How is the British Empire remembered today?

History · Interpreting the Empire

One Empire, three ways of telling it

Spotlight each approach, then compare all three. Watch what each one chooses to look at.

How have historians written about the British Empire?

Predict, then check

Read the pressures on Britain first. Then commit to an answer before you reveal.

The late 19th century. Germany, proclaimed an empire in 1871, swiftly became an industrial powerhouse in steel and electrical engineering. After its civil war (1861 to 1865) the USA industrialised rapidly, with a growing railroad network, the telegraph and the telephone. Nationalist movements grew in the colonies, such as the Indian National Congress (1885) and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Then, in 1897, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee: a grand military procession of troops from across the Empire. What was it designed to be?

History · Which approach?

Whose question is this?

Pick a question or claim, then pick the approach it comes from. Ask yourself: who is at the centre?

8 of 8 still to sort.

What you need to know

• Historiography is the study of the writing of history, and historians' perspectives of the British Empire have changed over time.
• Traditional historiography puts Britain at the centre and sees the Empire as largely positive, a source of celebration and pride.
• Have a goYour friend Sam says, very confidently: 'Traditional historians think the Empire was basically a disaster.' What do you tell Sam?

  It's the other way round: traditional historiography sees the Empire as largely positive.

  It puts Britain at the centre and treats the Empire as a source of pride, while the more critical reading is a different approach.

• Postcolonial historians look from the colonised's perspective and see the Empire as exploitative and oppressive, with impacts still felt today.
• A metropole is a colony's parent state, and new imperial history asks how colonies shaped it, undermining the old one-way view.
• Have a goFinish the sentence: in new imperial history, influence runs ___ ways, because the colonies helped to shape the ___.

  Both; metropole (Britain).

  The traditional view pictured a one-way relationship, and new imperial history undermines it by exploring how colonies shaped the metropole.

• After the Second World War, historians gained more sources about the colonised and refocused on race, equality and human rights.
• Imperial anxiety is unease about threats to an empire's power, and in the late 19th century Germany and the USA were rising challengers.
• Have a goIn the 1890s Britain's Empire was enormous. So why would Britain feel anxious at all?

  Because rivals like Germany and the USA were rising and challenging British dominance.

  Imperial anxiety is unease about potential threats to power, so an empire can feel it even while it still looks strong.

• Nationalism in the colonies added to the anxiety, so the 1897 Diamond Jubilee staged a grand show of imperial strength.
• Decline came in steps: the First World War left debt to the USA, and the Second stretched the Empire's resources to the limit.
• India gained independence in 1947, and in the 1960s African and Caribbean colonies followed, all joining the Commonwealth.
• Calling the Empire simply good or bad is overly simplistic, and historians keep debating its legacy as new information emerges.

The big picture

Historians have told the story of the British Empire in different ways. Traditional historiography puts Britain at the centre and sees the Empire as largely positive. Postcolonial history looks from the colonised's side and stresses exploitation and oppression. New imperial history follows the relationship between Britain and the colonies in both directions. Views changed after the Second World War and decolonisation, and the debate goes on: sorting the Empire into 'good' or 'bad' is overly simplistic.

⚠ Watch out

Thinking there is one settled verdict on whether the Empire was good or bad. Traditional, postcolonial and new imperial historians read the evidence differently, and sorting imperial history into 'good' or 'bad' is overly simplistic.

Memory hook

Centre, Colonised, Cross-over: traditional history puts Britain at the Centre, postcolonial history starts from the Colonised, and new imperial history follows the Cross-over both ways.

Check yourself

Cover the page. A classmate says the Empire was obviously good because of the railways. In two or three sentences, use the three approaches to explain why it isn't that simple.