"but it's clear in the overview that there was mass oppression in the 19th century by the upper classes - slavery, especially in the Americas; serf labor in Europe; the Highland Clearances in Scotland and the famine in Ireland; workhouses all over Europe; the systematic extermination of Native Americans in the United States; the European colonization of Africa and much of Asia."

Really Joe - may be "clear" to you but then as you are not so keen on detail you miss quite a lot out in your rather biased perspective.

You mention slavery - no nation on this planet did more to eradicate the slave trade than the British

Serf labour in Europe? Hardly Joe the only country where serfs existed in "Europe" in the 19th century was Tsarist Russia - nowhere else.

Highland Clearances? More a 18th century thing greed on the part of land-owners was the motivation not Government policy.

You ignore the massive advances made throughout the 19th century in a vast variety of fields. The Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan commented on it comparing the social and economic improvements made between 1815 and 1914.

In Africa for the tribes who were subservient to the Zulu, or further North the Maasia definitely found the British to be more benign rulers.