed the puppet french government and was invaded by the british and occupied for the free french government in 1941 and given independence in 1943 followed by a declaration of war on germany (i think) and french withdrawal
Of roughly 200 countries in the world, about 120 of them celebrate some version of Independence Day. Of those, about 90 are celebrating their Independence FROM Great Britain. :D
Al Murray has a podcast in which he talks with another historian about WW2. They cover everything. As long as it happened during WW2, they'll talk about it.
The United Kingdom is responsible for the idea of "Independance Days". Everyone who celebrates a memorable Independance Day is doing so in seperation from us.
Technically the UK was colonized by both the Romans, Vikings and the French at one point, so we could if we cared for it have a few independence days, but I for one don't really care about the distant past, what matters is the present and future.
Technically not possible since the UK didn't exist back than. England first came to be during the Viking Era, so that would rules out the Romans. Yes, it doesn't really matter. I'm just being pedantic :)
I once had a Lebanese family living next door to me, they were lovely lovely people, like you two. One of my favourite movies is Lawrence of Arabia, I would love to see you do a reaction to it. It deals with the Sykes/Picot agreement.
guys, no we dont have an independance day, but we were cololised many 1000's of years ago, from the romans, to the viking and the saxons, also, the language of englang from around 1066 to 1300's was french, but as you say we dont have an independace day, There are 65 countries in the world that celebrate there independance from the british empire, we also still hold some terrotories, there is also, 23 countries, that still have the union flag on their flag, even one of them being one of the states of america, hawaii, which has the union flag on there flag,
Lebanon was controlled by the Vichy authorities after the fall of France in 1940 but was occupied by British and Free French troops in 1941. The Free French representative proclaimed the independence of Lebanon and Syria, which was underwritten by the British government.
Al Murray does satire very well. He is in character as a xenophobic pub landlord. He's very intelligent and puts history into comedy from an idiot point of view. He doesn't necessarily believe the same as the character apart from the historical facts
In another video Al Murray says the Middle East is very complicated and that the people there don't like each other (meaning Israel and other countries) and he says that the situation is so difficult that him explaining it could possibly make it worse.
Hate to tell you. Libya was a part of Italy in WW2, and Italy invaded North Africa through Libya after WW2 Libya was put in British and French Administration. Ottoman Empire consisted of present-day Turkey, as well as parts of present-day Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Cyprus. The British and contries of its empire defeat the the Ottoman empire in WW1. These Contries were partition between England and France untill after WW2 creating the modern countries and in hindsight created a whole new problem.
There's a RUclips video about all the countries that England "invaded". It's somewhat inaccurate as to context and reasoning, but it does demonstrate what countries we were in wars with over about a thousand years... Just don't take his reasoning as correct, because he ignores coalitions in Europe and papal calls for war during the crusades for example. There's also a video from Al Murray where he uses an inflatable globe to identify all the countries as part of a comedy routine.
I watched alot of reactions to this video and I always mentioned that we 🇬🇧 lost to Iceland 🇮🇸 'cod wars' but apparently we occupied Iceland during WW II. Soo
as an English guy I can confirm that we don't have an "Independence day", the main reason for this is that most countries "Independence day"(s) are due to them becoming independent from the British Empire at some point in their history
He was never a teacher. He has however said that, _if his comedy career had failed_ he'd have ended up as a history teacher at a minor public school. He has a degree from Oxford in Modern History and is a keen history buff, having done quite a lot of 'serious' TV on historical events.
since he doesnt mention it ill just say that britain has basically invaded and occupied almost all of the middle east, and yes we have invaded lebanon and won but it was during WW2 and against the vichy french allied with germany not the lebanese themselves, so take that how you like as its similar to peru in the video. the thing about the borders is we really dont know, only the polititianse from britain and france that signed the sikes-pico agreement know how they decided the borders, but that means it was likely decided more on political terms if anything. but if you're curious on where britain has invaded here is a 12 minute video on here called every country england has invaded visualised that gives you a good idea.
We Brits don't have an independence day, but several countries besides America do celebrate independence from British rule. Please don't ask me who, I can't remember
Take a look at every country England has invaded. Someone made a video about it. I think you'll be shocked at just how much influence this little island has had.
the lines in the middle east where drawn for multiple reasons , but where in response to conserns of the people of the region 1 some wanted things asked for them planely and got most of what they asked for eg the saudi's 2 some people dint want others to have things and so where made to live together with out the things they both wished the other couldnt have eg the ( ya know theses guys lol) 3 some people where a bit too cocky and said anything would do and well they ended up having to share with those who they dint get on with ..... 4 some asked for might and defences , worked for some and not others eg iran , iraq and afganistan there are a lot of reasons not to forget oil played a bit part of who ended up partnering with whom
I only know this from comments on the original video or other reactions (although I did look it up to confirm), but he was actually wrong about Uganda and Burkina Faso, if I remember correctly... I think Uganda was some sort of protectorate of the UK/Britain at some point... I forget how they ended up being there specifically, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't to do with Germany.... Meanwhile, Burkina Faso was a French Colony, if I remember correctly, so that one is incorrect too... Regardless, given that he wouldn't know what countries would be said and likely prepared answers for every country, I wouldn't blame him for getting mixed up... It's also possible that he wasn't taking it seriously... I doubt this is entirely the case, but maybe he wasn't totally worried about being 100% accurate for a comedy bit... I still find it impressive and entertaining either way. I think he does actually briefly mention the borders in the Middle East in his nations of the world video/clip. That's a fun watch if you haven't seen it. Also, to be fair to the UK, colonising and conquering was the way of much of the world for thousands of years... Maybe 10000s or more... We're relatively spoiled that so few conflicts happen these days... We had two world conflicts happen in the first half of the 1900s and nothing near that scale since (although stuff does still happen)... Likely because the next World war might end in the world nuking itself and it's much easier to manipulate through business and and trade these days... Part of how the British Empire took over so many places was through trading companies, which essentially expanded until large areas were under control... They kept order by force, but I don't think they forcefully invaded many places to take control... They did certainly do it sometimes though lol... Ah well... Compared to the Spaniards I expect we were pretty nice ^_^;; .
Right. So Lebanon was occupied by the Ottoman Turks who surrendered to the Allies in WW1 when the Armistice of Mudros was signed in October 1918 . The Allies included Great Britain, job done. Next!
Great Britain has invaded or colonized most place on Earth, there is a very good video on RUclips, that gives factual information, it's quite extraordinary how many there has been.
Middle East, is covered by WW1 win. The UK invented all the modern middle eastern countries from thin air, which going by the Belgium example, counts as winning.
As a Brit: we might celebrate independence from Rome, but there was no fight. Rome just collapsed and left. We could celebrate independence from the Normans, but they won and our ancestors were slaves by another name and we still have an aristocracy, so we can't. Britain: great at offense (in every way), crap at defense.
Most of the middle east was given independence within the last70 ish years. India to. There's only a hand full of countries the UK hasn't invaded or been to war with 😅
If you want to know more about the League of Nations and the partition of the Middle East. Id suggest reading A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle that shaped the Middle East Book by James Barr Really good 👍
Al doesn't get all of the dates and facts correct (i.e. Burkina Faso was a French colony, not German ; the division of the New World between Spain and Portugal was in 1494 by Pope Alexander VI (not 1512 and there has not been a Pope Julius XII)) but it is a brilliant, seemingly off the cuff routine. Great Britain was heavily involved in the Middle East with France and playing a key role in what is now Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Yemen.
![BRASIL vs. URUGUAY [1-1] | RESUMEN | ELIMINATORIAS SUDAMERICANAS | FECHA 12](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-hWBAuxF1eY/mqdefault.jpg)
One fact always forgotten. Great Britain became the only empire throughout history to ever use it's power & wealth to actively abolish slavery throughout the known world, even though it was detrimental to it's economy and business interests. It became a moral crusade to see that every man/woman/child who stepped foot upon British soil was automatically a free human being. Slavery had been a way of life for every nation on this earth throughout history , until the British came along.
Unfortunately, to do it, they paid off the UK slavers' vast sums of money to make up for the loss of their income. Some of that money was turned into a government annuity and was still being paid up until 2015, meaning some families were still technically profiting off slavery until then. Since I've only heard rumours of which families they might have been, I can only assume those families are still rich enough to put a gagging order on being outed.
And the UK gave a fortune in reparations to the charities set up for ex slaves to be returned home with compensation. The UK also paid off the West African Kings/Arabic slavers as well to stop a slave trade from Africa into the middle East, that sadly continued up until recent history. Or do your morals only apply to white people being paid off to stop slaving while ignoring the West African & Islamic slave routes that were over 1500 yrs old before the West or a white man arrived. They didn't pay off the Barbary White Slaver pirates who raided the coastlines of Ireland/Cornwall/Iceland/Norway for over 100yrs, they just hunted them down and killed them. Weird how people like you never mention why the is not larger African communities in and around the middle east after they used more African slaves than anyone else over a longer period than anyone else. Maybe because ALL African men were castrated as the norm before transportation as slaves into the middle east might have something to do with it. Where is your condemnation for them ?.....@@swanchamp5136
@@swanchamp5136 And I can only assume you are a shining light of moral virtue and purity. Since you have the foresight and charisma to seize the legal property of hundreds of thousands of people without recompense and they will just accept it without protest. Or perhaps you agree with the American solution where they voted not to compensate legal slave owners because the cost was too high and simply killed a vast number of their citizens instead leaving a legacy of bitterness and hatred that continues to haunt their race relations to this day.
@@ianjardine7324 are you really defending slavers?
@@swanchamp5136 ah the ignorance becomes clearer. I'm "defending" people who legally owned property which they needed to run profitable businesses in competition with other businesses using the same practices. I'm also "defending" the government which found a way to end those abhorrent business practices without stealing from honest citizen's or causing economic collapse in poor areas or a bloody civil war. Perhaps if you learned to read properly you would be able to understand the more nuanced and grey area's of human morality and history instead of criticizing better men who worked hard and sacrificed to create the very world from which you draw the moral framework and your sense of smug superiority.
Al Murray is a very intelligent man with high Oxford degrees in history. His act as a British Pub Landlord is his comedy character.
He's amazing. He will speak to dozens of people throughout a show and come back to them several times while remembering their names and what they told him about themselves. He weaves it into the show and it's really rather remarkable. I've never seen any other comedian do that.
He is smart but he isn't always right, as in the case with the separation of The Netherlands.
You're right Al Murray is a historian he does cover every nation the British Empire had been including the Middle East. In Al Murray Nations of the world. He covers a lot of subjects in his character the pub landlord. Great reaction thank you. X
If you want to know about Al Murray's view on the Middle East then you must watch his Nations of the World skit where he has an inflatable Earth and goes round each country, starting at Britain of course. Al Murray is in fact a historian with a degree from Cambridge University. His persona is the pub landlord when on stage, a very knowledgeable person, everyone's perfect history teacher!
Oxford, not Cambridge.
@@SotonCueMan My apologies. Yes you are correct!
And Oxford whoops Cambridge so he wins again 😂😂😂
Al Murray is a satirical character. What he says on stage is not actually his views.
He studied history at Oxford, He's a clever guy. He's playing a character here ( The Pub landlord)
He's just wildly inaccurate, but it's comedy not history
Al Murray has described the Middle East in one of his shows... but he does say that its so complicated, him explaining it could possibly make it worse lol
And he does. 😉👍
Watch his skit on “Countries of the World” ? He covers the Middle East on that.
Partition in middle east was also done after ww1. First troops to capture Damascus were the 10th Australian lighthorse ( horse mounted infantryman) . Al knows his history he does a lot of interesting comedy.
Most comedians tell a joke, you laugh and next day you have forgotten it. Al Murray tells a joke, you laugh but you learn or reinforce knowledge. He also has a wide range of different accents.
So with his logic in regards to the Middle East most of it was controlled by Turkey pre-world war 1. England defeated Turkey in WW1 which resulted in a lot of Middle East countries being or recreated. So with logic of them defeating Turkey most of the MIddle East has been defeated by England.
💯💯
Wrong, it is Britain not England and the Middle East was divided up between Britain and France by the forerunner of the UN called the League of Nations.
Actually I should have said Ottoman Empire and not Turkey.
@@ianphillips9455True, but also Great Britain, rather than Britain. The French got Syria, etc., and we (Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or UK for short) got Jordan, Israel/Palastine, etc. It's fair to say neither us or the French did good jobs there, but I'd argue that _no_ country could sort the middle eastern countries out: it's an ancient riddle, inside of a conundrum wrapped in an enigma. In fact, Al Murray once said that by actually outlining the issues facing the Middle East, we would only make the situation worse. It was a joke, but in comedy, as with inebriated chatter, there always lies a kernel of truth inside it.
Edit: spelling / grammar.
God bless you and God bless Lebanon, all of us lebanese here in Australia are praying nothing major happens
Great reaction guys👍Al on Nations of the World will cover the middle east👍
I would love to see your reaction to Al Murray...nations of the world x he gives his view on every country on the planet. Its really funny x
This comedy special is legend. You could do 10 videos on this one show. That isn't just a working bar, he drove it on to the stage from the street, as well. That's arguably the greatest golf cart/car/mobile business ever made, beers on tap, and comedy while you drink them.
The War of 1812 is a tie. The US saw an opportunity at cheap and quick territorial expansion at the cost of a Britain that was fighting a life and death struggle with Napoleon
Britain still did amazingly well.
The US were defeated in several invasion attempts of Canada
The UK counter-invaded but met with a massive defeat at the Battle of Plattsburgh
Another invasion from the sea got to Washington, after defeating the US at the Battle of Battle of Bladensburg. Gen. Ross took the Amreican capital and burnt it, and then went on to attack Baltimore but was defeated (a defeat that inspired the anthem "The Star Spangled Banner")
The US won a 'sea' battle on Lake Erie
Singular British naval victories such as the USS Chesapeake (1799) destroyed by HMS Shannon
Eventually both sides wanted peace and the treaty simply returned to the status ante-bellum
After the treaty but before the news got back, the US won a battle at New Orleans that would make Andrew Jackson super famous - and he'd later cash in on this and become President
So in short, the US didn't lose the War of 1812
It did remind them that the UK were a MAJOR power
So much so that during the US Civil War the US did its utter best to not antoginise the British
The ship Trent was illegally stopped by the USN and two men taken off it and the Brisith protested and Lincoln quickly handed them back over and said "One war at a time" meaning he wasn't prepared to fight the UK
And earlier in the 1840s some war hawks wanted to fight the UK over where the border should be between the US and Canada at the Oregon Territory
They had the slogan "Fifty-four Forty or Fight!" (meaning they wanted the border on the 54°40′ parallel north, or they'd go to war. Calmer heads in the US realised that the UK was a major power and they settled the border on the 49th parallel, much further south than what the war hawks wanted
Glad to see y'all are safe
As well as being a comedian, Al Murray has a degree in Modern History from St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. He certainly knows his stuff, having almost perfect instant recall on a number of aspects of European and World History.
They literally drew straight lines in the ME, Al Murray has a joke about that in another bit...
Al Murray is a Oxford University graduate. Very smart plays the typical pub landlord as an act.
Check out countries of the world. He does some middle east..
Great reaction, I am British and if you go back centuries our little island was wanted by everyone around us, so we were always fighting invaders from Europe and we were occupied by the Romans for quite a bit of time then I guess eventually we decided to invade everyone else, I think for commercial reasons mainly but I wish we hadn't.
Nah, it was a good thing that we invaded everywhere. Because if it wasn't us, it would have been the Spanish, French or Germans. Can you imagine it? The horror! 😄
@@SarthorSFacts.
I think Mahatma Gandhi put it best when he'd said had India needed to come under the rule of a foreign power, he'd much prefer it to be the British since he found we had guaranted his freedoms but governed with the least firm of hands. He much preferred India to rule herself though obvs aha. Point being never take shame or guilt for our past, it may just serve inspiration for future democratic and equal collaboration or even union if that is what any part of the Commonwealth wants and agrees to.
Lebanon...part of the Ottoman Empire which we defeated in 1918. Job done and we haven't heard from them since.
Al Murray was educated at Oxford University and has degrees in History. He also speaks German and French and I understand some Italian
I read on the internet (so it must be true), that the most common national holiday around the world is Independence (from Britain) Day.
Would you like us to add some more?
If you look back through the history of the UK & England, we were invaded and colonised by various people over manhood centuries. There were the Angles and Saxons, the Vikings, the Romans, who ruled the place for centuries, and finally William the Conqueror came over from Gaul, now France, and took over. Their version of French was spoken by the elite and so eventually merged with the local Anglo-Saxon, so now English is a mixture of Germanic, French, Latin and various words imported due to the British Empire. We are basically a real mixture of races. 😁
5:47 Not actually true
UK/England has been colonised by MANY peoples, Celts, Saxons, Normans Romans, possibly Phoenicians very early on, before 1500 UK was basically the whipping boys of Eeurope/North Africa...EVERYONE invaded the UK from about 1000BC to 1500AD.
2500+ years of invasion after invasion.
From around 1500 onwards though, the UK became a super power and dominated the seas/navy so basically , that is when the British Empire really started, but before that, pretty much everyone in Europe invaded the UK
Not true mate. The last time England was successfully invaded was in 1066. Hasn't happened since. Also to be strictly accurate England as a sovereign state didn't exist before the 10th century and the UK didn't exist before the 17th century.
@@eddhardy1054well, the last invasion of the island was in 1797, wasn't successful and done by the french
@@tommydavies4365 Yeah I think it was in Fishguard in Wales but it had no lasting effect apart from teaching the French not to mess with the Welsh.
@@eddhardy1054 oh I just realised you're a century off with the formation of the UK aha
@@tommydavies4365 Not really. OK the union officially took place in 1707 but James the 6th & 1st was King of England & Scotland (a united kingdom) from 1603 so my comment still stands.
The last time the British Islands were colonised or occupied was by the Vikings and even then, the Vikings never ruled the entire territory. It’s why Britain has no Independence Day. Unless you also consider our civil wars
Al Murray is not only a Comedian here in Britain but he has a degree in history from Oxford University. What he says in this video is actual facts and tòtally right. 💂♂️💂♂️💂♂️💂♂️🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🏴🏴🏴🏴💙💛🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
Al Murray has a degree in history - as others have already said - and written a bunch of comedic books inspired by history, but also a serious one, "Command: How The Allies Learned To Win The Second World War". Keeps busy, that man.
This was a short version of this thanks for your reaction
Binge watching your reactions now lol, they're great. Hope you are well!
everything he says is historically true and funny
just to answer a couple of your questions maybe, the british, americans and french leaders sat down and just the 3 men drew up the new maps for the ottoman empire and eastern europe, most of the middle east was split between the UK and france (Syria + lebanon) during ww2 syria + lebanon backed the puppet french government and was invaded by the british and occupied for the free french government in 1941 and given independence in 1943 followed by a declaration of war on germany (i think) and french withdrawal
Of roughly 200 countries in the world, about 120 of them celebrate some version of Independence Day. Of those, about 90 are celebrating their Independence FROM Great Britain. :D
Al Murray has a podcast in which he talks with another historian about WW2. They cover everything. As long as it happened during WW2, they'll talk about it.
The United Kingdom is responsible for the idea of "Independance Days". Everyone who celebrates a memorable Independance Day is doing so in seperation from us.
Glad to see you are safe and back
Technically the UK was colonized by both the Romans, Vikings and the French at one point, so we could if we cared for it have a few independence days, but I for one don't really care about the distant past, what matters is the present and future.
Technically not possible since the UK didn't exist back than.
England first came to be during the Viking Era, so that would rules out the Romans.
Yes, it doesn't really matter. I'm just being pedantic :)
I once had a Lebanese family living next door to me, they were lovely lovely people, like you two. One of my favourite movies is Lawrence of Arabia, I would love to see you do a reaction to it. It deals with the Sykes/Picot agreement.
Love your reactions to Al Murray's comedy.. Typically British comedy with a touch of irony.
Very wholesome video and a happy accident via the algorithm. Wishing you both all the best from the UK ✌️
You two are an intelligent and beautiful couple. Praying for your safety 🙏
May there be peace.
Keep doing an excellent job on your reactions videos.
guys, no we dont have an independance day, but we were cololised many 1000's of years ago, from the romans, to the viking and the saxons, also, the language of englang from around 1066 to 1300's was french, but as you say we dont have an independace day, There are 65 countries in the world that celebrate there independance from the british empire, we also still hold some terrotories, there is also, 23 countries, that still have the union flag on their flag, even one of them being one of the states of america, hawaii, which has the union flag on there flag,
Lebanon was controlled by the Vichy authorities after the fall of France in 1940 but was occupied by British and Free French troops in 1941. The Free French representative proclaimed the independence of Lebanon and Syria, which was underwritten by the British government.
Al Murray does satire very well. He is in character as a xenophobic pub landlord. He's very intelligent and puts history into comedy from an idiot point of view. He doesn't necessarily believe the same as the character apart from the historical facts
You don't have to google it. Al Murray has an encyclopedic knowledge of British history.
In another video Al Murray says the Middle East is very complicated and that the people there don't like each other (meaning Israel and other countries) and he says that the situation is so difficult that him explaining it could possibly make it worse.
Hate to tell you. Libya was a part of Italy in WW2, and Italy invaded North Africa through Libya after WW2 Libya was put in British and French Administration. Ottoman Empire consisted of present-day Turkey, as well as parts of present-day Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Cyprus. The British and contries of its empire defeat the the Ottoman empire in WW1. These Contries were partition between England and France untill after WW2 creating the modern countries and in hindsight created a whole new problem.
There's a RUclips video about all the countries that England "invaded". It's somewhat inaccurate as to context and reasoning, but it does demonstrate what countries we were in wars with over about a thousand years...
Just don't take his reasoning as correct, because he ignores coalitions in Europe and papal calls for war during the crusades for example.
There's also a video from Al Murray where he uses an inflatable globe to identify all the countries as part of a comedy routine.
Do loads more al Murray but also you should check out a video called the British crusade or Britain ended slavery
After WW1 not WW2 were the borders in the middle east created. It was actually America that wanted to end colonisation after WW2 (didn't help).
I watched alot of reactions to this video and I always mentioned that we 🇬🇧 lost to Iceland 🇮🇸 'cod wars' but apparently we occupied Iceland during WW II. Soo
as an English guy I can confirm that we don't have an "Independence day", the main reason for this is that most countries "Independence day"(s) are due to them becoming independent from the British Empire at some point in their history
He used to be a history teacher before he turned to a comedian
He was never a teacher. He has however said that, _if his comedy career had failed_ he'd have ended up as a history teacher at a minor public school. He has a degree from Oxford in Modern History and is a keen history buff, having done quite a lot of 'serious' TV on historical events.
He graduated from Oxford University. He's very knowledgeable.
Found this channel an hour ago. The girl is a dead ringer for the hairdresser in "Don't mess with the Zohan"
Please react to - Every country England as ever invaded visualised
Yes another good one I agree worth a watch.
Al Murray performs as 'The Pub Landlord' character. He is not really bigoted. 😂😂
Love your content and your reaction good luck 👍
you will know him as ' the pub landlord'
since he doesnt mention it ill just say that britain has basically invaded and occupied almost all of the middle east, and yes we have invaded lebanon and won but it was during WW2 and against the vichy french allied with germany not the lebanese themselves, so take that how you like as its similar to peru in the video.
the thing about the borders is we really dont know, only the polititianse from britain and france that signed the sikes-pico agreement know how they decided the borders, but that means it was likely decided more on political terms if anything.
but if you're curious on where britain has invaded here is a 12 minute video on here called every country england has invaded visualised that gives you a good idea.
He said 1816 not 1916. In 1916 the second year of The First World War which was on until 11th November 1918.
We Brits don't have an independence day, but several countries besides America do celebrate independence from British rule. Please don't ask me who, I can't remember
Take a look at every country England has invaded. Someone made a video about it. I think you'll be shocked at just how much influence this little island has had.
❤ love your reviews
A history scholar, making history funny!
Don't bother googling it AL is a historian and a very intelligent man.
the lines in the middle east where drawn for multiple reasons , but where in response to conserns of the people of the region
1 some wanted things asked for them planely and got most of what they asked for
eg the saudi's
2 some people dint want others to have things and so where made to live together with out the things they both wished the other couldnt have
eg the ( ya know theses guys lol)
3 some people where a bit too cocky and said anything would do and well they ended up having to share with those who they dint get on with .....
4 some asked for might and defences , worked for some and not others
eg iran , iraq and afganistan
there are a lot of reasons not to forget oil played a bit part of who ended up partnering with whom
I only know this from comments on the original video or other reactions (although I did look it up to confirm), but he was actually wrong about Uganda and Burkina Faso, if I remember correctly...
I think Uganda was some sort of protectorate of the UK/Britain at some point... I forget how they ended up being there specifically, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't to do with Germany.... Meanwhile, Burkina Faso was a French Colony, if I remember correctly, so that one is incorrect too...
Regardless, given that he wouldn't know what countries would be said and likely prepared answers for every country, I wouldn't blame him for getting mixed up... It's also possible that he wasn't taking it seriously... I doubt this is entirely the case, but maybe he wasn't totally worried about being 100% accurate for a comedy bit... I still find it impressive and entertaining either way.
I think he does actually briefly mention the borders in the Middle East in his nations of the world video/clip. That's a fun watch if you haven't seen it.
Also, to be fair to the UK, colonising and conquering was the way of much of the world for thousands of years... Maybe 10000s or more... We're relatively spoiled that so few conflicts happen these days... We had two world conflicts happen in the first half of the 1900s and nothing near that scale since (although stuff does still happen)... Likely because the next World war might end in the world nuking itself and it's much easier to manipulate through business and and trade these days... Part of how the British Empire took over so many places was through trading companies, which essentially expanded until large areas were under control... They kept order by force, but I don't think they forcefully invaded many places to take control... They did certainly do it sometimes though lol... Ah well... Compared to the Spaniards I expect we were pretty nice ^_^;; .
There is a good vid listing everywhere weve interfered with....worth watching😊
Omg I love your accents ❤🙂
Right. So Lebanon was occupied by the Ottoman Turks who surrendered to the Allies in WW1 when the Armistice of Mudros was signed in October 1918 .
The Allies included Great Britain, job done.
Next!
Great Britain has invaded or colonized most place on Earth, there is a very good video on RUclips, that gives factual information, it's quite extraordinary how many there has been.
Middle East, is covered by WW1 win. The UK invented all the modern middle eastern countries from thin air, which going by the Belgium example, counts as winning.
You should also react to Al Murray on nations of the world if you want him to go into more detail especially about the middle east lol 😂
in his video countries of the world he does talk about the Middle East and has a pop at how the UK and maybe the US behaved there. Worth watching
He talks about the Middle East in 'Al Murray Takes On The Nations Of The World'.
Britain was actually colonized, but the last time was almost 1,000 years ago.
We were colonised for a thousand years, William the conqueror being the last in 1066
nice reaction! great stuff
nice reaction, thanks for that
in my opinion best uk comic since peter kaye. very intelligent, war historian
. live amazing quizzing audience
As a Brit: we might celebrate independence from Rome, but there was no fight. Rome just collapsed and left. We could celebrate independence from the Normans, but they won and our ancestors were slaves by another name and we still have an aristocracy, so we can't.
Britain: great at offense (in every way), crap at defense.
First world war they defeated the Ottoman Empire which covers pretty much the whole Middle East
Al studied Modern History at Oxford.
Definitely try to watch nations of the world it is really hilarious. Great reaction you guys.
Most of the middle east was given independence within the last70 ish years. India to. There's only a hand full of countries the UK hasn't invaded or been to war with 😅
He was a history teacher 👍
Last time we we conquered was 1066, by the Normans and their rule ended in 1399. But independence from them isn't celebrated.
Al murray studied history at Oxford University
you guys are amazing
Do Al Murray - How global finance actually works 😂
hi my lebanese friends, great reaction guys, GIL from Israel
“The leading provider of independence days … in the world”
You need to see Al Murray nations of the world
If you want to know more about the League of Nations and the partition of the Middle East. Id suggest reading
A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle that shaped the Middle East
Book by James Barr
Really good 👍
Great couple!
Al doesn't get all of the dates and facts correct (i.e. Burkina Faso was a French colony, not German ; the division of the New World between Spain and Portugal was in 1494 by Pope Alexander VI (not 1512 and there has not been a Pope Julius XII)) but it is a brilliant, seemingly off the cuff routine. Great Britain was heavily involved in the Middle East with France and playing a key role in what is now Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Yemen.
Love it! :D x everyone celebrates their independence from the UK...63 countries across the world lol
Mongolia. I can't think of any way he could even relate that.
His friends test him, its all done live.