0:00:09 > 0:00:12It was the empire on which the sun never set,
0:00:12 > 0:00:17or, as some said, on which the blood never dried.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24At its height, Britain ruled over a quarter of the world's population.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35Many convinced themselves it was Britain's destiny to do so.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41Much of the Empire was built on greed and a lust for power.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47But the British came to believe they had a moral mission, too -
0:00:47 > 0:00:49a mission to civilise the world.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56The builders of Empire were bold.
0:00:57 > 0:00:58They were adventurous.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03Some were ruthless.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06And some were just a bit unhinged.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13The sheer expanse of British rule was breathtaking.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17It stretched from the wilderness of the Arctic...
0:01:18 > 0:01:20..to the sands of Arabia...
0:01:22 > 0:01:24..and the islands of the Caribbean.
0:01:31 > 0:01:36There was a time when Britannia really did rule the waves.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41And it's a memory which has never wholly faded.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Once, the Navy imposed blockades,
0:01:55 > 0:01:58sank enemy vessels at will,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01suppressed slavery, mapped the world's uncharted oceans
0:02:01 > 0:02:05and generally forced Britain's will onto foreign governments.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09That heritage helped Britain to believe
0:02:09 > 0:02:13she's still entitled to a place at the top table in world affairs.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17How did such a small country get such a big head?
0:03:05 > 0:03:09So much that shaped the extraordinar story of the British Empire
0:03:09 > 0:03:11was born here...
0:03:12 > 0:03:16..in the complex, time-worn expanse of India.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24It was here the British learned the art of imperial power.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30Yet, it was a treaty signed thousands of miles away
0:03:30 > 0:03:32that determined the fate of India.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38In February 1763,
0:03:38 > 0:03:43the great European powers were meeting in Paris to end years of war
0:03:43 > 0:03:47and to divide the world between them from Canada to the Philippines.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55Britain's representative at the peac talks was the Duke of Bedford,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59a stubby, arrogant little man, who'd never been to any of these places.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03In fact, his gout made it difficult enough for him to get to Paris.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07But the Bedfords did pretty well out of the summit.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11The Duchess was given an 800-piece porcelain dinner service
0:04:11 > 0:04:13by the King of France, and the Duke?
0:04:14 > 0:04:17The Duke got India for the British.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22The technologically advanced countries of Europe
0:04:22 > 0:04:26were eyeing up foreign lands for future conquest.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28And Britain had a head start.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33India was decisive - it gave Britain the resources,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37the markets, the manpower and the prestige
0:04:37 > 0:04:39to build a worldwide empire.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44In the years to come, they worked feverishly to secure that prize.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47First, Britain took control of the Mediterranean.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51Then they took the Cape of Good Hope at the bottom of Africa,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55then Mauritius in the Indian Ocean,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58then Ceylon - now Sri Lanka, of course.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00And finally, Singapore.
0:05:01 > 0:05:06A web of strongholds right across the globe.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09This was the beginning of Britain's time
0:05:09 > 0:05:12as the undisputed top dog of the world.
0:05:12 > 0:05:18Yet, the whole thing was built upon something decidedly fragile.
0:05:24 > 0:05:30A small island like Britain couldn't by itself find the manpower
0:05:30 > 0:05:33to hold on to this vast new territory.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36So, they came up with a system
0:05:36 > 0:05:39that would become a cornerstone of Empire -
0:05:39 > 0:05:42they paid local soldiers to fight for them.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49British officers would now lead Indian troops.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53The colonised would provide the fighting force of colonialism
0:05:53 > 0:05:55for centuries to come.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01HE SHOUTS ORDERS
0:06:10 > 0:06:14The Madras Regiment, founded in 1758,
0:06:14 > 0:06:15is the oldest in the Indian Army.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20It's spent most of its existence fighting not for independent India,
0:06:20 > 0:06:22but for Britain.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34It doesn't bother Captain Dilip Shekhar
0:06:34 > 0:06:36that his regiment helped to build the Empire.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Here are the battle honours we won under the British.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48On the left, you can see these are outside India, like...
0:06:48 > 0:06:52China, Afghanistan, Burma...
0:06:52 > 0:06:54- Kilimanjaro!- Yes.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57That's in the First World War, in East Africa, isn't it?
0:06:57 > 0:06:58Yes.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02- These are battles that you fought... - For Britain in India.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06- 75% of your honours are when you're part of the British Army. - Yes.- What do you think about that?
0:07:06 > 0:07:09- That's great. - You were on the wrong side then,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12from an Indian nationalist point of view - you fought for the British.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14We were soldiers.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18And a soldier does not know whose region it is he's fighting for.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Tomorrow, I have a fight with any other country,
0:07:21 > 0:07:25and I'm told to fight with that country - I don't have any personal grievance.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28Do you think the British being here was a good thing or a bad thing?
0:07:28 > 0:07:32What happened in history is history - we should not be going into that,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36but, yes, they have done good for us, and even bad to us.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40But you're... It's a good thing they're not here, isn't it?
0:07:40 > 0:07:41Oh, yeah.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47But all the troops you could hire
0:07:47 > 0:07:51could never control such a huge country.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04The British needed a political system to keep them in power,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07and they found it in the Indian Princes.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18In the mid-1800s,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21the British invaders signed a treaty with the local ruler here,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24the Maharaja of Jodhpur.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30They promised him he could go on running his kingdom
0:08:30 > 0:08:35just as before, but he'd have to pay THEM for the privilege.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39This protection racket would be repeated all over India.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52Fantastic goal there.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56They have finally woken up, ladies and gentlemen.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00In time, the ruling classes of the two peoples
0:09:00 > 0:09:02would become entwined.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16British customs and British dress
0:09:16 > 0:09:20became part of the trappings of Indian court life.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39The present Maharaja is the product of both cultures.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52This is the family palace, designed for them by a British architect.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59Understated little place.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05Morning, sir. Welcome.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07Good morning, good morning.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14But, as the British extended their grip on India,
0:10:14 > 0:10:17they tore up the treaty they'd made with the Maharaja's ancestor.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22They stripped the Maharajas of their power,
0:10:22 > 0:10:24but let them keep their palaces.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32This way.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35- This is your drawing room, is it? - This is my drawing room, yes.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39This is where we've tucked ourselves into a little corner of the palace.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44All these chaps on the walls, they're all ancestors, are they?
0:10:44 > 0:10:45Yes. That's my father behind you.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49And...
0:10:49 > 0:10:52That's my great great great grandfather.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Great great great grandfather. Splendid beard.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57Yes!
0:11:01 > 0:11:04- The first question is, what should I call you?- Bab-ji.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07- What does that mean? - Everyone calls me Bab-ji.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Bab-ji is a term of endearment, as well as a term of respect.
0:11:10 > 0:11:16- What does it mean?- Literally it means..."Bab", which means "Father".
0:11:16 > 0:11:19- "Ji" is like an honorific.- But even as a child you were called Bab-ji?
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Yes, absolutely.
0:11:22 > 0:11:27Your own involvement, of course, in Britain is considerable, isn't it?
0:11:27 > 0:11:29Since the age of eight.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31You were sent away to school in England.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33Prep school, yes.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36Prep school to Cothill, then Eton, then Oxford.
0:11:36 > 0:11:3814 years in all.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40So, you were really brought up as an English child?
0:11:40 > 0:11:42English/Indian boy.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44THEY LAUGH
0:11:44 > 0:11:46- But I would switch. - Is that good?
0:11:46 > 0:11:49I would switch being what I was -
0:11:49 > 0:11:53being an English man, and then become an Indian when I came home.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56When you look back at that original treaty,
0:11:56 > 0:11:58how do you feel about the British reneging on it?
0:11:58 > 0:12:01My ancestor at that time, he was very unhappy.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04First of all, to sign that treaty in the beginning,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08because he had no options left. It was self-preservation.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10But then he was very unhappy with it.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13Until the period came
0:12:13 > 0:12:16when we learnt how to use their presence...
0:12:16 > 0:12:18to our advantage.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20Get the best out of the system.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23And, at that point, it becomes unclear who's pulling whose strings.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25- Yes!- Quite tricky.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44At the heart of British authority was a gigantic confidence trick.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47It worked for as long as the illusion could be maintained.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Take Government House in Calcutta.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01It was the seat of British power in India.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05It's still the headquarters of the Regional Government today.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12When it was built in 1803,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15there were fewer than 6,000 British officials
0:13:15 > 0:13:20nominally ruling over some 200 million Indians.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27As one British Governor General who lived here put it,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31"If each black man were to take up a handful of sand,
0:13:31 > 0:13:36"and by united effort, throw it upon the white faced intruders,
0:13:36 > 0:13:38"we should be buried alive."
0:13:38 > 0:13:41And that's the reason for the scale, the grandeur,
0:13:41 > 0:13:45the sheer boastfulness of this place -
0:13:45 > 0:13:48the idea being, if you look like a ruler,
0:13:48 > 0:13:50the people will treat you like a ruler.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00It helps to explain that arrogant, self-satisfied look
0:14:00 > 0:14:05you see on the faces of so many British imperialists.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08But the appearance was an enormous bluff.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13It could only be a matter of time before that bluff was called.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Lucknow in the mid 19th century was, according to visitors,
0:14:32 > 0:14:34an enchanting place.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40The British here enjoyed a life of luxury and tranquillity.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45But in May 1857 all that changed.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01Fired by decades of resentment,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Indian troops rose up and killed their own officers.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Indian servants murdered British families.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11The Indian Mutiny,
0:15:11 > 0:15:14or First Indian War of Indian Independence, had begun.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22It reached its climax at the British headquarters in Lucknow.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34Here, the myth of Imperial power was shaken to the core.
0:15:36 > 0:15:383,000 British and loyal Indians
0:15:38 > 0:15:43were trapped inside, and surrounded by 8,000 rebels.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46A terrifying siege was about to begin.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56I think these must have been the servants' quarters, or the kitchen.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59They're too small to be formal rooms, but the...
0:16:01 > 0:16:04..the amazing thing about it is that this place
0:16:04 > 0:16:10was just obviously built to impress local Indians,
0:16:10 > 0:16:17and it ends up this scene of complete, terrified squalor.
0:16:17 > 0:16:22At the height of the siege, there were 10 Europeans dying every day...
0:16:24 > 0:16:25..just here.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32And these must be the marks of some of the cannonballs
0:16:32 > 0:16:34that struck the building.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38These ones didn't go through, but in other places,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41you can see the balls have gone straight through the wall.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56And that down there, I think, is what was the banqueting hall,
0:16:56 > 0:17:00but during the course of the siege became used as the hospital,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04and was absolutely packed with the wounded, obviously,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08but also the sick, because inevitably what happened
0:17:08 > 0:17:11was all the latrines filled up and overflowed,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14and there were corpses rotting in the heat everywhere,
0:17:14 > 0:17:16so cholera broke out,
0:17:16 > 0:17:19and it was the job of many of the small children
0:17:19 > 0:17:22to wipe the flies off the faces and the wounds of the injured
0:17:22 > 0:17:24inside the hospital there.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27It must have been an absolutely appalling scene.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38After four and a half months, British relief forces arrived.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42As they fought their way into the stinking ruins,
0:17:42 > 0:17:44they showed no mercy.
0:17:45 > 0:17:50In the story of Empire, rebellion always met with savage retaliation.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12One British commander alone executed 6,000 men.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15Elsewhere, he flogged suspected mutineers,
0:18:15 > 0:18:18made them lick blood from the slaughterhouse floor,
0:18:18 > 0:18:21and then hanged them.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24In other cases, mutineers were tied to the ground,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26branded with hot irons,
0:18:26 > 0:18:28told to run for their lives,
0:18:28 > 0:18:32and, when they did so, were shot dead.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46It was not enough merely to punish - an example had to be made.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58The psychological impact of the conflict was massive -
0:18:58 > 0:19:04each side now knew how very thin was the veneer of civilised coexistence,
0:19:04 > 0:19:09that with the right provocation they could unleash hell on each other.
0:19:16 > 0:19:202,000 men, women and children had perished in the siege.
0:19:21 > 0:19:27The pretence of British rule had been shattered, the bluff called.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35And, when peace returned, British attitudes hardened.
0:19:38 > 0:19:44The poet Rudyard Kipling called it "wearing knuckle dusters under kid gloves".
0:19:47 > 0:19:51The British would soon find a new way of showing who was boss.
0:19:56 > 0:19:57HE SPEAKS IN HINDI
0:20:09 > 0:20:13This bleak patch of waste ground outside Delhi
0:20:13 > 0:20:17was once the setting for a series of extraordinary spectacles.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26They were called "durbars",
0:20:26 > 0:20:30the Indian word for a meeting between ruler and ruled.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35It was less a meeting than a ceremonial show of strength.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39One Indian called it "terror in fancy dress".
0:20:44 > 0:20:47Presiding over each of these gaudy ceremonies
0:20:47 > 0:20:50was the British ruler in India, the Viceroy.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54One of them understood the power of extravagant display
0:20:54 > 0:20:56better than any other.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03"Lord George Nathaniel Curzon", went the rhyme,
0:21:03 > 0:21:08"was a most superior person." He liked to assemble his magnificent uniforms,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12including assorted foreign decorations, from various places,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16one of them being a London theatrical costume shop.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25Magnificent events like this
0:21:25 > 0:21:29were meant to dazzle the country into submission.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47A few old statues in the corner of this foreign field
0:21:47 > 0:21:49are all that's left.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59Hello.
0:21:59 > 0:22:04'Even the caretaker of this peculiar place isn't much interested.'
0:22:06 > 0:22:09- Hello.- Hello.- Can I ask you some questions?
0:22:09 > 0:22:12What do you think of all the statues just down here?
0:22:19 > 0:22:22I'm afraid we're some of the occasional white men,
0:22:22 > 0:22:24but what...do you know what happened here?
0:22:29 > 0:22:31Not very interested?
0:22:51 > 0:22:54There's one relic of the British Raj
0:22:54 > 0:22:58that still exerts something of its old magic.
0:23:01 > 0:23:08Like the Taj Mahal, the Victoria Memorial is a shrine to a woman.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11A British Queen in the heart of Calcutta.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14In the person of Queen Victoria,
0:23:14 > 0:23:19the British liked to believe the Empire had achieved human form.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23They cooked up the resonant but meaningless title of Empress of India for her.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27But she was more than a title.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35Victoria was Empress, mother, virtual god.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39In the years following the mutiny, over 50 statues of her
0:23:39 > 0:23:42were commissioned and shipped out from Britain.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47The Maharaja of Baroda for example paid £15,500
0:23:47 > 0:23:49for a solid marble statue.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53And, at the feet of it, flowers were regularly laid
0:23:53 > 0:23:55and every week, it was given a shampoo
0:23:55 > 0:23:58to keep the old queen looking spruce.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04Victoria had plenty to smile about.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09A mix of enterprise and cunning,
0:24:09 > 0:24:15brutality and pomp had turned India into the biggest, richest
0:24:15 > 0:24:18and most significant colony in the Empire.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33By the closing years of Victoria's reign,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36India formed the heart of an empire
0:24:36 > 0:24:39that stretched from Canada in the west
0:24:39 > 0:24:42to Australia in the east.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44It was time to celebrate.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, on 22nd June 1897,
0:25:00 > 0:25:04was the grandest showing off of Empire Britain would ever see.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11If the Indian durbars were designed to cow the Empire's subjects,
0:25:11 > 0:25:15the Jubilee was a piece of theatre meant to fire the British public
0:25:15 > 0:25:17with imperial fervour.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28A vast cavalcade made its way across the capital
0:25:28 > 0:25:31to the so-called Parish Church of Empire,
0:25:31 > 0:25:33St Paul's Cathedral.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Thousands of troops had been summoned from all over the Empire -
0:25:42 > 0:25:48Canadian Hussars, Indian Lancers, Cypriot Policemen wearing fezzes,
0:25:48 > 0:25:52Jamaicans in white gaiters, there were Hong Kong Policemen,
0:25:52 > 0:25:57Australian Cavalrymen, Dayaks, Maoris,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00Rajas and Maharajas.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07In the midst of all this frenzy rode the matriarch of Empire.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12She allowed herself an occasional tear.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16The day was marked by celebrations throughout her colonies.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37The Daily Mail brought out a special edition in gold ink
0:26:37 > 0:26:40to mark the occasion.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44As the procession passed, its star reporter was quite overcome.
0:26:45 > 0:26:51"You begin to understand, as never before, what the Empire amounts to,
0:26:51 > 0:26:56"not only that we possess all these remote, outlandish places,
0:26:56 > 0:27:01"but that we send out a boy and he takes hold of savages
0:27:01 > 0:27:05"and teaches them to obey him and to believe in him,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08"and to die for him and the Queen."
0:27:11 > 0:27:16But not everyone shared this sense of wide-eyed amazement.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22There were some who looked at the spectacle and wondered.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26They remembered the splendour of the Roman Empire
0:27:26 > 0:27:28and how that had fallen.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33How could an empire that wouldn't stop growing be sustained?
0:27:33 > 0:27:37And, in particular, how could the great prize of India be secured?
0:27:41 > 0:27:45The answer to that had already taken the British
0:27:45 > 0:27:47to some pretty unexpected places.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08One morning in September 1882,
0:28:08 > 0:28:13the Egyptian people woke up to find they were not alone.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20A British Army had landed and was advancing on the capital.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39"Egypt was never part of the Empire," you may say,
0:28:39 > 0:28:41and indeed, formally, you'd be right.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44Egypt was an emergency, an anomaly, an experiment
0:28:44 > 0:28:48and, for a while, a bit of a success.
0:28:48 > 0:28:50No sooner had British troops landed here
0:28:50 > 0:28:53than the British Government announced they'd be leaving.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57In fact, they stayed for 70 years.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03What on Earth were they doing here?
0:29:05 > 0:29:09The reason could be found just across the desert -
0:29:09 > 0:29:10the Suez Canal.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17This 120-mile slice through Egyptian territory
0:29:17 > 0:29:19was the lifeline of the Empire,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22dramatically cutting sailing time to India.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26Most of the ships passing through it were British.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32They brought tea and cotton and jute from India and beyond to Britain.
0:29:32 > 0:29:38They could take troops back to quell another mutiny.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42Trouble near the canal might spell trouble for Britain.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58And trouble had been brewing in the streets of Cairo.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05Egyptians were angry about foreign influence in their country.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12When riots broke out in the city, the British grew nervous.
0:30:19 > 0:30:25The Cairo riots triggered a classic piece of imperial footwork.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27The pattern goes like this -
0:30:27 > 0:30:31British people or British interests are threatened,
0:30:31 > 0:30:34British forces are sent to protect them,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36and they never leave.
0:30:43 > 0:30:48In Egypt they didn't leave because they hardly admitted they'd arrived.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51Much of the British occupation of Egypt was passed off
0:30:51 > 0:30:54as little more than a spot of armed tourism.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07- Good morning. - Good morning.- Thank you.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14For many years, Egypt was run quietly from this building -
0:31:14 > 0:31:16now the British Embassy.
0:31:18 > 0:31:23And this was the man who ran it, ruling Egypt for over 20 years
0:31:23 > 0:31:26and perfecting the strange machinery
0:31:26 > 0:31:30of British power in the Middle East - Sir Evelyn Bearing.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33Officially, he was just Consul General,
0:31:33 > 0:31:34rather than Colonial Governor,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37but, with 6,000 troops stationed next door,
0:31:37 > 0:31:40there was no doubt who was in charge.
0:31:40 > 0:31:45It wasn't just his size that gave him the nickname "Over-Bearing".
0:31:53 > 0:31:58Bearing was an imperialist through and through.
0:31:58 > 0:32:03He regarded the Egyptians, and indeed most foreigners, as children.
0:32:03 > 0:32:08And he treated them accordingly, with occasional concern
0:32:08 > 0:32:11and permanent disdain.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13It earned him their profound resentment.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24Bearing allowed the Egyptian elite to imagine
0:32:24 > 0:32:26they were still running the country.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39"The British are easy to deceive," said one Egyptian politician,
0:32:39 > 0:32:41"but when you think you've deceived them,
0:32:41 > 0:32:45"they give you the most tremendous kick in the backside."
0:32:51 > 0:32:56Bearing was a man who liked to exercise power behind the throne.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03He did not give commands but, it was said,
0:33:03 > 0:33:05advice which had to be taken.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15Here the workings of Empire had become almost invisible.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18The British found a word for it -
0:33:18 > 0:33:23Egypt was not a "colony", it was a "protectorate".
0:33:36 > 0:33:39Bearing allowed himself two hours each evening
0:33:39 > 0:33:42to exercise at the Gazero Sporting Club.
0:33:42 > 0:33:47As they did all over the Empire, British officials in Cairo
0:33:47 > 0:33:51repaired to the club at the end of the working day.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03You can be so mean in croquet, can't you?
0:34:03 > 0:34:06- And it is in many countries now. - It is many countries, yes.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08HE SPEAKS ARABIC
0:34:08 > 0:34:10Have you been a member here a very long time?
0:34:10 > 0:34:15In the club it's about...more than 50 years, 55 years.
0:34:15 > 0:34:1755 years?
0:34:18 > 0:34:21Do you remember when the British were here?
0:34:21 > 0:34:22Yes.
0:34:24 > 0:34:25And what did you think?
0:34:27 > 0:34:32Ah, I think they were forbidding any Egyptian to enter this club
0:34:32 > 0:34:35- unless the declarations... - Really?- Yes.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41Were you glad to see the English go?
0:34:41 > 0:34:42For sure.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44HE LAUGHS
0:34:44 > 0:34:48We weren't all bad, were we? We weren't all bad?
0:34:48 > 0:34:50All kinds of imperialism is bad.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58But was there nothing good that the British did here?
0:35:00 > 0:35:02Nothing was good.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05All the time they were here, 70 years, and it was all...
0:35:05 > 0:35:07More than 70 years.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09Yes - did they do nothing good?
0:35:12 > 0:35:14I think no.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20How many times do you come to Egypt?
0:35:20 > 0:35:22Oh, I've been three or four times.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24- Four times?- Yes, about that, I think.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28- You are most welcome here. - Well, it's very nice of you, thank you very much,
0:35:28 > 0:35:30particularly in light of our history.
0:35:30 > 0:35:32This is one of the good things which imperialism did.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35There you are, you found one thing!
0:35:43 > 0:35:48The temporary intervention in Egypt - the bit of Empire that never was -
0:35:48 > 0:35:51would last into the middle of the 20th century.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58Bearing himself, the invisible man,
0:35:58 > 0:36:02left in 1907 to retire to Bournemouth.
0:36:05 > 0:36:07Bearing's last carriage journey,
0:36:07 > 0:36:10from the British Headquarters to the railway station,
0:36:10 > 0:36:14was marked by what one witness called "a chilly silence".
0:36:14 > 0:36:18I don't suppose he'd have cared that much, he wasn't here to be loved,
0:36:18 > 0:36:22but I wonder what he would have made of the fact that, even generations later,
0:36:22 > 0:36:27there were Egyptians travelling to England to spit on his grave.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40As the 20th century dawned,
0:36:40 > 0:36:43Britain's sense of its role in the world had given it
0:36:43 > 0:36:47dangerous delusions about what it could do.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56World War and its aftermath
0:36:56 > 0:37:00would expose these delusions in a merciless fashion
0:37:03 > 0:37:05The First World War stretched
0:37:05 > 0:37:08far beyond the mud and trenches of Northern Europe.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14It reached into the streets and deserts
0:37:14 > 0:37:16of Palestine and the Middle East.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27Once again, Britain feared for its key strategic asset,
0:37:27 > 0:37:30its lifeline to India - the Suez Canal.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34It had to be protected.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53The region was ruled by Britain's war enemy, Turkey.
0:37:56 > 0:38:01In their desert conflict with the Turks, the British needed allies.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06The Bedouin tribes of the Arabian Desert knew this arid land
0:38:06 > 0:38:08and they knew how to survive in it.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13If they could be encouraged to rise up against the Turks,
0:38:13 > 0:38:15they might prove invaluable.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19But who could unite them?
0:38:27 > 0:38:30This is the edge of the Sinai Desert.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34It was here that a young man came on a secret mapping mission
0:38:34 > 0:38:36for the British Army.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39It was disguised as an archaeology field trip,
0:38:39 > 0:38:44and it was the beginning of a long love affair with the desert
0:38:44 > 0:38:45and with the Arab people.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49That love affair created one of the most romantic figures
0:38:49 > 0:38:51in the history of the British Empire -
0:38:51 > 0:38:55Thomas Edward Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05Lawrence, the illegitimate son of an Irish baronet,
0:39:05 > 0:39:08scholar, archaeologist, linguist, was just the man
0:39:08 > 0:39:12to charm and inspire the Arabs into a desert revolt.
0:39:29 > 0:39:34The story of an Englishman leading an exotic army across the desert
0:39:34 > 0:39:37caught the public's imagination.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40In contrast to the mud and murder of the Western Front,
0:39:40 > 0:39:44here was a sweeping campaign fought in blazing sunlight.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49And here, too, was a different kind of imperialist -
0:39:49 > 0:39:53romantic, idealistic, dashing...
0:39:53 > 0:39:56and slightly nuts.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18Lawrence had a passion for the Arabs and their way of life.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21His ability to live like them impressed them.
0:40:21 > 0:40:26So did the gold from the British treasury he brought to pay them.
0:40:26 > 0:40:28Shukran.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38And he gave them something more, a belief in themselves
0:40:38 > 0:40:42as an Arab nation. As his masters in London had hoped,
0:40:42 > 0:40:45he coaxed them into fighting with the British
0:40:45 > 0:40:50with the promise of their freedom once the war was over.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02Do you think he was a good man?
0:41:02 > 0:41:04- Yeah.- Why?
0:41:13 > 0:41:14He was a real man, yeah.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30Do you think that the promises that he made were ever kept?
0:41:40 > 0:41:45'Lawrence promised his Arab fighters freedom from foreign rule.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49'They believed Palestine would be theirs.
0:41:49 > 0:41:51'There would be many more promises made
0:41:51 > 0:41:55'and just as many broken.'
0:42:04 > 0:42:07The war in the desert finally brought Britain
0:42:07 > 0:42:09a string of heady victories.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15Imperial troops from India, Australia and New Zealand
0:42:15 > 0:42:18as well as Britain swept across the region.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22By the winter of 1917,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26the ultimate prize was within their grasp.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31The Holy City itself.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45And so was born the dangerous conviction that the interests of the British Empire
0:42:45 > 0:42:49and the will of God might be one and the same.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56For Christians,
0:42:56 > 0:43:00Jerusalem was sacred as the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
0:43:00 > 0:43:03venerated as the place where Christ's body was laid.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17But Jerusalem was sacred to other faiths, too.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21A thousand years before Christ, it was the capital of the Jews.
0:43:25 > 0:43:30Sharing the city with the Jews in relative peace were the Arabs,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34for whom Jerusalem was one of the holiest cities in Islam.
0:43:46 > 0:43:48For the British Prime Minister, Lloyd George,
0:43:48 > 0:43:52the Empire now began to feel like a divine mission.
0:43:55 > 0:44:00Most British political leaders had been brought up on the Bible.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04They were steeped in its geography. And as for its history, well,
0:44:04 > 0:44:06Lloyd George claimed, as a boy,
0:44:06 > 0:44:08he knew the names of the kings of Israel
0:44:08 > 0:44:12long before he knew the names of the kings of England.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27At noon on 11 December 1917, British forces entered Jerusalem.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32In a show stage-managed from London for this imperial victory,
0:44:32 > 0:44:35the trappings of power were discarded.
0:44:38 > 0:44:40Commander in Chief General Edmund Allenby
0:44:40 > 0:44:44dismounted from his horse and entered the city on foot.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50To a watching world, Allenby was proclaiming
0:44:50 > 0:44:54that he came not as a conqueror but as a pilgrim.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04Behind him, in borrowed army uniform,
0:45:04 > 0:45:06was a jubilant Lawrence.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11But his joy would prove short-lived.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15On the walls of the city,
0:45:15 > 0:45:20Allenby ordered a solemn proclamation from the British Government to be read out.
0:45:28 > 0:45:33He knew, he said, that the place was sacred to three great religions,
0:45:33 > 0:45:38that its soil had been sanctified by prayer and pilgrimage,
0:45:38 > 0:45:40and he promised to preserve it.
0:45:40 > 0:45:42But for all his fine words,
0:45:42 > 0:45:46Allenby had been handed a ticking time-bomb.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57For, back in London, the British Government had just gone even further.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04The Jews of Europe, scattered for centuries,
0:46:04 > 0:46:06had been made a remarkable offer.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15In the Balfour Declaration, the British Foreign Secretary
0:46:15 > 0:46:19committed Britain to helping the Jews make a home in Palestine.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29Playing God in the Holy Land was an astonishing gesture.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34The British had come to feel they were agents of destiny.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37They had become powerful enough,
0:46:37 > 0:46:39and you might say well meaning enough,
0:46:39 > 0:46:43to believe they could solve the problems of the world.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50The promised land had now been promised once too often.
0:47:02 > 0:47:07Over the next decade, as more and more Jews arrived in Palestine,
0:47:07 > 0:47:10tension between them and the Arabs rose.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18It came to a head at the Wailing Wall in the heart of Old Jerusalem.
0:47:28 > 0:47:36In 1929, riots broke out here at the site sacred to both Jews and Arabs.
0:47:36 > 0:47:41The riot spread and later Arabs murdered Jews in their homes.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44The British police were completely outnumbered
0:47:44 > 0:47:47and the British authorities decided that, from now on,
0:47:47 > 0:47:52all Arab outrages would be met with real aggression.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57The British want peace at any price.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00They try to restore order, search everybody.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03They act as if both sides are equally guilty.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08To the Arabs, the British had broken the promise of freedom
0:48:08 > 0:48:10made to them by Lawrence.
0:48:10 > 0:48:15Instead, the Arabs were having to give up their land to the Jews.
0:48:18 > 0:48:23The Jews felt the British were failing to honour the terms of the Balfour Declaration,
0:48:23 > 0:48:26and the promise of a national home for them.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31Both sides made their case with gelignite.
0:48:39 > 0:48:43Both sides committed appalling atrocities.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11Palestine became a posting from which many never returned.
0:49:20 > 0:49:26The Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion is full of British graves.
0:49:27 > 0:49:32Many belong to soldiers, policemen and civilians who died
0:49:32 > 0:49:36trying to keep apart two peoples who had previously lived relatively peaceably together.
0:49:44 > 0:49:49After a while, you begin to notice one date keeps reappearing.
0:49:51 > 0:49:5422 July 1946.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11It was in the wing on the right of the picture
0:50:11 > 0:50:14that the terrorists placed their explosives.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20The hotel housed the British Army headquarters
0:50:20 > 0:50:25and the Palestine Government offices, and casualties were very heavy.
0:50:25 > 0:50:2791 people were killed
0:50:27 > 0:50:33including 41 Arabs, 28 British, and 17 Jews.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41Sara Agassi was 17 at the time.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44She was a member of the team of militant Jews
0:50:44 > 0:50:47who bombed the King David Hotel.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Pretending she was just attending a dance, she scouted the hotel
0:50:51 > 0:50:56for the terrorists, deciding where the bomb should be placed.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01So they came down here with the bombs and then what happened?
0:51:01 > 0:51:04To the... To the place...
0:51:04 > 0:51:07- No, it's not here, there. - Through there?- Of course.
0:51:10 > 0:51:15- It was open.- You recognise it? - Yeah, of course. We came from here.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18This was the place that you had been looking at
0:51:18 > 0:51:20when you came dancing that day?
0:51:20 > 0:51:25Yes, here. Here was the bar and here was the orchestra
0:51:25 > 0:51:27and all this was very big.
0:51:27 > 0:51:32For dancing, it looked... Chairs and, ah, tables, beautifully...
0:51:32 > 0:51:35lamps and everything was very beautiful.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37Now, where were the bombs put?
0:51:37 > 0:51:40Into these, ah, columns.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43This is one of the columns that supports the whole hotel, I guess.
0:51:43 > 0:51:44Yes, yeah.
0:51:44 > 0:51:50It's not one. One, two, three, but four, five.
0:51:50 > 0:51:52- Five columns, five bombs?- Yes.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02What was your reaction when you heard the bomb go off?
0:52:02 > 0:52:05What did you think, what did you feel?
0:52:05 > 0:52:07- I was satisfied. - You were satisfied?
0:52:07 > 0:52:11- Yes, it was a mission.- You've never been worried about what you did?
0:52:11 > 0:52:14Of course I was worried to succeed.
0:52:14 > 0:52:15But you...you...your...
0:52:15 > 0:52:20- your sense of morality, your conscience, hasn't bothered you since?- No, no.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24No, we fight for our... to have a medinah.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26To do something against the British.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29What do you think about it after all this time?
0:52:29 > 0:52:33This is over 60 years ago now. Have your views changed?
0:52:33 > 0:52:36No. No.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53Do you not feel any thanks at all to the British?
0:52:53 > 0:52:55I mean, without the Balfour Declaration,
0:52:55 > 0:52:59there would have been no Jewish homeland in this part of the world.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08Sure. The motive is neither here nor there.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11I mean, whatever the motive was,
0:53:11 > 0:53:13do you not think that the Balfour Declaration,
0:53:13 > 0:53:17the right of the Jews to have a homeland in Palestine...
0:53:17 > 0:53:20- It was a good start.- That was a good thing, wasn't it?- Yes.
0:53:20 > 0:53:22Are you not grateful to the British for that?
0:53:38 > 0:53:43It was now a lot less like the promised land than hell on Earth.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47"Tommies go home," someone daubed on a wall,
0:53:47 > 0:53:50and beneath it a despairing squaddie wrote,
0:53:50 > 0:53:53"I wish we fucking well could."
0:54:01 > 0:54:07What Lawrence called "the British love of policing other men's muddles" had proved a disaster.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19The British Empire is gone from the Middle East
0:54:19 > 0:54:24but everyone still lives with the consequences of Britain's presence in Palestine.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28Divided peoples and a divided land.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43The Middle East taught the British a lesson
0:54:43 > 0:54:47that all empires have to learn sooner or later,
0:54:47 > 0:54:51that, though you may begin with ambition and come to believe you'll last forever,
0:54:51 > 0:54:55one day you will have a head-on collision with reality.
0:54:55 > 0:55:01In the end, and there is no disguising this fact, the British ran away.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06LAST POST PLAYS ON BUGLE
0:55:09 > 0:55:12It was May 1948.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16One departing official commented bitterly,
0:55:16 > 0:55:20"It is surely a new technique in our imperial mission
0:55:20 > 0:55:26"to walk out and leave the pot we placed on the fire to boil over."
0:55:50 > 0:55:54The bluff of British omnipotence had been called.
0:55:54 > 0:56:01It would be called again and again over the next few decades.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04The empire that had lasted more than 200 years
0:56:04 > 0:56:07would be dismantled in scarcely 20.
0:56:19 > 0:56:21The British were beginning to lose interest.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25The battered country that emerged from the Second World War
0:56:25 > 0:56:29was more concerned with bettering the lives of its citizens than anything else.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36An American politician later remarked that the British people
0:56:36 > 0:56:41had decided they preferred free aspirins and false teeth
0:56:41 > 0:56:43to a role in the world.
0:56:50 > 0:56:54But it hasn't entirely turned out that way.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02In fact we've done anything but climb into the back seat.
0:57:02 > 0:57:07The Empire may be over but imperial habits linger on.
0:57:16 > 0:57:21In the last three decades, Britain has embarked on seven foreign wars.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31There were arguments aplenty for fighting any one of them.
0:57:33 > 0:57:37But you can't help wondering if, without the memory of Empire,
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Britain would have plunged in quite so readily.
0:57:42 > 0:57:48It's as if we can't quite let go of who we once were.
0:57:59 > 0:58:01Still to come:
0:58:01 > 0:58:06How Britain grew rich on profits from the drug trade,
0:58:06 > 0:58:09and from the traffic in human beings.
0:58:10 > 0:58:13How it brought Christianity to Africa,
0:58:13 > 0:58:17and the gospel of sport to the world.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21And next time, how British men and women
0:58:21 > 0:58:25made themselves at home in the far-flung colonies of Empire.
0:58:32 > 0:58:34To order a free Open University poster
0:58:34 > 0:58:40exploring the legacy of Britain's Empire, go to:
0:58:40 > 0:58:44Or call:
0:58:44 > 0:58:46Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd