HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2025-02-03T10:58:33.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: War Plan Red: The secret US plan for war with Britain via Canada
items: Imperial spectacle: inside Britain's 1924 'Empire Exhibition'
items: Charlotte Lydia Riley: “We need to get rid of the idea that Britain was humanitarian in its imperialism. That needs to go”
items: The British empire’s last hurrah? Why an epic celebration of imperialism in 1924 failed to mask a superpower in decline
items: The challenge of writing histories of the British empire
items: Michael Wood on crafting a new national narrative
items: Eastern promises: the long and troubled history of Britain's relations with China
items: The British empire's divisive legacy
items: Sathnam Sanghera on the legacy of empire

War Plan Red: The secret US plan for war with Britain via Canada
type: item
date: 2025-02-03T10:54:41.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
subject: Evergreen
subject: The British Empire
description: In the interwar years, the United States prepared for all kinds of future conflicts, including against its allies. Jonny Wilkes explores the Americans’ secret plan to defeat the British empire, via Canada
encoded: In 1930, the United States war department approved a secret plan that mapped out a course of action for a hypothetical war with Britain. Its codename: War Plan Red. Yes, the two nations were allies, having fought on the same side in the First World War, and the likelihood of this plan ever being needed was extremely low – but not impossible. Tensions had been creeping up over the last decade, and Britain and the US had a history of bitter military conflict. Why did the US have a plan for war with Britain? It was, and still is, normal practice for militaries to prepare for all manner of scenarios, even against allies. War Plan Red was just one of many contingencies drawn up by the US, all of which were designated a different colour. Green covered the eventualities of a war with Mexico; Brown for an uprising in the US-controlled Philippines; Yellow for China; and Orange for Japan. White, meanwhile, focused on a domestic situation within the US. War Plan Red (a reference to the British redcoats of the American War of Independence) was further subdivided, depending on where in the world a potential war might break out. Ruby referred to India, Scarlet was Australia, and Garnet was New Zealand. The chief anticipated theatre for any conflict between the US and the British empire, however, was Crimson: Canada. What reason would the US have to go to war with Britain? In the First World War, the British, Americans and Canadians had been allies, but in the years after the armistice tensions began to rise. The British Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Sir Osmond Brock described the possibility of war as “very improbable” without going so far as declaring it “impossible”. Since Germany had been knocked out as a naval power, Britain and the US stood alone as the global superpowers of the seas, which raised the risk of a situation somewhere in the Atlantic that could all-too easily escalate. The most likely scenario that might lead to a naval clash was if Britain went to w…

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Imperial spectacle: inside Britain's 1924 'Empire Exhibition'
type: item
date: 2024-10-16T07:00:17.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: The British Empire
description: Matthew Parker takes listeners inside the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park in London
encoded: A century ago, in 1924, the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley opened its doors, receiving as many as 27 million visits over two years. It was a grand declaration of an empire at its territorial height. But behind the spectacle was a superpower grappling with its position on the world stage, seeking to recalibrate its own sense of influence and importance. Speaking to Elinor Evans, Matthew Parker takes listeners inside the exhibition, which featured huge sporting events and battle reenactments, glamorous pavilions showcasing new technology and science – and even a replica of Tutankhamun’s tomb. To listen to Matthew Parker discussing events that occurred across the British empire on one specific day in 1923, click here

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Charlotte Lydia Riley: “We need to get rid of the idea that Britain was humanitarian in its imperialism. That needs to go”
type: item
date: 2024-10-08T14:23:51.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: The British Empire
description: Charlotte Lydia Riley talks to Ellie Cawthorne about her book Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain exploring the complex, and often troubled, relationship between the British empire and the ‘mother country’
encoded: Ellie Cawthorne: You write in the introduction to your book – Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain – that you want it “to set out why people in Britain today should care about their nation’s imperial past”. Why do you think that this is so important? Charlotte Lydia Riley: Beyond the fact that I’m a historian, and I think that trying to know more about history is always worthwhile, I believe there are many reasons why we should care about our imperial past, specifically in Britain. There’s been a peak and a trough in knowledge about empire. For a long time, it was a very obvious and explicit part of our popular culture. Schoolchildren would study under a map on the wall that had the imperial territories marked out in pink, and people were often very celebratory about Britain’s imperial conquests. Then, after decolonisation, a silence gradually fell over the empire, and discussions of how it had shaped British society, culture and politics ebbed. The reason I think that British people need to think more closely and carefully about the nation’s imperial past is because both empire and decolonisation have shaped so much in Britain today. A lot of the ways we still organise British society are rooted in imperialism, and many of our organisations – universities, schools and museums – have imperial roots. Read more | How has migration changed the world? The story of migration to Britain is also rooted in empire: there are people living here now whose families have connections to the colonies in all sorts of ways. It’s very difficult to look backwards at empire and say that it’s over and done with – you can see it all around you today. That’s why I think we need to have a knowledge of empire that’s clear-eyed, rather than being coloured by either celebration or silencing. Your book focuses on the decades following the Second World War – an era in which empire was disintegrating. How did it continue to shape Britain when it was already beginning to disappe…

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The British empire’s last hurrah? Why an epic celebration of imperialism in 1924 failed to mask a superpower in decline
type: item
date: 2024-09-26T10:28:08.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: The British Empire
description: It featured exotic pavilions, sporting spectacles and even a replica of Tutankhamun’s tomb. But, as Matthew Parker explains, when the British Empire Exhibition opened its doors in Wembley a century ago, it also spoke of a superpower in decline
encoded: In the summer of 1924, Scientific American’s ‘Special Correspondent in Great Britain’ warned his readers that, “the size and scope of the British Empire Exhibition, like the British empire itself, is almost too big to be grasped”. Within a vast area of 216 acres – 10 times the size of the famous Great Exhibition of 1851 – the “industries, manner of life and art of the 460 million people of the British empire [were] represented”. The reporter was not only awestruck by the organisers’ ambitions of attracting 46 million visitors during its initial six-month run, but the sheer scale of the exhibits themselves. Constructed in Wembley Park, north-west of London, the sprawling site included “by far the largest sports arena in the world”, “two palaces of industry and engineering”, as well as the latest “developments in telegraphy, telephony and wireless communication”. But that wasn’t all: there were working models of timber mills, oil wells and mines of all descriptions, as well as sheep stations, ostrich farms, rice paddies and cotton fields. In the exhibition’s Canadian Pavilion, visitors could view a mocked-up Niagara Falls and a life-sized refrigerated butter statue of the Prince of Wales, while the Indian Pavilion boasted snake charmers, acrobats, jugglers and veiled dancers. To the south of the site, in the Empire Stadium, visitors could watch military tattoos, historical pageants and Wild West rodeos, before enjoying the delights of the exhibition’s 47-acre fairground. In another corner, there was even a replica of Tutankhamun’s recently opened tomb. Read more | Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun: was the tomb really cursed? Other commentators feared that visitors might experience sensory overload once they had paid their one shilling and sixpence entrance fee and clicked through the turnstiles. Indeed, Eric Pasold – a recent immigrant from central Europe – remembered being “overwhelmed” as he made his way around the exhibition and jostled with “Nigerians in t…

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The challenge of writing histories of the British empire
type: item
date: 2024-09-19T10:46:21.000Z
creator: Matt Elton
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: The British Empire
description: In its collection of essays, The Truth About Empire makes the case for the expertise of historians in debates about Britain’s imperial past. Matt Elton spoke to three of its contributors about the gap between academic and popular views of empire
encoded: Your new book, The Truth About Empire, features essays on the legacy of the British empire from academic historians at a range of institutions. What were your aims when you started work on the project? Alan Lester: British colonial history has become a highly controversial topic. We’ve seen a backlash against Black Lives Matter (BLM) and, in some quarters, an attempt to morally defend the British empire against the critique articulated by the BLM movement. In the midst of all that, I wanted to collect the work of expert historians and present it in a way the public could engage with – and, hopefully, help them be better informed when navigating what’s become a really contested area of history. How did you choose which experts to call on to write the book’s chapters? Alan Lester: I reached out to a vast number of people, and many were willing to expose themselves to the controversy that surrounds these topics. I ended up with a fairly good coverage both thematically, on the key issues at the heart of the controversy, and geographically, across the vastness of the British empire. Readers can hear from experts who have worked for many years to develop their expertise of these areas. And Sathnam Sanghera, who has been able to engage the public on these issues more successfully than many academics, kindly agreed to write a foreword. Read more | “It was painful to realise how my education had colonised me”: Sathnam Sanghera on the legacy of imperialism in Britain Were you conscious of the controversy when you were writing and editing the book, and is it a factor you have to bear in mind on a personal level more generally? Sathnam Sanghera: I’ve found myself in the middle of the culture war on empire, and the consequences can be quite dark. [Historian and broadcaster] David Olusoga has to employ a bodyguard at some events, while Corinne Fowler – who wrote the National Trust report on colonialism – was so concerned for her safety that she had to call the police and became s…

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Michael Wood on crafting a new national narrative
type: item
date: 2024-09-19T10:39:22.000Z
creator: Michael Wood
subject: 21st Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Column
subject: The British Empire
description: “We need a meaningful story for the new generation – our composite union,” writes historian Michael Wood
encoded: What a summer we have had in 2024, with an astonishing election result. There has been much talk of national renewal, and in due course we’ll see what that means. But it felt like a watershed. The new prime minister Keir Starmer’s dad was a toolmaker, his mum a nurse; the cabinet is majority comprehensive-educated, with more alumni of Parrs Wood High School than of Eton. Among commentators – not just on the left – there’s been a growing feeling that 14 years of Tory rule, compounded by Brexit, have undermined what the great medieval historian Ibn Khaldun called asabiyyah: group feeling – the glue that makes societies work. And watching TV on election night, I found myself wondering whether, like sediment settling in a glass, the time has finally arrived for a new national narrative. Read more | Opinion: “History is currently being used for political purposes that have very little to do with the past” One hundred years ago, the British empire reached its apogee. It was a world, as depicted in popular culture, orchestrated by Elgar and redolent with the scent of saddle soap and railway smoke. As Jan Morris memorably put it in the Pax Britannica trilogy: a world of P&O liners rolling down to Rio, of “dominion over palm and pine”, of an empire on which the sun never set. It is amazing to think that our oldest fellow citizens today were alive then. What changes they have seen over the span of a single lifetime. World war, imperial decline, the election of ’45 and the birth of the welfare state. Wilson’s recovery in the Swinging Sixties, then the Thatcher era that saw Britain’s de-industrialisation. Blair’s Cool Britannia orchestrated by cocky Oasis optimism – till, fatefully, Iraq ushered us into the past quarter century to Brexit and beyond, with its starkly divided narratives of Britain. Read more | Clement Attlee: Labour's postwar leader That’s a very simplistic sketch, I know. But it seems to me that certain ideas of national identity continue to have a massive influ…

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Eastern promises: the long and troubled history of Britain's relations with China
type: item
date: 2024-09-19T10:27:47.000Z
subject: General Modern
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: The British Empire
description: Lured by rich trading prospects, Britain attempted numerous times to cultivate relations with China from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Sometimes, they were successful; often, the attempts ended disastrously. Kerry Brown explores the difficult but ultimately vital links between two ambitious realms
encoded: China may feel like an exotic destination to many Britons – far distant and undeniably other, culturally and politically. Yet China’s influence permeates our daily lives. It was where we originally sourced tea, the first advert for which appeared in London as early as 1658. It was where the technology for making porcelain came from, inspiring the likes of Josiah Wedgwood and Josiah Spode. It was where a huge number of flowers now flourishing in our gardens were first found, collected by botanists and explorers from the 18th century onwards. And it has, of course, produced so much of the technology that today fills and powers our homes. Often unappreciated and sometimes tucked out of sight, China’s contributions to British life today are nonetheless tangible – and largely positive. As these examples show, links between the two nations go back centuries. And, despite the fractious tone of the political relationship today, coloured by arguments about Hong Kong, human rights and espionage, much of that history involved people from both places discovering, appreciating and learning from each other. When did the English first make contact with China? The first English efforts to make formal contact with China came during the reign of Elizabeth I, who sent letters to the Chinese imperial court proposing trade. “We are borne and made to have need one of another, and that we are bound to aide one another,” the queen wrote in one missive. None of her letters ever arrived, but China remained on the minds of English traders and merchants. And the East India Company, established in 1599–1600, made launching trade with the far east a key priority. Read more | The voices of China: 5 perspectives on an extraordinary past One of the earliest recorded incidents between the nations relates to an argument in Bantam, west of what’s now Jakarta on the island of Java. A disgruntled trader, Edmund Scott, blamed his Chinese neighbour for a fire that blazed in his warehouse in May 1604. In a…

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The British empire's divisive legacy
type: item
date: 2024-04-23T07:56:04.000Z
creator: Matt Elton
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: The British Empire
description: Sathnam Sanghera considers how we can have a constructive national conversation about Britain’s imperial past
encoded: Sathnam Sanghera’s bestselling 2021 book Empireland catapulted the author into the eye of a media storm. Following the release of its follow-up, Empireworld, he spoke to Matt Elton about how it felt to be at the centre of a heated national debate on empire – and how we can have constructive conversations about Britain’s imperial past. View Green Video on the source website

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Sathnam Sanghera on the legacy of empire
type: item
date: 2024-04-16T07:30:20.000Z
creator: Matt Elton
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Slavery
subject: The British Empire
description: Sathnam Sanghera's bestselling 2021 book Empireland found the author in the eye of a media storm. As its follow-up, Empireworld, is released, he talks to Matt Elton about how it felt to make headlines – and how we can have a constructive national conversation about Britain’s imperial past
encoded: Your new book explores the impact of the British empire around the world, which is obviously a weighty, complex topic. But I wanted to begin in the place it starts: on holiday. Can you tell us about how your trip inspired the project? I went to Barbados on one of those first trips we all did as the Covid-19 pandemic began to subside. The idea was partly to escape the stress of talking about the British empire, because I’d had such an intense response to my last book. But my girlfriend had booked the trip and chosen to go to Barbados, which is obviously not an escape from the British empire. I managed to relax for a few days, but then one afternoon found myself visiting the sites of former plantations – and was shocked to discover the tours barely mentioned slavery and its legacies. It made me realise I had to continue my journey into the empire’s history. As you say, your previous book Empireland – which focused on how imperial history has shaped Britain – received an intense reaction. How did it feel being in that spotlight, and did it shape this book? It felt weird, but varied day to day. Sometimes I’d receive abuse but find it funny; on other occasions, it really got to me. I’d be doing a public event and people would start yelling at me, for instance. Read more | The British empire in 1923: the story of the imperial project's territorial height But the positives have been incredible. I’ve met young people who are studying history because of Empireland, which is really inspiring. But it can also be overwhelming, and it did create pressure when I was writing this sequel. In fact, I’ve felt pressure on multiple fronts. You might have noticed that the book’s footnotes are quite extensive – probably more than you’d get in your average history title. That’s because I’m paranoid: I know there are people out there who want to undermine and ridicule me, so I wanted to make sure I showed up with the receipts. Do you think there’s a danger of accuracy being lost, on all si…

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The British empire's divisive legacy
type: item
date: 2024-04-03T06:57:18.000Z
creator: Matt Elton
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: The British Empire
description: Sathnam Sanghera considers how we can have a constructive national conversation about Britain’s imperial past
encoded: Sathnam Sanghera’s bestselling 2021 book Empireland catapulted the author into the eye of a media storm. Following the release of its follow-up, Empireworld, he spoke to Matt Elton about how it felt to be at the centre of a heated national debate on empire – and how we can have constructive conversations about Britain’s imperial past. Sathnam Sanghera is the author of Empireworld: How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe: Signed Edition (Penguin, 2024) Buy now on Bookshop.org Buy now on Amazon Buy now on Waterstones

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