The English were not just the ancient oppressor; they were Protestants to boot.
The conflict is revealed as unjust, with the opponents clearly presented as victim and oppressor.
Through the 19th century and for much of the 20th, it was commonplace to believe that subject peoples could never throw off the yoke of empire unless they abandoned the language of the imperial oppressor.
Laddism is an equal-opportunity oppressor – racism, classism, homophobia and transphobia are all part of its portfolio – but the viciousness of its sexism (exemplified by this article's opening quote) reflects a conviction that women need to be put in their place.
But it would deny their true oppressor a propaganda weapon, and it would preserve the essential ingredient of current policy, which is the containment of Saddam.
Schools may switch to English, the language of the former colonial oppressor, from next year.This reverses a decade-old policy adopted after Hong Kong's reversion to China in 1997, in an assertion of independence from both former and present sovereign powers.
Yet to think this way to see the West as an infidel oppressor and capitalist exploiter, rather than as a partner with whom a fruitful friendship is possible is to rule out all possibility of peaceful coexistence.
Their threat justified his repression.The time has come to end the grim symbiosis between the oppressor and the oppressed.
The Greek justice minister suggested that, as part of his country's ongoing claims against its old oppressor, he might even seize the Athens property of the Goethe Institute, Germany's cultural agency.Arguments over a tactless hand gesture might be called a childish spat.
In 1931 Japan occupied Manchuria, turning from mentor to oppressor.
Black South Africans increasingly rejected Afrikaans as the language of the main oppressor; English was a symbol of advancement and prestige.Today, 16 years after the advent of black-majority rule, English reigns supreme.
