British Empire

Listen to an audio excerpt from Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s historic “Wind of Change” speech, delivered to the South African Parliament in February 1960. “The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact,” Macmillan said, signaling his Conservative government would not stand in the way of the growing calls for independence across Africa.

As Britain reckons with the uglier parts of its imperial legacy, a question has emerged: should the British Museum return some of the artifacts in its eight-million-item collection that were forcibly taken from Britain’s former colonies? In 2021, Vice launched an “unfiltered history tour” of the British Museum, an alternative to the official guide which spotlights 10 looted artifacts, including Nigeria’s Benin Bronzes, Egypt’s Rosetta Stone, Greece’s Parthenon Marbles, and more.

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.

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.

This interactive map visualizes the spread of the British Empire from 1450 to the present day. It’s remarkable to watch how a small island in the North Sea came to dominate one-quarter of all the land on earth at its height in the 19th century, then see its influence recede again in the decades after World War II.

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.

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.

Once the largest on earth, the British Empire 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—and its admirers coined the description “the empire on which the sun never sets.” Check out 1440's overview of the once-mighty behemoth in this three-minute overview.

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.

Britain's global influence extends beyond the British Isles through 14 overseas territories, remnants of its once vast empire. At its peak, the British Empire covered a quarter of the world's land mass and ruled nearly a third of its population. This small island nation became the largest empire in history through exploration, colonization, and military dominance from the 15th to 20th centuries.