From the shores of the Malvinas Islands to the far corners of our continent, we Argentines know firsthand the weight of a history marked by greed and plunder . This is not a distant tale or one from dusty books; it's an open wound that has been bleeding for 193 years, the same amount of time that the United Kingdom of Great Britain has usurped our Malvinas Islands and the South Atlantic , plundering their fishing, oil, and mineral resources.
A few days ago, writer and journalist Mark Curtis, co-director of Declassified UK , denounced and exposed the cynicism of a nation that, for 800 years, has trampled on human rights, plundered resources and devastated ecosystems in the name of its "empire."
Curtis makes it clear: the empire didn't die, it just mutated . And its persistence is a slap in the face to global morality, especially for those of us, like Argentina, who continue to pay a heavy price.
An empire that refuses to die
Contrary to popular belief that the British Empire is a thing of the past, Curtis slaps us in the face with reality . While 62 territories have gained independence, the British Crown remains the head of state of 14 Commonwealth nations . More alarmingly, the UK directly controls 14 other "overseas territories," including the Malvina Islands, considered by the UN to be colonies in disguise , and is the "administering power" of 10 of the 17 non-self-governing territories listed by the United Nations .
How is this scaffolding maintained? Through a vast network of 145 military bases deployed in 42 countries , many of them in former colonies. Places like Belize and Kenya serve as free training camps, or where the local population suffers abuse, while in Gulf dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, London maintains repressive elites in power to protect its military and commercial interests.
Global plunder and tax havens: The City of London at the forefront
The UK's current power is manifested in the blatant plundering of resources by London-based multinational mining and oil companies . These corporations, such as Rio Tinto, Glencore, and Anglo American , operate in 37 of the 49 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, controlling identified resources worth $1.05 trillion in oil, gold, diamonds, coal, and platinum. Alarmingly, a quarter of these companies are incorporated in tax havens controlled by the UK itself, such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, or the Isle of Man, the haven of Argentina's finance minister, "Toto" Caputo.
These "financial services" are not a benefit to humanity . According to the Tax Justice Network (TJN), the three most complicit British territories (the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, and Bermuda) facilitate global tax losses exceeding $87 billion annually , more than five times the UK's foreign aid program. It is the "second empire," that of the City of London, draining wealth from poorer nations to richer ones.
The "White Man's Burden" Reloaded: Intervention and Disregard for Life
The colonial justification of the "white man's burden" has been replaced by the farce of a "rules-based international order." This translates into:
Curtis reveals that since the end of World War II, there have been 83 British military interventions in 47 countries and 42 attempts to overthrow foreign governments in 27 nations . These actions range from brutal colonial wars to covert operations and assassinations. The superiority mentality that justified the repression of its victims persists today.
Historical wounds that never heal: Palestine, India, Pakistan, and the Malvinas
The lines drawn on a map by British colonial officials decades ago continue to cause conflict and death today . From the 1960 border battle in Somaliland, to the bloody clash between India and China over the 1914 "McMahon Line," to the "Durand Line" between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The conflicts between India and Pakistan over Kashmir also have their origins in British demarcation.
But one of the most painful examples is the creation of Israel , with the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948, a colonial project that Great Britain supported since 1917 and which, according to Curtis, is a continuation of European colonial expansion.
And here, in our own backyard, the reality of the Malvina Islands , captured by Great Britain in 1833, resonates with pain. Despite the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf concluding in 2016 that the Malvina Islands are located in Argentine territorial waters , the British government consistently rejects the UN's call to negotiate a solution. They maintain a military base on a territory that is also part of the so-called "British Antarctic Territory" (BAT), a vast glacial area where there are also overlapping claims with Argentina and Chile.
The incalculable human cost
British oppression was not abstract; it had a devastating human cost . Mike Davis documented the "late Victorian holocausts," and a recent study estimates that British rule in India led to the deaths of more than 100 million people between 1881 and 1920 due to the drain of wealth and famine.
Despite some attempts to sell the idea that the empire left positive legacies, such as institutions or advances in healthcare, the evidence is overwhelming . Democracy in many former colonies waned 30 years after independence, current corruption in Africa is correlated with British colonial rule, and nationalist civil wars are three times more common in former British colonies than in others.
A cry for justice
Mark Curtis doesn't just denounce; he challenges his own nation . From Jamaica planning a referendum to remove King Charles as head of state, to the growing opposition to the British military presence in Cyprus for its support of Israel, to the denunciations of military abuses in Kenya, the world is demanding an end to the vestiges of imperialism.
The truth is that "the empire never died ," as Curtis originally titled it. It only transformed, and now operates from the financial shadows and the justification of a "self-defense" that only applies to them . However, the voice of journalists like Curtis, combined with the clamor of people like Argentina, who have endured 193 years of dispossession, opens our eyes to the true nature of this foreign policy. It is time for the United Kingdom to embrace its history, reject cynicism, and finally build a foreign policy based on universal values and genuine international justice.
