The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is the most powerful and advanced nation in the world,

with a colonial empire that reaches to every continent on the planet.

Naturally, Britain needs a world-class navy, and it has one, a navy that is the undisputed master of the seas.

At home, the British are the wealthiest people anywhere

and enjoy individual rights and political freedoms most continental Europeans envy.

So why is there so much poverty?

Why is the nation being run by the same hundred or so families

who are running it in Elizabethan times? And it was easy to be mistress of the world when you were

the only industrialized country in the world. But when you look in the rearview mirror and you see

the Germans and the Americans and even the Russians industrializing,

how do you keep your lead?

And what happens if you can't?

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Thank you. Episode 10, Lest We Forget

At the beginning of the 20th century, the sun never set on the British Empire,

although an American clergyman remarked that that was only because God didn't

trust the British in the dark. They say that Rome wasn't built in a day, and an empire this

big doesn't happen overnight. Do you know what the first English colony was? Be careful,

this is a trick question. That's right, Ireland. Although I suppose the French

might have a different answer. The first English king to claim the title King of Ireland was Henry

the 8th, although many before him were also calling themselves king of France. Where does this little

kingdom of half an island get off

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