Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World

Documentary

2003

1 Season

Series

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Episode Guide

January 9, 2003 - February 13, 2003Season 1 of Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World has 6 episodes.

Season 1 Episodes

S1 E1: Why Britain?

Jan 9, 200350 min

In this programme we learn about the origins of the British empire in the 17th century and how its foundations were laid, not by a grand political strategy but by British pirates, especially in the Caribbean. The British economic style of reinvesting in places like Jamaica led to commercial success as its raw materials – sugar, tobacco and coffee – were in huge demand back at home in Britain. Seventeenth-century India was a rich nation, producing a quarter of the world's output, so it is no surprise that the major nations fought over it. The British won the seven-year war with France over supremacy in the colonies, thanks to its superior warships and much stronger finances, which left Britain as the controlling force in India. We get a glimpse of how the British lived in India, the central role played by the East India Company, and how a commercial base developed into political control.

Series info

How did Britain come to rule the world? asks Niall Ferguson in Empire. What would today's world be like now if it hadn't? Could such an organisation – run by, according to Winston Churchill, 'the greedy trader, the inopportune missionary, the ambitious soldier and the lying spectator' – ever have been a force for good?

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Ratings

IMDB: 7.2

Original Language

English

Release Date

January 9, 2003

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Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World

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