1857 - India
1800’s - Trade
1899 – South Africa
In 1857 the ‘Indian
mutiny’ took place as
the local population
tried to expel the
British. The British
fought back - executing
the leaders by hanging,
firing squad and being
blown up by cannons.
From 1800 large
quantities of new
products from around
the Empire began to
arrive in Britain by ship.
Ports such as Bristol,
Liverpool and London,
grew rapidly and
created many jobs.
Between 1899 and
1902 the Boer War took
place as Britain fought
local settlers to gain
total control of South
Africa. 20,000 were
killed in the fighting.
1802 – Tasmania
1750 - India
1788 - Australia
1880’s - Sport
1700’s - Slavery
Britain began to use
Australia as a prison
camp. Eventually
165,000 people were
transported there for
life, often for very minor
crimes such as stealing
a loaf of bread.
Many sports such as
cricket, football and
rugby were played by
British settlers and
became popular across
the Empire. They are
still played there today
and celebrated in the
Commonwealth Games
From the early 1800’s
Britain transported
many people from West
Africa to the West
Indies to work as slaves
on Sugar, Cotton and
Tobacco plantations.
The finished crops were
then shipped to Britain.
When Britain captured
Tasmania in 1802 an
estimated 20,000 local
aborigines lived there.
Eighty years later they
were all dead. Some
had been hunted for
sport and killed.
From 1750 the British
East India company
began exporting tea
from India to Britain.
Tea began to fall in
price and become a
popular drink. Many
jobs were created in
India growing it.
1865 - Canada
By 1865 over 3 million
people, mostly British,
had emigrated to
Canada and turned
much of it into rich
farmland capable of
exporting grain to the
rest of the world.
1788 – Australia
The first British settlers
started to live in Sydney
Australia but bought
European diseases
such as smallpox,
influenza and measles
which quickly killed
many local aborigines.
1851 - Australia
1880’s - Religion
1900’s Commonwealth
1800’s - Telegraph
1802 – Sri Lanka
Gold was discovered in
Australia and was soon
being shipped back to
Britain to help it grow
rich. The original
aborigine population
were not given any
money in
compensation.
In the 1800’s many
missionaries left Britain
to work around the
empire. They built
schools and hospitals
to help the local
population, but tried to
convert them to
Christianity as well.
After the end of WW2 in
1945 many countries in
the Empire were
handed back to the
people who lived there.
They became
commonwealth
countries and still have
trade, cultural and
sporting links with
Britain
Britain needed to
communicate across its
empire so introduced a
telegraph and postal
service that allowed
people across the world
to quickly communicate
with each other for the
first time.
In the 80 years after the
British arrived in Sri
Lanka; 2,300 miles of
roads, 2,900 miles of
railways, 65 hospitals,
and 2,900 schools were
built.
Your Tasks .....
• Look through the above set of events and pick three which you think Britain can be proud of ☺, and
another three which you think Britain should be ashamed of . Put these in order of importance.
• Draw two timelines of the British Empire next to each other; one positive (with the good events
included in date order) and one negative (with the bad events included in date order).
• Which of the two time lines do you think is the most important? Write a short paragraph explaining
your opinion under you timelines with the title ‘Should we be proud of the British Empire?’
Bonus Homework Task
• Do your own research to add at least another three extra facts to add to those above. These could
be good or bad. They could be people, events or inventions which either improved life for people
living in the British Empire, or which made things much worse.