The British Empire, once the largest on earth, was the world’s first modern superpower. At one point, nearly one in four human beings was subject to British rule—around 500 million people.
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Between 1700 and 1900, Britain established control of India after enterprising businessmen established trading centers along the subcontinent's coast. As it held power, the Empire wielded military strength and economic exploitation to subdue the country's natives. Examine the historical impact of British colonialism in India with this academic explainer.
The “world’s most popular history podcast” hosts a nuanced discussion of the legacy of the British Empire with guest Sathnam Sanghera, a journalist and author of the books Empireland and Empireworld. The conversation goes beyond declaring empire wholly good or bad, instead contemplating issues including how empire is taught in British schools.
Do you know the East India Company minted its own coins and even had its own flag? Find these and other historical facts about the East India Company at the nonprofit World History Encyclopedia. Its in-depth entry on the EIC includes links to video explainers and an interactive timeline tracing the company from its founding in 1600 to its formal end in 1874.
This video from History Bombs promises to tell the story of 400 years of British Imperial history in just nine minutes—with no cuts. Recorded on a British sailing ship in a single take, the lesson features costumed actors playing the roles of figures like Sir Francis Drake, Pocahontas, and Cecil Rhodes, and a script written almost entirely as a series of rhyming couples.
History Channel Canada offers a video sketch of Mahatma Gandhi’s life and works in under three minutes. Using archival photos, newspaper clippings and video footage, it reveals the incident that sparked his activism, which eventually helped bring about the end of the British Raj. The video also shows how his method of nonviolent resistance inspired the likes of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.
Today, nearly one-third of the world's population lives in a British Commonwealth country. The group of now-independent heirs to the British Empire is one of the world's largest political forums, and its members aren't legally obligated to one another or to the British monarch. So, how did they go from a massive Empire to a congenial conference of nations? Watch a quick video explainer here.
In this feature for BBC History Magazine, University of Leeds history professor Andrea Major explains how a single London corporation managed to take control of the entire Mughal empire, all in the name of the British crown. It tracks the East India Company’s rise to power through corruption, taxation, and military might.
In 1926, Canada was granted dominion status, allowed to self-govern but still strongly encouraged to buy goods from the British Empire. To promote this trade, the Empire Marketing Board was created. More than 800 posters were printed up to be displayed in factories, schools, and shops between 1926 and 1933. This Flickr gallery, created by Library and Archives Canada, gathers together a few dozen of them.
The British Empire has become a divisive topic in contemporary British politics, held up as a source of pride by nationalist groups and scrutinized on the left. Gary Libecap, an economics professor at UC-Santa Barbara and former fellow at Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution, outlines the positive impacts that English legal and financial institutions had on colonial economies.
For a deep dive into the history of the British Empire in India, check out the first season of this critically acclaimed UK podcast, hosted by historian William Dalrymple and journalist Anita Anand. Episodes focus on East India Company, the Raj, Gandhi, and more, shedding light on how empires rise and fall, and how they shape the world today.
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