The British Empire: Echoes of Britannia's Rule

The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was the high noon of the British Empire. On 22 June 1897, the elderly Queen gave thanks to God for her reign of 60 years. Her British subjects...

The British Empire virtually began in the islands of the West Indies - and for 200 years they were its richest possession. The wealth of the islands came from sugar cane which prov...

For over a century the world's second most populous country was run by a commercial firm with headquarters in the City of London - the East India Company.

In 1759 Britain won Canada in a 15-minute battle with the French outside Quebec. It was a territory larger than India, over a million square miles, inhabited by 60,000 disgruntled...

At the beginning of the 19th century no continent seemed to Europeans so mysterious, so fascinating, as Africa. There were legends about great wealth and great kingdoms in the inte...

With the Indian Mutiny a thing of the past, the Raj is born, and in 1877 Victoria is proclaimed Queen Empress. The impact of Britain becomes more evident: canals bring life to dese...

Africa held two gateways to India - Suez, and the staging post at the Cape - and Britain gained control of both. In holding them, she was sucked into trouble. With Britain's hands...

Until the Boer War the British basked in Imperial glory: domination of the seas, world power, world Empire, peace and progress. But there were some who saw dangerous weaknesses; ed...

One consequence of the British Empire was the emergence of the Australian 'character' - a half-legendary figure fashioned from the struggle against a harsh environment and the infl...

The meeting between the ideas and culture the British took overseas, and those they encountered, is a recurring theme of Empire. Nowhere was this clash more dramatic than in Africa...

Joseph Conrad, the sea captain who became a novelist, wrote of "the bewitching breath of the Eastern waters... the gift of endless dreams. In the China Seas the British dreamt drea...

Even in the early Victorian era, idealistic Britons foresaw that one day India would be capable of self-government. The British themselves fostered Indian political aspirations. In...

After India was granted independence from British rule in 1947 a succession of other countries pressed towards the same goal. The pace was fastest and most furious in Africa.