Skip to 0 minutes and 14 seconds The story of the British Empire begins with the Elizabethan Age and with galleons like this one, the Golden Hind, captained by the famous explorer, Sir Francis Drake. It grew to become the largest empire that the world has ever seen, at its height ruling over a quarter of the world’s population. It shaped our modern world through the development of the phenomenon with which we’re increasingly familiar, globalisation. But how did the British Empire happen? What were the forces that created it, that held it together, and that ultimately led to its demise. I’m Richard Toye and I’m professor of modern history at the University of Exeter.
Skip to 0 minutes and 51 seconds I’ve gather together a group of experts who, over the course of six weeks, will give you a fresh and exciting new perspective on the British Empire. We’ll be exploring the British Empire through related themes, including money, violence, race, religion, and sex and gender. We’ll be thinking about the ways in which British culture might be understood to have sanctioned and sustained British imperialism and how the attitude of the British public towards empire was pivotal in its development and demise. Through the small stories of individual people’s lives, we will discover how the grittiness of day-to-day imperial power was played out, not though policy, but through the men and women who made the empire happen.
Skip to 1 minute and 31 seconds The British Empire is something that causes enormous disagreement amongst historians. And along the way, there will be lots of opportunity for you to debate the questions they have raised and to draw your own conclusions. As we enter an age of unprecedented interconnections and a truly global economy, we can look back to its roots in the British Empire. Join us and find out more.
