kira living modern furniture

it was the empire on which the sun never set or a sunset on which the blood never dried and its height britain ruled over a quarter of the world's population many convinced themselves, it was britain's destiny to do so much of the empire was built on greed and a lust for power but the british came to believe they had a moral mission to a mission to civilize the world the builders of empire were bold they were adventurous some were ruthless and some were just a bit unhinged the sheer expanse of british rule was breathtaking it stretched from the wilderness of the arctic

to the sands of arabia and the islands of the caribbean there was a time when britannia really did rule the waves and it's a memory which has never wholly faded once the navy imposed blockade sank enemy vessels [that] will suppress slavery [maps], the world's uncharted oceans and generally forced britons will on to foreign governments that heritage health risk to the lead she's still entitled to a place at the top table in world affairs how did such a small country get such a big head?

so much that shaped the extraordinary story of the british empire was born here in the complex time-worn expanse of india it was here [that] british learned the art of imperial power yet, it was a treaty signed thousands of miles away [that] determined the fate of india in february 1763 the great european powers were meeting in paris to end years of war and to divide the world between them from canada to the philippines

britain's representative at the peace talks was the duke of bedford a stubby arrogant little man who's never been to any of these places in fact his doubts had made it difficult [in] [a] [friend] to get to paris but the bedford's did pretty well out [of] the summit the duchess was given an 800 piece porcelain dinner service by the [king] of france and the duke the duke got india for the british the technologically advanced countries of europe were eyeing up foreign lands for future conquest and britain had a head start india was decisive it gave britain the resources the markets the manpower and the

prestige to build a worldwide empire and in the years to come they worked feverishly to secure that prize first britain took control of the mediterranean [then] they took the cape of good hope at the bottom of africa then mauritius in the indian ocean then still on now sri lanka of course and finally singapore a web of strongholds right across the globe this was the [beginning] of britain's time as the undisputed top dog of the world yet the whole thing was built upon something decidedly fragile

a small island like [britain] couldn't by itself find the manpower to hold on to this vast new territory so they came up [with] a system [that] will become a cornerstone of empire they paid local soldiers to fight for them british officers would now lead indian troops the colonized would provide the fighting force of colonialism for centuries to come what? the madras regiment found it in 1758 is the oldest in [the] indian army it spent most of its existence fighting not for independent, india but for britain

it doesn't bother captain dilip shekar that his regiment helps to build the empire these are the battle owners we've worn under the british on the left. you can see these are outside, india next issue is out of [a] [shang] [gong] [gong] kilimanjaro yes, that's in the first world war in east africa yes, and then only the yeah [a] [little] [odd] within india sure but three quarters of your battle oh, no, sir when you're part of the british army. yes what do you think about that [that's] [great] well you were on the wrong side then if you're from an indian nationalist point you look [quite] all the [direction] it is [soldier] and

a soldier does not know who's region it is for he's fighting tomorrow i have a fight with any other country. i am told to fight with that concern [i] don't have any personal things you think every chink the british being here is a good thing or a bad thing or what? if whatever happens is a seriousness see ever still we should not be going to that but yes, they have done good for us and even that let me, but you it's [a] good thing. they're not here. isn't it? but all the troops you could hire could never control such a huge country the british needed a political system to keep them in power and they found it in the [indian] princes in the mid-1800s the british invaders signed a treaty with [the] local ruler here the maharaja of jodhpur

they promised him he could [go] on running his kingdom. just as before but he'd had to pay them for the privilege this protection racket would be repeated all over, india that's a girl [they] have finally broken up in time the ruling classes of the two peoples would become entwined british customs and british dress became part of the trappings of indian court life the present [maharajah] is the product of both cultures this is the family palace designed for them by british architects understated little place

20 survival apartment on that good morning. good morning but as the british extended their grip on india they tore up the treaty they'd made with the maharajah's ancestor they stripped the maharajah's of their power, but let them keep their palaces actually this is your drawing room is this is my drawing room. yes, we've dug ourselves into a [little] corner of the palace and all these these chaps on the walls. they're all our ancestors. [yeah], naturally. [that's] my father behind you mm-hmm, and that's my great-great-great grandmother great-great-great hmm, splendid beard yes, i suppose the first question is what should i call you? babji, but what does that mean everyone called me bobby bobby is a term of endearment as well as a term of [respect]?

it means in that literally it means mop which means father and he is like an honorific, but even even as a child you were called back ss. would be um your own involvement schools in [britain] is considerable isn't it since the age of eight? you were sent away to school in england. there's all this prep school to cot hill then eaten then i was fourteen years in all so you were really brought up as an english child english any boy but i would say that good i would switch being what i was meaning

englishmen and we [commended] i came home when you get back at that original treaty how do you feel about the british reneging on it my [ancestor] that time he was a and [havoc]? first of all to [assign] that petrie in the beginning, but he had no option left to south graduation and was then he was very unhappy would until the period came when we learned how to use that presence? to our advantage get the best out [of] the system and at that point it becomes unclear. who's pulling history. it doesn't quite pretty at the heart of british authority was a gigantic

confidence trick it worked for as long as the illusion could be maintained take government house [in] calcutta. it was the seat of british power in india it's still the headquarters [of] the regional government today when it was built in 1803 there were fewer than 6,000 british officials nominally ruling over some 200 million indians as one british governor general who lived here put it if each black man were to take up a handful [of] sand and buy united effort throw it upon the white [faced] intruders we should be buried alive

and that's the reason for the scale than grandeur the sheer the sheer boastfulness of this place the idea being if you look like a ruler the people will treat, you like a ruler it helps to explain that arrogant self-satisfied look you see on the faces of so many british imperialists but the appearance was an enormous bluff. it could only be a matter of time [before] that bluff was called lucknow in the mid 19th century was according to visitors an enchanting place the british here, enjoyed a life of luxury and tranquility but in may 1857 all that changed

fired by decades of resentment indian troops rose up and killed their own officers indian servants murdered british families the indian mutiny or first indian [war] of [independence] had begun it reached its climax at the british headquarters in lucknow here the myth of imperial power was shaken to the core [3,000] british and loyal indians were trapped inside and surrounded by 8,000 rebels a terrifying siege was about to begin i think [neve] nice to be in the servants quarters or the kitchen or something i taste [more] to be formal rooms, but that

they may amazing thing about it. is that this place was [just] obviously built? to impress the local indians and it ends up this scene of complete terrified squalor [in] [the] height of the siege there were ten europeans dying every day just here and these must be the marks of some of the cannonballs that struck the building these [funds] didn't actually go through but in other pieces you can see the bulls have just gone straight through the wall

and that down there. i think if that is what was the banqueting-hall? but during the course of the siege became used as the hospital and was absolutely packed with the wounded obviously, but also the sick because inevitably what happened was that all the latrines? filled up and overflowed and there were corpses rotting in the heat everywhere so cholera broke out and it was the job of many of the small children to to wipe the flies off the faces [and] the wounds of the injured inside the hospital there it must have been an absolutely appalling scene after four and a [half] months british relief forces arrived as they fought their way into the stinking ruins. they showed. no [mercy]

in the story of empire rebellion always met with savage retaliation you one british commander alone executed six thousand men elsewhere he flogged suspected mutineers made them lick blood from the slaughterhouse floor and then hanged them in other cases mutineers were tied to the ground branded with hot irons told to run for their lives and when they did so was shot dead? it was not enough merely to punish an example had to be made the psychological impact of the conflict was

massive each site now knew how very thin was the veneer [of] civilized coexistence that with the right provocation they could unleash hell on each other [mm], men women and children had perished in the siege the pretense of british rule had been shattered the bluff called and when peace returned british attitudes hardened the poet rudyard kipling called it wearing knuckledusters on the kid gloves the british would soon find a new way of showing who was boss so clear this bleak patch of waste ground outside. delhi was once the setting for a series of extraordinary spectacles

they were called der bars the indian word for a meeting between ruler and ruled it was let a meeting than a ceremonial show of strength one indian called it terra in fancy dress presiding over each of these gaudy ceremonies was the british ruler in india the viceroy one of them understood the power of extravagant display better than any other lord george nathaniel cousin went the rhyme was a most superior person he liked to assemble his magnificent uniforms including assorted foreign [decorations] from various places one of them being a london theatrical costume shop

magnificent events like this were meant to dazzle the country into submission few [old] statues in the corner of this foreign field are all that's left hello, even the caretaker of this peculiar place isn't much interested hello. can i ask you some questions? what do you think of all the statues just down here? yatta yatta yatta yatta nian between e88 attack of eaja tangora, no coca-cola. i'm afraid with some of the occasional white man it would do you know what happened here? magnetometer showed me anomaly milan ki, sierra, nevada not very interested. they are [a] mentos potato bronte's

vaquita pumas hamada muhammad taraki segovia channel acta podium are a gourmet account a commercial a couch katoki civic app ledesma channel ago there's one relic of the british raj that still exerts something of its old magic like the taj mahal the victoria [memorial] is a shrine to a woman a british queen in the heart of calcutta in the person of queen victoria the british like to believe the [empire] had achieved human form they cooked up the resonance, but meaningless title of empress of india for her but she was more than a title

victoria was empress mother virtual god in the years following the mutiny over 50 statues of her were commissioned and shipped out from britain the maharaja of baroda for example paid fifteen and a half thousand pounds for a solid marble statue and at the feet of it flowers were regularly laid and every week it was given a shampoo to keep the old queen looking spruce victoria had plenty to smile about a mix of enterprise and cunning brutality and pomp had turned india into the biggest richest and most significant colony in the empire

by the closing years of victoria's reign india formed the heart of an empire that stretched from canada in the west to australia in the [east] it was time to celebrate victoria's diamond jubilee on the 22nd of june 1897 was the grandest showing off of empire britain would ever see? if the indian der bars were designed to cow the empire's subjects, the [jubilee] was a piece of theatre meant to fire the british public with imperial further vast cavalcade made its way across the capital to the so called parish church [of] [empire] [sin] paul's cathedral

thousands of troops had been summoned from all over the empire canadian has ours indian lancers cypriot policemen wearing fezzes jamaicans in white gators there are hong kong policemen australian cavalrymen [dayak] mary's rajas and maharaja's in the midst of all this frenzy [road] the matriarch of empire she allowed herself an occasional tear the day was marked by celebrations throughout her colonies

the [daily] [mail] brought out a special edition in gold ink to mark the occasion [as] the procession passed [its] [star] reporter was quite overcome you begin to understand as never before [what] the empire amounts to not only that we possess all these remote outlandish places? but that we send out a boy and he takes hold of savages and teaches them to obey him and [to] believe in him and to die for him and the queen but not everyone shared this sense of wide-eyed amazement there were some who looked at the spectacle and wondered

they remembered the splendor of the roman empire, and how that had fallen? how could an empire that wouldn't stop growing be sustained and in particular? how could the great prize of india be secured? the answer to that had already taken the british to some pretty unexpected places one morning in september 1880 to the egyptian people woke up to find they were not alone a british army had landed and was advancing on the capital egypt was never part of the empire you may say and indeed [formally] you'd be right egypt was an emergency an anomaly [an] experiment and for a while a bit of a success no sooner had british troops landed here than the british government announced they'd be leaving in fact they stayed for 70 years

what on earth were they doing here? the reason could be found just across the desert the suez canal this 120 [mile] slice through egyptian territory was the lifeline of the empire dramatically cutting sailing time to india most of the ships passing through it were british they brought tea and cotton and jute from india and beyond to britain they could take troops back to quell another mutiny trouble near the canal might spell trouble for britain and trouble had been brewing in the streets of cairo

egyptians were angry about foreign influence in their country when riots broke out in the city the british grew nervous the [kairo] rights triggered a tae-sik piece of imperial footwork the pattern goes like this british people or british interests are threatened british forces are sent to protect them and they never leave in egypt, they didn't leave because they hardly admitted [they] [derived] much of the british occupation of egypt was passed off as little more than a spot of armed tourism this morning for many years egypt was run quietly from this building now the british embassy

this was the man who ran it ruling egypt for over 20 years and perfecting the strange machinery of british power in the middle east sir evelyn baring officially he was just consul general rather than colonial governor but with six thousand troops stationed next door there was no doubt who was in charge [it] wasn't just his size that gave him the nickname over bearing [baring] was an imperialist [through] [and] through he regarded the egyptians and indeed most foreigners as children, and he treated them accordingly with occasional concern and permanent disdain

it earned him their profound resentment barring allowed the egyptian elite to imagine they were still running the country the british are easy to deceive said by an egyptian politician but when you think you deceived them they give you the most tremendous kick in the backside baring was a man who liked to exercise power behind the [throne] he did not give commands, but it was said advice which had to be taken here the workings of [empire] had become almost invisible the british found a word for it egypt was not a colony. it was a protectorate barring allowed himself to hours each evening to exercise at the gazzara sporting club

as they did all over the empire british officials in cairo repaired to the club at the end of the working day you can be so meaning critically [to] dominican trees now. it is a many country layers high lob lob have you been a member here a very long time in the club? yes about more than 50 years 55 55 years do you remember when the british were here? yes

what [do] [you] think? [i] think they were [forbidding] any egyptian to enter this club unless the tech alliance [religious] were you glad to see the english go for sure? it was all bad [worry]. yeah, but all all kinds of imperialism is [read] other words was there nothing good that the british did here? yeah, i knew nothing was good all the time. they were here [seventy] years it was all [given] [to] more than 70 yes, do they do nothing good?

i think no matter how many times you come? oh, i think three or four times four times yes, i think you are most welcome. well. it's very nicely thank you very much particularly in light of our tvs one of the good things [realism] didn't anyway you found one thing yeah the temporary intervention in egypt the bit of empire that never was would last into the middle of the 20th century barring himself the invisible man left in 1907 to retire to bournemouth bering's last carriage journey the british headquarters to the railway station was marked by what one witness called a chilly [silence]? [i] don't suppose. he'd have cared that much

he wasn't here to be loved but i wonder what he'd have made of the fact that even generations later there were egyptians travelling to england to spit on his [grave] as the 20th century dawned britain's sense of its role in the world had given it dangerous delusions about what it could do world war and it's aftermath would expose these delusions in a merciless fashion the first world war stretched far beyond the mud and trenches of northern europe it reached into the streets and deserts of palestine and the middle east once again britain feared for its key strategic asset its lifeline to india the suez canal

it had to be protected the region was ruled by britain's war enemy turkey in their desert conflict with the turks the british needed allies the bedouin tribes of the arabian desert knew this arid land, and they knew how to survive in it if they could be encouraged to rise up against the turks they might prove invaluable but who could unite them? this is the edge of the sinai desert [it] was here that a young man came on a secret mapping mission for the british army it was disguised as an archaeology field trip and it was the beginning [of]

a long love [affair] with the desert and with the arab people that love affair created one of the most romantic figures in the history of the british empire thomas edward lawrence lawrence of arabia lawrence the illegitimate son [of] an irish baronet scholar archaeologist linguist was just the man to charm and inspire the arabs into a desert revolt [what]? the story of an englishman leading an exotic army across the desert caught the public's imagination in contrast to the mud and murder of the western front [here] was a sweeping campaign fought in blazing sunlight, and here, too was a different kind of imperialist

romantic idealistic dashing and slightly nuts [if] lawrence had a passion for the arabs and their way of life his ability to live like them impressed them so did the gold from the british treasury he brought to pay them to come he gave them something [more] a belief in themselves [as] an arab nation as his masters in london had hoped he coax them into fighting with the british with the promise of their freedom once the war was over una mejor si ella bache ahead [casa] malibu [schiavelli], do you think he was a good man?

yeah y-yeah helene is the van gave her loss of matter mark ivana he was a real man revolution in mama's kitchen had [caddesi] a shoe [as] [a] hot cassata [shephelah] wotl agricultural accusation do you think that the promises that he made were ever kept? shoulda never bow ties or pollute the

most hallowed [quema]. [oh] boy [lawrence] promised his arab fighters freedom from foreign rule they believed palestine would be theirs there would be many more promises made and just as many broken the war in the desert finally brought britain a string of [petty] victories imperial troops from india australia and new zealand as well as britain swept across the region by the winter of 1917 the ultimate prize was within their grasp the holy city itself

and so was born the dangerous conviction that the interests of the british empire and the will of god might be won on the same for christians jerusalem was sacred as the site of the church [of] the holy sepulchre venerated as the place where christ's body was laid but jerusalem was sacred to other faiths to a thousand years before christ. [it] was the capital of the jews sharing the city with the jews [in] relative peace were the arabs for whom jerusalem was one of the holiest cities in islam so the british prime minister lloyd george the empire now began to feel like a divine mission most british political leaders had been brought up on the bible they were steeped in its geography and as for its history

well lloyd george claimed that as a boy he knew the names of the kings of israel long before he knew the names of the kings of england at noon on december the 11th 1917 british forces entered jerusalem in a show stage-managed from london for this imperial victory the trappings of power were discarded [commander] in chief general edmund allenby dismounted from his horse and entered the city on foot to a watching world allenby was proclaiming that he came not as a conqueror, [but] as a pilgrim behind him in horrid army uniform was a jubilant lawrence but his joy would prove short-lived on

the walls of the city allenby ordered a solemn proclamation from the british government to be read out he knew he said that the place was sacred [to] three great religions that its soil had been sanctified by prayer and pilgrimage and he promised to preserve it but for all his fine words allenby had been handed a ticking time bomb for back in london the [british] government had just gone even further the jews of europe scattered for centuries had been made a remarkable offer in the baltha declaration the british foreign secretary committed britain to helping the jews make a home [in] palestine playing god in the holy land was an astonishing gesture the british had come to feel they were agents of destiny

they had become powerful enough, and you might say well meaning enough to believe they could solve the problems of the world the promised land [had] now been promised once too often over the next decade as more and more jews arrived in palestine tension between them and the arabs rose it came to a head at the wailing wall in the heart of old jerusalem in 1929 riots broke out here at the site sacred to both jews and arabs the riots spread and later arabs murdered jews in their homes the british police were completely outnumbered and the british authorities decided that from now on all arab outrages would be met with real aggression the british want peace and in christ they tried, [mr.]. waters. [searched] everybody. they acted his both sides are equally guilty so the arabs the british had broken the promise of freedom made to them by lawrence

instead the arabs were having to give up their land to the jews the jews felt the british were failing to honor the terms of the balfour declaration and the promise of a national home for them both sides made their case with gel ignite both sides committed appalling atrocities palestine became a posting from which many never returned the protestant cemetery on mount zion is full of british graves many belonged to soldiers policemen and civilians who died trying to keep apart two peoples who had previously lived relatively peaceably together after a while you begin to notice one date keeps reappearing

the 22nd of july 1946 it was in the wing on the right of the picture that the terrorists place that explosions the hotel house the british army headquarters and the palestine government offices and casualties were very heavy 91 people were killed including 41 arabs 28 british and 17 jews [saara] agassi was 17 at the time. she was a member of the team of militant jews who bombed the king david [hotel]? pretending she was just attending a dance. she scouted the hotel for the terrorists deciding where the bomb should be placed? so they came [down] here with it with the bombs and then and then what all day, but today a place and we not know it's not just down through [there]

it was often do you recognize it. yeah of course we came from here this was the place [that] you had been looking at when you came dancing that yes here was a bar and here was the orchestra and all this was very big and we danced a look to shares in the tables beautifully lamps and everything was [invented] out where would the bombs put what they say collins

this is one of the concert supports the whole hotel again. it was cool. it's not one one two or three but four five five cones five bombs what was your reaction when you heard the bomb go off. what did you think what did you feel people are satisfied you were satisfied? yes, [it's] [a] mission you've never been worried about what you did of course i was worried to to succeed, but you your your sense of morality your conscience hasn't got long since no we will fight for our to have the [medina] to do something against the british

what do you think about it after all this time this is over 60 years ago now have your views changed? no look [lama] say [yes], [ml] ability for [the] [canova] similar bleating do you not feel any? thanks at all to the british. i mean without the balfour declaration [there] would have been no jewish homeland in this part of the world the gamma y in flagellum [shalit] hot man totally artificial eating sure, the motive is neither here nor there. i mean, whatever the motive was do you not think that the balfour declaration? the right of the jews to have a homeland in palestine was a good start

[that] [was] a good thing wasn't you yes i know [you're] not grateful for the british for that if [so] [long] he took that syllabi it was now a lot less like the promised land than hell on earth [tommy's] go home someone dogged on a wall and beneath it a despairing squatty wrote i wish we he well could what lawrence called the british love of policing other men's models had proved a disaster? the british empire is gone from the middle east but everyone still lives with the consequences of britain's presence in palestine divided peoples and a divided land the [middle-east] [talked] the british a lesson that all empires had to learn

sooner or later that [there] you may begin with ambition and come to believe your last forever one day you will have a head-on collision with reality in the end and there is no disguising this fact the british ran away it was may 1948 one departing official commented bitterly it is surely a new technique in our imperial mission to walk out and leave the [pots] we placed on the [fire] to boil over the bluff of british omnipotence had been called it would be told again and again [over] the next few decades the empire that had lasted more than [200] years would be dismantled in scarcely 20

the british were beginning to lose interest the battered country that emerged from the second world war was more concerned with bettering the lives of its citizens than anything else an american politician later remarked that the british people had decided they preferred free aspirins and false teeth to a role in the world but it hasn't entirely turned out that way in fact we've [done] anything thought climb into the backseat the empire may be over, but imperial habits linger on in the last three decades britain has embarked on seventh foreign wars there were arguments aplenty for fighting any one of them but you can't help wondering if without the memory of empire [britain] would have punished in quite so readily

it's as if we can't quite let go of who we once were still to come how britain grew rich on profits from the drug trade [and] from the traffic in human beings how it brought christianity to africa and the gospel of [sport] to the world and next time how british men and women made themselves at [home] in the far-flung colonies of empire to order a free [open] [university] poster exploring the legacy [of] britain's empire go to bbc dorko dot uk forward slash empire or call oh [8] four five three double six eight. oh, two one

britain's most eminent scientist sir paul merce delivers this year's richard dimbleby lecture on the subject of science tomorrow night at 10:35 on bbc one

Subscribe to receive free email updates: