How is the British Empire Remembered?

LO: To create an assessment on the legacy of empire

Legacy = _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

What have people said about the Empire?

Positive about Negative aboutEmpire EmpireWe will be investigating whether we agree that the British Empire was a good thing or not. To carry out a good investigation, what is it we need to find out?

2. Why did Britain become Empire builders?

3. What did the people who lived in the Empire think of it?

4. How do people remember empire now?

1. Where exactly was the Empire?

Most of your should be able to tell me one good or bad thing someone has said about Empire and why.

What motivated the rulers to build an empire?

• Can you remember? Why did they go to America, Australia, South Africa and India?

• What happened to the rulers and the ruled? Was it all good?

Your job in this task is to see what evidence supports the different views of the experts about why Britain became a great empire.

• Trade – making money for British companies

• Politics – stopping other European powers developing their

empires and becoming too powerful

• Religion – trying to spread the Christian faith

• Ambition – hoping to get rich easily or get a good job in the

government of the empire

• Adventure – wanting to learn about new lands and peoples

• Land – hoping to settle down and start a new life in a new land.

• Accident – they didn’t mean to!

Why did Britain get an Empire?

The British Empire

How was the British Empire remembered?

Positive Empire?

The creation of Railway networks in many countries.

The Empire brought with it its legal system which is still used in some countries today.

The British stopped many cruel practises in other countries, such as infanticide in China and the Hindu tradition of Sati in India where the widow was burnt alive with her dead husband.

The spread of new ideas and new knowledge.

Some schools, universities and education.Medical ideas and some

hospitals.

Architecture and magnificent buildings.

Made Britain very wealthy and powerful.

Negative Empire?

The Concentration camps in South Africa during the Boer War.

The destruction of some Native American Indian Tribes.

The Opium Wars in China and forcing the Chinese to become addicted to Opium drugs and then selling it to them.

The defeat of the British in Afghanistan in 1842.

The Amritsar Massacre in 1919.

The Slave trade.

War and destruction.

In 1770 the East India Company caused a famine in Bengal, East India by raising the tax on grain. Up to 10 million Indians starved to death.

How is the British Empire Remembered?

For better or worse -the world we know

today is a product of Britain's empire. The

question is not whether British Empire

was all bad. The question is whether

there could have been a less bloody path to

it? Niall Ferguson

The British Empire was often a force for good..

        - Mary Kenny

Without the EMPIRE we should be a weak nation

pushed around. Empire is our sword and our shield.

William Morris Hughes 

“Remember that you are an

Englishman, and have therefore won

first prize in the lottery of life” Cecil Rhodes

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience

the cruelty of imperialism.

Nelson Mandela

I get angry when I hear that word "empire"; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of

thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my ancestors were raped and my

forefathers brutalised. Benjamin Zephaniah OBE - no way Mr Blair,

no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.

What have people said about the Empire?

Turn your book on it’s side and split your page in half

Positive things about the Empire Negative things about the Empire

What have people said about the Empire?

Turn your book on it’s side and split your page in half

Positive things about the Empire Negative things about the Empire

For better or worse -the world we know

today is a product of Britain's empire. The

question is not whether British Empire

was all bad. The question is whether

there could have been a less bloody path to

it? Niall Ferguson I get angry when I hear that word "empire"; it

reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me

of how my ancestors were raped and my forefathers brutalised.

Benjamin Zephaniah OBE - no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-

empire.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience

the cruelty of imperialism.

Nelson Mandela

The British Empire was

often a force for good..

        - Mary Kenny

Without the EMPIRE we should be a weak

nation pushed around. Empire is our sword and our shield.

William Morris Hughes 

“Remember that you are an

Englishman, and have therefore won

first prize in the lottery of life” Cecil Rhodes

Design a plate about the British Empire from your perspective:

1. Draw symbols to represent the reasons why Britain built an Empire

This shows Britannia crying because some people felt ashamed of the Empire

what Britain did

ASSESSMENT!!

What you need to do…1. Draw symbols on the A3

paper which give your interpretations of the British empire.

2. Write a description about each of the pictures explaining what the represent.(Don’t forget to quote Historians)

3. Write an answer to the question in your books: How should we remember the British Empire?

Level 4

• “A bag of gold shows that the British took over Australia because they wanted to become rich”.

• “I have drawn a gun to represent the Day of Shame at Amritsar, this was where innocent Indians were killed by the British which was very harsh.”

Level 4a-5c

• “I have drawn what Benjamin Zephiniah might have drawn on his plate, for example I’ve drawn handcuffs to represent slavery because the British were responsible for taking slaves from the Gold Coast of Africa and selling them to Americans to grow cotton.”

Level 6b

• “Niall Ferguson suggests that the Empire wasn’t all bad, but that the policy of Imperialism was bloody. This can be seen in examples such as the treatment of the Indians by the East India Company, or how the British did provide opportunities for people to make a better life in Australia. Clearly Ferguson wants to focus on several aspects of Empire.”

How to explain your interpretation

• Intro – briefly explain how you think the British empire is remembered

• Eg: I believe that the British Empire has been remembered in a negative/positive way because…

• Main Body – use your knowledge and historian quotes to back up your opinion.

• Eg: The reason that the British Empire is remembered as being negative is because of the horrors of the slave trade this is supported by Benjamin Zephaniah when he said…

• Conclusion – Sum up your view• Eg: In conclusion I believe the British Empire is

remembered… because…

Name: How is the British Empire Remembered?