0:00:31 > 0:00:36Modern Britain is a nation of many cultural traditions.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40British people are connected
0:00:40 > 0:00:44to other parts of the world through many ties -
0:00:44 > 0:00:46of family,
0:00:46 > 0:00:48of business,
0:00:48 > 0:00:50and of community.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54Many of these connections have their roots in the British Empire.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59It was called "the empire on which the sun never set".
0:01:02 > 0:01:07At its height, Britain ruled over a quarter of the world's population.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11But how did Britain come to rule so much land
0:01:11 > 0:01:12and so many people?
0:01:12 > 0:01:18Many convinced themselves it was Britain's destiny to do so.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Much of the Empire was built on greed
0:01:21 > 0:01:23and a lust for power.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30But the British came to believe they had a moral mission, too -
0:01:30 > 0:01:32a mission to civilise the world.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37The sheer expanse of British rule was breathtaking.
0:01:38 > 0:01:43It stretched from the wilderness of the Arctic
0:01:43 > 0:01:45to the sands of Arabia...
0:01:47 > 0:01:49..and the islands of the Caribbean.
0:01:56 > 0:02:02A century ago, the British Empire was the greatest power on Earth.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04That imperial past has left Britain
0:02:04 > 0:02:08with a sense of entitlement to a place at the top table
0:02:08 > 0:02:10in current world affairs.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15For better or for worse, the Empire changed the world
0:02:15 > 0:02:18and it changed Britain, too.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38The Empire coloured huge parts of the map of the world pink.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42But India was the grandest,
0:02:42 > 0:02:47richest and the most important territory it came to control.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57In the 18th century, this was the home of India's ruling dynasty.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03The first British visitors were awestruck by what they found.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10It was clear that this was an advanced civilisation.
0:03:21 > 0:03:27The Indians regarded the arriving British as barbarians,
0:03:27 > 0:03:28but by the mid-18th-century,
0:03:28 > 0:03:33the balance of power had shifted decisively in favour of the British.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35How did this happen?
0:03:38 > 0:03:40The earliest Britons in India,
0:03:40 > 0:03:45such as the men of the East India Company, weren't invaders
0:03:45 > 0:03:49but traders who'd gone there for spices, cotton and indigo dye.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54The company, which soon dominated trade,
0:03:54 > 0:03:57raised its own army of local troops.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04In 1744, a young man arrived in India
0:04:04 > 0:04:07to work as a clerk for the company.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12His name was Robert Clive.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16He was ambitious, short-tempered and impatient.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19He soon saw that wielding a sword
0:04:19 > 0:04:23was a faster route to riches than pushing a pen.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Clive taught himself to be a soldier.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30He learned, for example,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33that the best way to repel troops mounted on elephants,
0:04:33 > 0:04:35should you ever need to know,
0:04:35 > 0:04:39is to fire a volley of shots at the animals until they stampede.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43But his greatest talent of all was, in his own words,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47"for politics, chicanery, intrigue
0:04:47 > 0:04:48"and the Lord knows what."
0:04:54 > 0:04:57At the Battle of Plassey in 1757,
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Clive outwitted the ruler of the State of Bengal,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05a man who had dared to challenge the power of the East India Company.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11Clive then walked into the prince's treasury
0:05:11 > 0:05:14and coolly helped himself to a fortune.
0:05:21 > 0:05:26He then shipped it in a fleet of 75 barges
0:05:26 > 0:05:29to the company's headquarters in Calcutta.
0:05:32 > 0:05:37Soon afterwards, a new word entered the English language.
0:05:37 > 0:05:38It was a Hindi word,
0:05:38 > 0:05:40"loot".
0:05:46 > 0:05:49With wealth came power.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52The East India Company gradually took control
0:05:52 > 0:05:54of huge swathes of the country.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01The company men were the new princes of India.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04They built themselves great palaces in the British style
0:06:04 > 0:06:06on Calcutta's main street.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11Many of them still stand today.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17Clive himself became Governor of Bengal.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21So what had begun in plunder
0:06:21 > 0:06:23had ended in government
0:06:23 > 0:06:26and so it was to prove right across the world.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29It was the greed of Robert Clive and men like him
0:06:29 > 0:06:32which built Britain an empire.
0:06:50 > 0:06:55Today some people dismiss the Empire as a cause for nothing but shame.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00But the story is more complex than that.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06British rule in India demonstrates it very clearly.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23The first British people in India came to trade rather than invade.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Their attitude to the peoples they encountered
0:07:26 > 0:07:29would be very different from that of those who followed.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38These pioneers of Empire actively embraced an Indian way of life.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43One of these early traders was Charles Stuart.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45He worked for the East India Company,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48which traded in cotton, silks and spices.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Most mornings, Stuart could be seen joining the locals
0:07:55 > 0:07:59as they bathed in Calcutta's Hugli river.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04Charles Stuart is the sort of person
0:08:04 > 0:08:07who upends easy prejudices about the Empire.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11The caricature is that it was all run by arrogant racists
0:08:11 > 0:08:14oppressing downtrodden natives.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18And like all caricatures, there is a degree of truth in that.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21But Charles Stuart belongs to an early generation
0:08:21 > 0:08:25of the British in India, who were seduced by the place.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45In this unfamiliar world,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47Charles Stuart saw holiness,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50order and civilisation.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55So enchanted was he with India,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57he soon became known as Hindu Stuart.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05He encouraged his fellow Europeans to adopt Indian customs.
0:09:06 > 0:09:12He called on British women to abandon their corsets and dresses
0:09:12 > 0:09:15and to wear colourful Indian saris.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18And on British men
0:09:18 > 0:09:22to grow what would become that trademark of Empire,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25a luxuriant moustache,
0:09:25 > 0:09:26Indian style.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33The traders of the East India Company
0:09:33 > 0:09:36liked to mix business with pleasure.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41Relaxing with the locals was an everyday affair.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43To judge from their clothes,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46you often couldn't tell one from the other.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01This was the Empire making up the rules
0:10:01 > 0:10:05about the appropriate relations between the races as it went along.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09In fact, there weren't really any rules at all - yet.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Many British traders took Indian mistresses,
0:10:15 > 0:10:17known as Beebees.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20But there were more serious and lasting relationships too,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23leading to marriage and families.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Many men of the East India Company
0:10:26 > 0:10:30left their possessions to Indian wives or children.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34The offspring of these mixed-race marriages
0:10:34 > 0:10:37became known as Anglo-Indians.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42Today there are an estimated 150,000 of them in India.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47MUSIC, CHEERING
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Anglo-Indians tend to marry within the community
0:10:52 > 0:10:57so the term now means having some British blood,
0:10:57 > 0:10:59often several generations back.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01I am proud to be who I am here.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03I have both worlds to enjoy,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06I enjoy the West as well as I enjoy the East.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08You're all Christians?
0:11:08 > 0:11:11- Yeah.- And you've all got some British blood somewhere.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13- Yeah.- But you can't...
0:11:13 > 0:11:16I couldn't tell you from any other Indian.
0:11:16 > 0:11:17But my name says it,
0:11:17 > 0:11:20and I know my roots. That is it.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23What does it mean to you?
0:11:23 > 0:11:27It means something nice, because I feel proud to be Anglo-Indian.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29But you are a visible reminder...
0:11:29 > 0:11:33- Yeah.- ..of the fact that this country was a colony.- Yeah.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35Well, a lot of people wouldn't like that.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38That's history, that's all. Just take it as a part of history.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51Many of the early colonists in India,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53men of the East India Company,
0:11:53 > 0:11:57were enthusiastic about Indian life and culture.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59Many married Indian woman
0:11:59 > 0:12:03and it seemed there was a positive mix of two cultures.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06But in Victorian Britain,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10these relationships were seen as subversive, even dangerous.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Britain was in the grip of a religious revival.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20The British were adopting a new, more puritanical Christianity,
0:12:20 > 0:12:24and they wanted the rest of the world to do likewise.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31That shift would soon be felt on the far fringes of Empire.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41It wasn't long before Victorian values arrived in India.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47They were brought, not only by missionaries,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49but by wives sent out from Britain
0:12:49 > 0:12:52who were arriving in ever-increasing numbers.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56They were known as memsaabs.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03They hadn't the slightest interest in local culture.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06One memsaab wrote of Indian holy men
0:13:06 > 0:13:10as "horrible objects, with their wildly rolling eyes,
0:13:10 > 0:13:16"long tangled hair, and every bone visible in their wretched bodies."
0:13:16 > 0:13:19Another arrived in India and wrote home,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22"There's such a lot of everything!"
0:13:44 > 0:13:47No wonder the memsaabs ran for the hills.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53They had very different ideas
0:13:53 > 0:13:56about how to make themselves at home in India.
0:13:58 > 0:14:03The days of easygoing tolerance were now over.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05In their place came a culture war,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09a never-ending battle to maintain the British way of life
0:14:09 > 0:14:12in the face of foreign temptation.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15The British strongholds in this battle
0:14:15 > 0:14:18were the places they came to escape the summer heat.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Hill stations, like Ooty.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28The Indians called it Ootacamund,
0:14:28 > 0:14:32but that was too much of a mouthful for most of the British.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36As soon as they discovered the place,
0:14:36 > 0:14:39they began to turn it into a version of Surrey.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52In places like this, a particular idea of Britishness was forged.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54Tea on the lawn,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57a certain reserve, order,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00formality, unbelievable stuffiness.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04It is an idea that some people still have a soft spot for
0:15:04 > 0:15:08while others have been laughing at it for decades.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12What tends to be forgotten, though, is that it was forged, initially,
0:15:12 > 0:15:14as a defence against something.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17In this case, as a defence against India.
0:15:22 > 0:15:27Bungalows sprouted like little forts all over the hills.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34Bungalow is originally an Indian word
0:15:34 > 0:15:37meaning "a house in the Bengali style,"
0:15:37 > 0:15:41but the buildings it came to describe were very British indeed.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48The great Empire writer Rudyard Kipling
0:15:48 > 0:15:52talked about them as "models of shut-up-ness."
0:15:52 > 0:15:56Enclosed within their own little compound, rigidly ordered within,
0:15:56 > 0:16:00they really were about the separation of us from them.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Of course, the great shift in attitudes
0:16:11 > 0:16:14was shared by men and memsaabs.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16But as mistresses of the house,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19it was the women who were on the front line.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33For a young woman, arriving in this alien land
0:16:33 > 0:16:35after weeks on a boat from England
0:16:35 > 0:16:38must have been a truly daunting experience.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41Fortunately, though, help was at hand.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52by Flora Annie Steel and Grace Gardiner,
0:16:52 > 0:16:56is an intriguing window into the mind of British India.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01It tells you absolutely everything,
0:17:01 > 0:17:04from how much to pay the cook's assistant,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07to the best way to divide up the family possessions
0:17:07 > 0:17:11when you're moving house, by means of 11 camels,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14to how many coolies it takes to carry a piano.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17The answer to that one, if you're interested, is 16.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27The book is astonishingly rude about the Indians themselves.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30"The Indian servant," this bit here says,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33"is a child in all things save age,
0:17:33 > 0:17:35"and should be treated as a child.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40"That is to say, kindly, but with the greatest firmness."
0:17:44 > 0:17:46It was the memsaabs' duty
0:17:46 > 0:17:51to introduce the native servants to the British way of doing things
0:17:51 > 0:17:53and to teach them their place
0:17:53 > 0:17:56as decent, dutiful inferiors.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01Yet for all their apparent self-confidence,
0:18:01 > 0:18:05these were women who lived in a state of fear -
0:18:05 > 0:18:10fear that the climate and conditions in India might actually kill them.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22St Stephen's Church was one of British Ooty's first buildings.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27Its graveyard is full of British women and children
0:18:27 > 0:18:30whose stay in the country didn't last long.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39Death and disease ravaged the British in India.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43Soldiers' wives and children
0:18:43 > 0:18:46were three times more likely to suffer an early death
0:18:46 > 0:18:48than if they'd stayed at home.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54"Sacred to the memory of Issabella Frances Etheldred,
0:18:54 > 0:18:58"fourth daughter of the late Lieutenant Colonel Havelock,
0:18:58 > 0:18:59"14th Light Dragoons,
0:18:59 > 0:19:06"who died June 18th 1851, aged 17 years, two months and three days."
0:19:07 > 0:19:10How precisely they measured their loss.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Along with the snobbery and self-righteousness
0:19:26 > 0:19:30went a certain fortitude and courage, as well.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33Maybe they passed themselves off as the master race
0:19:33 > 0:19:37because deep down, they knew that they were an endangered species.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57India was valuable to Britain, not only for its spices and cotton
0:19:57 > 0:19:59but for another commodity...
0:20:00 > 0:20:02People.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14A small island like Britain couldn't, by itself, find the manpower
0:20:14 > 0:20:16to hold onto this vast territory.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26So the British came up with a system
0:20:26 > 0:20:29that would become a cornerstone of Empire.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38They paid local soldiers to fight for them.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41British officers would now lead Indian troops.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45SHOUTS IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:20:47 > 0:20:51The colonised would provide the fighting force of colonialism
0:20:51 > 0:20:52for centuries to come.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57The Madras Regiment, founded in 1758,
0:20:57 > 0:20:59is the oldest in the Indian Army.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01It's spent most of its existence
0:21:01 > 0:21:04fighting not for independent India,
0:21:04 > 0:21:06but for Britain.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13It doesn't bother Captain Dilip Shekhar
0:21:13 > 0:21:16that his regiment helped to build the Empire.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23Three quarters of your battle honours are when you were part of the British Army.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25- Yes.- What do you think about that? - That's great.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29You were on the wrong side, from an Indian nationalist point of view -
0:21:29 > 0:21:30you fought for the British.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32We were soldiers,
0:21:32 > 0:21:36and a soldier does not know whose region it is for he's fighting.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39Tomorrow, I have a fight with any other country,
0:21:39 > 0:21:43I'm told to fight with that country. I don't have any personal grievance.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46Do you think the British being here was a good thing or a bad thing?
0:21:46 > 0:21:49What happened in history is history. Still, we should not go into that
0:21:49 > 0:21:53but, yes, they have done good for us, and even bad to us.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57But you're... It's a good thing they're not here, isn't it?
0:21:57 > 0:22:00HE LAUGHS
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Indian troops helped the British control their empire
0:22:09 > 0:22:13and they played a key role fighting for Britain
0:22:13 > 0:22:15through the 18th and 19th centuries,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19right up to the 20th century and two world wars.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43The British Empire wasn't just about conquests and government
0:22:43 > 0:22:46and chaps in shorts telling foreigners what to do.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49It was also about money and profit.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52It began with a few unscrupulous adventurers
0:22:52 > 0:22:57and it grew into a vast network that spanned the globe,
0:22:57 > 0:22:58from Britain to Australia,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01from Calcutta to Jamaica,
0:23:01 > 0:23:04from Australia to Hong Kong.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09Off the coast of China,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11British traders made fortunes
0:23:11 > 0:23:14from ships freighted with addictive drugs.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21And they helped themselves to the riches of Ancient India.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26They planted new crops in their expanding colonies,
0:23:26 > 0:23:29like rubber in Malaysia...
0:23:30 > 0:23:34..and transformed the economies of those countries.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47Empire trade and empire theft
0:23:47 > 0:23:51helped make Britain a world capital of money.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57It may be surprising,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00but a key factor in the development of the Empire
0:24:00 > 0:24:02was a British sweet tooth.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07Those at home had developed a taste for sugar
0:24:07 > 0:24:11to sweeten the novelties arriving from the tropics -
0:24:11 > 0:24:12coffee,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15chocolate and tea.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21The British were already becoming a nation of sugar addicts.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36Sugar from plantations in the British colony of Jamaica
0:24:36 > 0:24:38could satisfy their craving.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43But the island's population was tiny
0:24:43 > 0:24:46and the plantations needed vast amounts of labour.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53The answer to the problem
0:24:53 > 0:24:56lay in the trafficking of human beings from Africa.
0:24:58 > 0:24:59The slave trade.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16The British didn't introduce slavery to the Caribbean
0:25:16 > 0:25:20but they took to it with enthusiasm.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22Traders bought slaves in Africa
0:25:22 > 0:25:26and then shipped them thousands of miles across the world.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34Many died in the packed, filthy, airless cargo decks.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39Sugar was a back-breaking crop to harvest.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43The cane had to be cut down and then stripped of its foliage
0:25:43 > 0:25:46and then transported to the mill,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49often in intense, blazing heat.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54Within three years of their arriving here,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57a third of them would be dead.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08By 1775, 1.5 million men, women and children
0:26:08 > 0:26:13had been forcibly transported from Africa to the British West Indies.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15Their descendants now people these islands.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24Treating human beings as beasts of burden
0:26:24 > 0:26:27made the owners of sugar plantations rich.
0:26:28 > 0:26:33This is the planter's house on the Good Hope Estate, built in 1755.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39Its owner was 23 when he bought it.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44He became the wealthiest man in Jamaica,
0:26:44 > 0:26:46owning over 10,000 acres of land
0:26:46 > 0:26:49and over 3,000 slaves.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54The luxury of this home
0:26:54 > 0:26:57is an indication of the vast sums of money
0:26:57 > 0:27:00which could be made in the colonies.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03Some of that wealth was spent on good living,
0:27:03 > 0:27:06some on gaining power and influence back home.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11But much of it was invested in new opportunities to get rich
0:27:11 > 0:27:13through international trade.
0:27:15 > 0:27:17For more than three centuries,
0:27:17 > 0:27:19it was trade rather than conquest
0:27:19 > 0:27:22which brought new colonies into the Empire.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26Though it was often trade at the end of a gun or a sword.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32Canada was opened up by the Hudson's Bay Company,
0:27:32 > 0:27:34which traded in skins and furs.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37And the African Lakes Corporation
0:27:37 > 0:27:42bought and sold the bounty of swathes of Africa.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45Many of these companies
0:27:45 > 0:27:50were run by men sitting in offices thousands of miles away
0:27:50 > 0:27:52in the City of London.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58On floors like this, traders speculated
0:27:58 > 0:28:01on commodities from across the globe -
0:28:01 > 0:28:03cotton from India...
0:28:05 > 0:28:07..wool from Australia...
0:28:09 > 0:28:12..and cocoa from West Africa.
0:28:14 > 0:28:15By the end of the 19th century,
0:28:15 > 0:28:20more than half the world's trade was financed in British pounds.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29Victorian Britain, in effect, had two empires -
0:28:29 > 0:28:31one run by politicians,
0:28:31 > 0:28:33the other by moneymen.
0:28:33 > 0:28:38In South America, British banks supplied governments with credit.
0:28:38 > 0:28:43British companies built railways across Argentina.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48British settlers bought huge ranches and raised cattle.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Victorian investors grew rich
0:28:56 > 0:28:59trading in things right across the globe.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23The former British island colony of Hong Kong
0:29:23 > 0:29:28is so densely packed with banking and trading firms,
0:29:28 > 0:29:31it's known as the world's most vertical city.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42The place lives, eats and breathes money.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50The story of how Hong Kong came to be British
0:29:50 > 0:29:55reflects the Empire's often ruthless pursuit of profit.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57It's an extraordinary story,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00even if it is one of the most shameful in British history.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09And yet, this dark episode began innocently enough.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17It was born from the English passion for a cup of tea.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23- Hello!- Hello. Hello.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26Oh, it smells lovely, doesn't it?
0:30:26 > 0:30:28Would you like to have a cup of tea?
0:30:28 > 0:30:30- I'd love to have one, yes. - This way, please.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36In the early 19th century,
0:30:36 > 0:30:40China was virtually the only place tea was grown.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44But there was a problem.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47For three centuries,
0:30:47 > 0:30:51China had severely restricted trade with the West.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57The British were desperate and had even sent a delegation to China.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00They begged the Emperor to open up his country
0:31:00 > 0:31:03and take some British products in exchange for tea.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10They presented him with all sorts of trinkets -
0:31:10 > 0:31:13games and curiosities,
0:31:13 > 0:31:15scientific instruments and toys.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20But he remained resolutely unimpressed.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27"We possess all things," said the Emperor.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31"I set no value upon things strange or ingenious
0:31:31 > 0:31:34"and I have no use for your country's manufactures."
0:31:40 > 0:31:42But to get the tea they craved,
0:31:42 > 0:31:45the British had one thing to trade
0:31:45 > 0:31:47that many Chinese craved even more.
0:31:51 > 0:31:52Opium.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58The drug was illegal in China,
0:31:58 > 0:32:00though the ban was widely ignored.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06There were an estimated 12 million peasants addicted to opium.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12The authorities there called it "a deadly poison,
0:32:12 > 0:32:16"ruining the minds and morals of our people."
0:32:18 > 0:32:20The British grew opium poppies in India.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25There they processed it in factories
0:32:25 > 0:32:27on a colossal scale.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32Finally, it was shipped to China
0:32:32 > 0:32:34and sold to smugglers.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38With the profits, British traders bought Chinese tea.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47In 1839, the Chinese Emperor decided he'd had enough.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52He ordered more than 1,000 tonnes of British-supplied opium
0:32:52 > 0:32:54to be seized and destroyed.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00The British government was outraged.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05It invoked a sacred and very convenient principle -
0:33:05 > 0:33:08the principle of free trade.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12Britain HAD to be allowed to trade what and where she liked,
0:33:12 > 0:33:15especially in the case of opium.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18Opium was making Britain rich.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20It soon accounted for over a fifth
0:33:20 > 0:33:24of the income of the government of India.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27Two mighty empires, each convinced of their own superiority,
0:33:27 > 0:33:30were now set on collision course.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34The Opium Wars were about to begin.
0:33:38 > 0:33:43Britain's first ocean-going iron warship, The Nemesis,
0:33:43 > 0:33:47built in Liverpool, was sent out to take on the Emperor's navy.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51It helped destroy much of it in a single afternoon.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57This was the modern world confronting an ancient one.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01Sailing junks against steam-driven gun boats.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04The Chinese had no choice but to surrender
0:34:04 > 0:34:07and to open five ports to British trade.
0:34:07 > 0:34:12China had been forced to enter the modern global economy.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20Hong Kong was one of Britain's prizes from the Opium Wars
0:34:20 > 0:34:25and it remained in British hands until the end of the 20th century.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31It would become one of the Empire's most important centres
0:34:31 > 0:34:33for banking and trade.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37FANFARE
0:34:40 > 0:34:43When the British finally quit Hong Kong in 1997,
0:34:43 > 0:34:47they did so boasting they were handing on a territory
0:34:47 > 0:34:50"intimately wired into the world economy,"
0:34:50 > 0:34:54the shameful origins of British colonial presence here
0:34:54 > 0:34:56conveniently forgotten.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59But China has never entirely forgotten
0:34:59 > 0:35:03how a foreign power forced it at gunpoint
0:35:03 > 0:35:06to allow millions of its citizens
0:35:06 > 0:35:09to be turned into drug addicts.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23In the second half of the 19th century,
0:35:23 > 0:35:26the British Empire reached from Canada in the west
0:35:26 > 0:35:28to Australia in the east.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30The last phase of the expansion,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33the conquest of much of Africa, was about to begin,
0:35:33 > 0:35:35and many of these empire builders
0:35:35 > 0:35:38believed their work was ordained by God.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47In the summer of 1861, a small party of white men
0:35:47 > 0:35:50found themselves travelling up the River Shire
0:35:50 > 0:35:52in what is now Malawi.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54ELEPHANT TRUMPETS
0:35:57 > 0:35:59BIRDS CALL
0:35:59 > 0:36:04To Europeans at that time, Africa was simply "The Dark Continent",
0:36:04 > 0:36:08a place of ignorance and superstition.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12They had come here to change that.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18The men sang hymns as they travelled.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21Lead Kindly Light was a particular favourite.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24Their leader was already a legend in Britain,
0:36:24 > 0:36:29a man who had come to embody the Victorian purpose in Africa.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35His name was David Livingstone,
0:36:35 > 0:36:38a deeply religious, fanatically determined Scot.
0:36:40 > 0:36:45He was the first white man to have crossed the continent of Africa.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48He'd come here as a missionary to save African souls for Christ
0:36:48 > 0:36:51but what he found appalled him.
0:36:55 > 0:37:00Britain had abolished slavery in the Empire decades before,
0:37:00 > 0:37:05but Livingstone found Africans still being captured and sold
0:37:05 > 0:37:08to Arab and Portuguese slavers all over East Africa.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14Now he and his companions
0:37:14 > 0:37:18dreamed of sowing the seeds of a new world here.
0:37:20 > 0:37:25One based not on African superstition and slavery,
0:37:25 > 0:37:28but on two Victorian obsessions -
0:37:28 > 0:37:29Christianity
0:37:29 > 0:37:31and free trade.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42This river would become God's highway into the heart of Africa.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45Down it would come African cotton
0:37:45 > 0:37:48and wheat and ivory and ostrich feathers,
0:37:48 > 0:37:53and up it, in exchange, would go clothes and tools and machinery
0:37:53 > 0:37:56made in Glasgow or Manchester.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59BIRDS CALL
0:38:00 > 0:38:04Livingstone had a slogan for it -
0:38:04 > 0:38:06Christianity and Commerce.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10AFRICAN SINGING
0:38:10 > 0:38:13This would be the Empire's new civilising mission.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19But the place chosen by Livingstone for his mission
0:38:19 > 0:38:22turned out to be hostile and dangerous...
0:38:23 > 0:38:24..a malarial death trap.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32Then, in 1865, after years of exploring the interior,
0:38:32 > 0:38:36the most famous missionary in the world vanished.
0:38:40 > 0:38:44Nothing was heard from him for an entire three years.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50It was a worldwide mystery.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52The New York Herald sent a journalist,
0:38:52 > 0:38:55Henry Morton Stanley, to Africa.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58"Find Livingstone", were his orders,
0:38:58 > 0:39:00"by any means necessary."
0:39:03 > 0:39:06FOLK MUSIC, DRUMS
0:39:21 > 0:39:23And find him he did, in what would become
0:39:23 > 0:39:26one of the most celebrated encounters of the Victorian age.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30Stanley was a chancer,
0:39:30 > 0:39:34so we must take his account of the meeting with a pinch of salt,
0:39:34 > 0:39:36but here's what he says happened.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39"As I approached, I noticed he was pale.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42"He looked weary.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45"I would have embraced him, but he being an Englishman,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48"I wasn't sure how he would receive me.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53"So I walked up to him deliberately, took off my hat and said,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56"Dr Livingstone, I presume."
0:39:58 > 0:40:01But Livingstone didn't want to give up.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03For nearly two years, he continued with his mission
0:40:03 > 0:40:07to abolish the slave trade of Central Africa.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11He drove himself on, sick with cholera and dysentery.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13He'd even extracted his own teeth.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23Livingstone, it is said, made only one convert to Christianity,
0:40:23 > 0:40:26nor did trade with the British
0:40:26 > 0:40:28transform the lives of African villagers.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35But he did help to persuade the British government
0:40:35 > 0:40:39to fight slavery worldwide,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42and the work of fanatical anti-slavers like Livingstone
0:40:42 > 0:40:47persuaded the British that there was something noble about their empire.
0:40:51 > 0:40:52He died in Africa.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56He was alone, thousands of miles from home.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58They found him in his hut,
0:40:58 > 0:41:01kneeling, it was said, in prayer.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07Two faithful servants,
0:41:07 > 0:41:10one of them a former slave freed by Livingstone,
0:41:10 > 0:41:14gathered up his body and carried it all the way to the coast.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23There, they loaded it onto a ship bound for London.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27His heart, though, was buried in Africa.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52David Livingstone had become more than an explorer,
0:41:52 > 0:41:53more than a missionary,
0:41:53 > 0:41:56he had become a myth.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59His brave life and lonely death
0:41:59 > 0:42:02reassured a people busy conquering the world
0:42:02 > 0:42:07that the Empire was about more than greed and domination.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10It was about sacrifice and justice
0:42:10 > 0:42:12and doing good.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32The story of the British Empire
0:42:32 > 0:42:35involved trade and conquest, of course,
0:42:35 > 0:42:40but it also involved the movement of huge numbers of ordinary people.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47Today, we sometimes find it hard to believe just how many people
0:42:47 > 0:42:50migrated, willingly or unwillingly,
0:42:50 > 0:42:54across huge distances to carve out the Empire and make it work.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01And the consequences are still with us.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05This is Nairobi in Kenya.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12No-one planned Nairobi as a capital city. It just happened.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14It happened because it was a railway stop
0:43:14 > 0:43:18on one of the most ambitious lines in the entire British Empire,
0:43:18 > 0:43:20the Lunatic Line.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38For the Empire in 1900,
0:43:38 > 0:43:41making yourself at home meant building a railway.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54The line ran 600 miles
0:43:54 > 0:43:56from the coast, through Nairobi
0:43:56 > 0:43:58all the way to Lake Victoria.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04It was built to bring British goods to the interior
0:44:04 > 0:44:08and raw materials out to ports on the coast.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16It would encourage British farmers to come out here and settle.
0:44:18 > 0:44:23There was plenty to merit the title "The Lunatic Line."
0:44:23 > 0:44:28There was the cost, £534 million in today's money.
0:44:28 > 0:44:30There was the engineering required
0:44:30 > 0:44:34to allow a train to climb from sea level into the mountains
0:44:34 > 0:44:37and then to plunge down into the great rift valley,
0:44:37 > 0:44:43and to construct 1,200 bridges along the way.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50But it wasn't the British who built the railway.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53It wasn't even the Africans. This remarkable feat
0:44:53 > 0:44:58was the work of 32,000 labourers, craftsmen and engineers
0:44:58 > 0:45:02brought in by the British from India.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04They knew how to build railways there.
0:45:10 > 0:45:12HORN BLOWS
0:45:14 > 0:45:15Soon, the Lunatic Line
0:45:15 > 0:45:19was carrying coffee and tea, sisal and wheat
0:45:19 > 0:45:21from the settler's farms to the coast.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28The building of the railway was a staggering feat
0:45:28 > 0:45:31but it came at a staggering cost in human life.
0:45:34 > 0:45:382,500 workers were killed during its construction
0:45:38 > 0:45:41by malaria, accidents,
0:45:41 > 0:45:42or man-eating lions.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50What was the attraction for someone like your great-grandfather
0:45:50 > 0:45:52and his brother when they came here?
0:45:52 > 0:45:54Well, I mean, to be honest,
0:45:54 > 0:45:59I don't think you were very well off back at home, OK?
0:45:59 > 0:46:03Cos, I mean, why would you want to leave the comfort of your home
0:46:03 > 0:46:05to come to this wilderness?
0:46:05 > 0:46:08Harsh African conditions, vegetation,
0:46:08 > 0:46:10a strange land to them.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14It wasn't very easy cos water was scarce,
0:46:14 > 0:46:16especially when they were going
0:46:16 > 0:46:19across the Tara desert, towards Salvo.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22They didn't have water for showering for weeks.
0:46:22 > 0:46:24They would just get enough water just to drink.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28And what my great-grandfather told me is,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31when the carriage would come for drinking water,
0:46:31 > 0:46:34they would pretend to be clumsy drinking their water,
0:46:34 > 0:46:37basically, they'd go, scoop it out and pretend to be clumsy about it
0:46:37 > 0:46:40and in the process have a little shower, you know,
0:46:40 > 0:46:42literally throw the water on them.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44- And dangerous, dangerous.- Yes.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48Wilderness, wild animals, out in Salvo.
0:46:48 > 0:46:49Salvo's a place?
0:46:49 > 0:46:51Yes, that's man-eaters.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54I've read accounts of these attacks by the man-eating lions
0:46:54 > 0:46:57and they talk about men being dragged from their tents,
0:46:57 > 0:46:59and their colleagues being able to hear them
0:46:59 > 0:47:02- as they're eaten alive by the lions. - Yes, yes.
0:47:02 > 0:47:03Horrifying, isn't it?
0:47:05 > 0:47:08Let me ask you a political question.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11The fact that your, you and your community
0:47:11 > 0:47:14are now a very, very long way
0:47:14 > 0:47:18from where naturally you came from, and you're in this alien culture,
0:47:18 > 0:47:20was what the British did in bringing you here
0:47:20 > 0:47:23a good thing or a bad thing?
0:47:23 > 0:47:25Um...
0:47:25 > 0:47:28That's a good question.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30To be honest, I have no regrets for being here
0:47:30 > 0:47:33and when people ask me, you know, "Who are you?
0:47:33 > 0:47:35"Where are you from?" You know?
0:47:35 > 0:47:39I say Kenya's my home, and I have no regrets for coming here.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51The Indian workers who built the Kenyan railway
0:47:51 > 0:47:53were part of a bigger Empire story,
0:47:53 > 0:47:57the shifting of populations around the globe
0:47:57 > 0:47:59to meet the Empire's need for labour.
0:48:01 > 0:48:06In the 18th century, Africans were taken as slaves
0:48:06 > 0:48:09to the sugar plantations of the West Indies.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15Their descendants now inhabit those islands.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20In the 19th century, Tamils from South India were sent
0:48:20 > 0:48:23to pick tea on estates in Sri Lanka
0:48:23 > 0:48:25or to tap rubber in Malaya.
0:48:26 > 0:48:31All had to make new homes in Britain's ever-growing Empire.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34The world still lives with the consequences
0:48:34 > 0:48:37of these great population shifts.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53But what happened to these people
0:48:53 > 0:48:55as the Empire began to recede?
0:48:56 > 0:48:57In the 20th century,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01Indians came to play a vital part in the Kenyan economy
0:49:01 > 0:49:05as shopkeepers and professionals.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07CHEERING
0:49:08 > 0:49:11Then, on the 12th of December 1963,
0:49:11 > 0:49:14Kenya gained independence from Britain.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22Now, Indians in Kenya were seen as unwelcome relics
0:49:22 > 0:49:25from the days of British rule.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28Many of them feared for their future
0:49:28 > 0:49:32and turned to their former colonial masters to provide a new home.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35NEWSREEL PRESENTER: The Asian community prepare to leave.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37Britain was their destination.
0:49:37 > 0:49:42The Kenya government did not pull its punches in telling the British-passport-holding Asians
0:49:42 > 0:49:44they were not wanted.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46Asian shopkeepers had little alternative
0:49:46 > 0:49:49but to wind up their businesses and seek new roots.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56Many Kenyan Asians chose to settle in the Midlands,
0:49:56 > 0:49:58in cities like Leicester.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02In the process, they transformed the face of urban Britain.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06The Empire was coming home.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18The legacy of the British Empire
0:50:18 > 0:50:21still affects millions of people across the globe,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24in sometimes surprising ways.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30The British introduced many parts of the world
0:50:30 > 0:50:33to their favourite obsession...
0:50:36 > 0:50:37Sport.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46For the British, sport was part of the civilising mission of Empire,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49the gift of the mother country to her colonies.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54Whether it involved chasing a ball,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56smashing it with a racket...
0:50:57 > 0:50:59..or whacking it with a club.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04The sporting gospel was carried
0:51:04 > 0:51:07to the farthest-flung corners of the Empire.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18Wherever in the Empire sport was played,
0:51:18 > 0:51:22it was supposed to bind subject peoples to their colonial masters.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30But the spirit of fair play and the interests of Empire
0:51:30 > 0:51:32would eventually clash head-on.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46The West Indian island of Jamaica
0:51:46 > 0:51:50had been a British colony since 1655.
0:51:52 > 0:51:57The British introduced cricket to Jamaica in the 1830s.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01It soon seemed to enter the bloodstream of the island.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07He's got a good eye, that boy in the yellow shirt, hasn't he?
0:52:07 > 0:52:09Who's the best cricketer here?
0:52:09 > 0:52:11You are?
0:52:12 > 0:52:14You're the two champs?
0:52:18 > 0:52:19But there was a problem here.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23How could a game which prided itself on fairness
0:52:23 > 0:52:29work in an empire divided between rulers and ruled,
0:52:29 > 0:52:31and therefore very obviously unfair?
0:52:33 > 0:52:37Cricket in the West Indies would become not a unifying force
0:52:37 > 0:52:39but a symbol of oppression.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45In 19th-century Jamaica, white people owned the land,
0:52:45 > 0:52:47black people worked on it.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51While cricket was supposed to be good for subject races,
0:52:51 > 0:52:54at that time, black and white rarely played together.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03It's a practise day at Sabina Park,
0:53:03 > 0:53:05the home of Jamaica's Kingston Cricket Club.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09When it was formed in 1863,
0:53:09 > 0:53:13it was a place for white men to play the game.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17Even when black and white began to play on the same side,
0:53:17 > 0:53:19racial tensions in the game remained.
0:53:22 > 0:53:28No black player was ever selected to captain the national team.
0:53:28 > 0:53:29Whites were chosen to bat,
0:53:29 > 0:53:34while blacks were relegated to bowling or fielding.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39It wasn't quite the done thing
0:53:39 > 0:53:42for white men to do a lot of running around in the tropics,
0:53:42 > 0:53:44besides which there was a distinction
0:53:44 > 0:53:46between brawn - bowling,
0:53:46 > 0:53:48and brains - batting.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50Batting was for white men.
0:53:53 > 0:53:54Change had to come.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03It arrived in the person of Frank Worrall, who in 1960
0:54:03 > 0:54:04became the first black player
0:54:04 > 0:54:08to captain a West Indies team for an entire series.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13When Worrall brought his team to England,
0:54:13 > 0:54:17they showed they could play the game rather better than their hosts.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21'The Oval can never have known a scene like this.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23'Victory in the series by three matches to one
0:54:23 > 0:54:28'confirms the West Indies as the most powerful side in the world.'
0:54:32 > 0:54:35It was generally inferred that here is the right person at last
0:54:35 > 0:54:37to lead a West Indies team
0:54:37 > 0:54:40because I think, before, there wasn't that unity
0:54:40 > 0:54:44based on who was appointed captain, who was appointed vice captain.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48Now it was felt that the players have a captain they can fight for.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51So I think it was greeted with cheers throughout the Caribbean
0:54:51 > 0:54:53and I think many people were saying,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56"At last, we have the right man to lead."
0:54:56 > 0:54:59- Like a Mandela moment!- It certainly was, that's why I said that.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03- Free at last, free at last. - Free at last, at last, at last!
0:55:03 > 0:55:06England taught the West Indies cricket
0:55:06 > 0:55:08and there was a grand opportunity
0:55:08 > 0:55:11for the students now to reverse that process
0:55:11 > 0:55:14and in the mind of many of the West Indian players,
0:55:14 > 0:55:18this was, you know, the turning point, I think, for everyone.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20Sort of like sweet revenge.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22CROWD CHEERS
0:55:24 > 0:55:28In the end, the British idea of fair play
0:55:28 > 0:55:32undermined the very notion of empire itself.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36If a black cricket captain, why not a black prime minister?
0:55:38 > 0:55:43In 1962, Jamaica became the first Caribbean island
0:55:43 > 0:55:45to gain independence,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48and through the 1960s, all over the Empire,
0:55:48 > 0:55:50from the West Indies to Fiji,
0:55:50 > 0:55:53the Union Jack came down.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07The Empire brought blood and tears
0:56:07 > 0:56:10and dispossession to millions of people,
0:56:10 > 0:56:14but it also brought roads and railways and education.
0:56:19 > 0:56:21There is no simple judgement
0:56:21 > 0:56:25to be made on three turbulent centuries of history.
0:56:27 > 0:56:32The Empire was certainly cruel, unjust, and unjustifiable
0:56:32 > 0:56:37if you were a slave on a plantation in the 18th century.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43But it was benign, if you were rescued from a slave ship
0:56:43 > 0:56:46by the Royal Navy in the 19th century.
0:56:53 > 0:56:54For good or ill,
0:56:54 > 0:56:59much of the world is as it is today because of the Empire.
0:57:00 > 0:57:01From the way it looks...
0:57:06 > 0:57:08..to the sports people play.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17From the religion they practise
0:57:17 > 0:57:19to the language they speak.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28It has changed the very genetic make-up of Britain.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33If only we can look at it clear-eyed,
0:57:33 > 0:57:36it can tell us a lot about who we are.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42It's a story that belongs to all of us.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08We've been through pride,
0:58:08 > 0:58:10we've been through shame,
0:58:10 > 0:58:12mostly nowadays we seem to be in denial,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16but if we really want to understand who we are,
0:58:16 > 0:58:21it's time we stopped pretending the Empire was nothing to do with us.
0:58:52 > 0:58:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd