A documentary series produced by the BBC which detailed the history of the British Empire through its various facets, from the wealth of the West Indies' sugar colonies to the "Australian character" forged in the Outback, and the eventual decline of imperial 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 joined in a festival of celebration and self-congratulation.
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 provided sugar to sweeten the tea tables of Britain, and rum to enliven its taverns. To work the plantations millions of slaves were brought from Africa - and on this trade ports like Bristol, Liverpool and London grew rich.
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 Frenchmen and some scattered tribes of Red Indians. For the next 100 years the British were hard put to hold Canada against the aggressive expansionism of the United States which had broken away from the Empire to become its most relentless enemy.
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 interior. The abolition of slavery by the British - but not by other nations - provided fresh impetus to exploration. And the feats of the great missionary explorer David Livingstone stirred Victorian Britain.
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 deserts; railways criss-cross the country and help unify the subcontinent; the memsahib arrives. Civil servants flock out, often to be doctor, judge, vet and administrator all rolled into one. Bureaucracy flourishes, spawning such titles as 'Inspector of Steam Boilers and Prime Movers.' At the very top of the Raj reigned the Viceroy. In 1899 it was Lord Curzon - 'a very superior person' - and one of the most dazzling and controversial figures ever to hold the position.
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 tied at either end of the Dark Continent, other European nations began to grab slices of Africa for themselves. It looked as if they might get the lion's share until Cecil Rhodes determined at all costs (and he held the monopoly of South Africa's diamonds) to carve a path for a British Cape-to-Cairo railway.
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; educational, social and industrial development lagged sadly behind the new state of Imperial Germany. British naval guns missed their target twice in every three shots; the Army was more fitted for fighting ill-armed natives than a modern European foe.
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 influence of imperial power. He was born not in the growing cities on the sea-board but in the Outback, somewhere beyond 'the Black Stump,' a mythical landmark at the end of the known world.
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 where the British took tremendous belief in their way of life, and were often baffled by African ways.
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 dreams of endless power, endless wealth and endless superiority. The heart of their dreams was Singapore, the gateway to the East, the fulcrum of Asian trade - and, by the 1930s, an impressive fortress.
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 1885 a Scotsman, Allan Octavian Hume, founded the Congress movement. The Great War of 1914-18 proved the turning point. Indians felt they had won their title to nationhood on the battlefield. British concessions were never big enough to satisfy Indian leaders like Gandhi and Nehru and the British were soon locked in a fierce struggle with the nationalists.
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.
