How Did the British Empire Build the Modern World?
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 25 December 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tobacco, sugar, rum, cotton, rubber, tea, coffee, spices, industry, borders, slavery, war - all things spread across the globe thanks to the British Empire. At its height in 1922, it was the largest empire the world had ever seen, covering around a quarter of Earth's land surface and ruling over 458 million people - that's a lot of influence. Dan is joined by journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera to measure the impact the British Empire has had on our world, for better and worse.
Sathnam's new book for kids is called 'Journeys of Empire'.
Produced by James Hickmann, McKenna Fernandez and edited by Matthew Wilson and Dougal Patmore.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi folks, welcome to Down Snow's History. |
| 0:11.2 | For a long time, for centuries really, the reach, the scale of the British Empire, it was just almost unfathomable. |
| 0:18.7 | History's largest, probably its most powerful global empire, |
| 0:22.6 | which at its peak governed over 400 million subjects. |
| 0:28.5 | It covered a quarter of the Earth's landmass. |
| 0:31.3 | In this episode, we're going to look into how this little island, |
| 0:34.3 | smaller than Kansas, was able to exercise such extraordinary reach, such |
| 0:41.1 | extraordinary control, how that empire didn't just rule the world, but just rewrote the course |
| 0:45.2 | of history, how the British Empire triggered massive diasporas, re-engineered the global |
| 0:51.7 | ecosystem, and how the impact, the power of that empire, |
| 0:56.5 | still being felt so long after its collapse. Today I'm really pleased to be welcoming back |
| 1:01.3 | to the show, Satnam Sangerra, journalist, best-selling author of the award-winning books, |
| 1:05.7 | Empire Land and Empire World. His new book, Journeys of Empire, explores the voyages that changed the world forever. |
| 1:14.3 | So we're going to talk all about the legacy of that empire. Let's get into it. |
| 1:21.5 | Saddam, good to see you. |
| 1:22.9 | It's the first time I've seen you in person on a... |
| 1:24.8 | Is this in the flesh? |
| 1:26.3 | Yeah, so I've got to deal with the stress of having to summarize my views, but also deal with your handsomeness. Come on, that should be very straightforward. Also, this is not a small subject. Talking about the British Empire. And as I was thinking about it, I thought, there's two dudes in a room in London speaking English. I've got Irish, Canadian and English heritage. |
| 1:47.6 | You've got... |
| 1:48.0 | Punjabi... |
| 1:49.0 | Wolverhampton. |
| 1:50.5 | Well, the exact English Punjabi heritage. |
... |
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