Comparing the British Empire, Nazism, and imperial violence

Where did the idea that the British Empire was as evil as Nazi Germany come from?

It grew partly from evidence-based challenges to romantic imperial history, but imperial crimes do not excuse or minimize Nazism.

Empires, including the British Empire, were built and maintained through coercion and bloodshed, and modern historiography has stripped away older romantic narratives. Nazi Germany stands apart in its application of imperial conquest and mass violence inside continental Europe at a time when many European states claimed to have moved beyond such conduct. Condemning British, French, Belgian, Dutch, Spanish, or American imperialism does not make Nazism less culpable. American teaching can magnify the British case when other empires, westward conquest, Native American dispossession, and United States rule in the Philippines receive less attention. Industrial gains were also concentrated in Britain and white settler colonies rather than evenly shared across the empire. The naval connection is logistical: British armored-carrier survivability reflected the extreme distance between Pacific operations and the industrial repair base at home.