The British Empire

Melvyn Bragg examines the British Empire. It was officially created on 1st January 1877 when Disraeli had Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India, and it formally dissolved into the ‘Commonwealth’ in 1958. But imperial passions stirred in Britain long before Victoria’s investiture and the ethos of Imperialism lives on.At its height in 1919 the British Empire stretched from East to West, incorporating one quarter of the globe and included such diverse colonies as Canada, Australia, parts of South America, the Persian Gulf, the Middle East and China, New Zealand, much of Africa and of course India. By 1960 it had all but vanished off the face of the earth. What drove Britain to build such an immense Empire, why did it all disappear so quickly and what kind of legacy was left behind?

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Maria Misra 3 episodes
  Lecturer in Modern History and Fellow of Keble College, Oxford
• Peter Cain No other episodes
  Research Professor in History at Sheffield Hallam University
• Catherine Hall 3 episodes
  Professor of Modern Social and Cultural History at University College London

Related episodes

• The East India Company
  
  26 Jun, 2003 380 Commerce, communications and transportation
• The British Empire’s Legacy
  
  31 Dec, 1998 940 History of Europe
• Slavery and Empire
  
  17 Oct, 2002 900 History
• Imperial Science
  
  1 Feb, 2001 940 History of Europe
• The Mughal Empire
  
  26 Feb, 2004 950 History of Asia
• Cultural Imperialism
  
  27 Jun, 2002 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• Tea
  
  29 Apr, 2004 640 Home and family management
• The Sikh Empire
  
  7 Apr, 2016 900 History
• The Geological Formation of Britain
  
  22 Oct, 2009 550 Earth sciences and geology
• Astronomy and Empire
  
  4 May, 2006 520 Astronomy

---

Programme ID: p00547kp

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547kp

Auto-category: 900 (History and geography)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello, the British Empire was officially sealed on the 1st of January 1877 when Disraeli had Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India and it formally dissolved into the Commonwealth in 1958.