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JEREMY PAXMAN: It was the empire
on which the sun never set,

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or, as some said,
on which the blood never dried.

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At its height, Britain ruled over
a quarter of the world's population.

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Many convinced themselves
it was Britain's destiny to do so.

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Much of the empire was built on greed
and a lust for power.

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But the British came to believe
they had a moral mission, too,

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a mission to civilise the world.

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The builders of empire were bold,

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they were adventurous.

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Some were ruthless

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and some were just a bit unhinged.

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The sheer expanse of British rule
was breathtaking.

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It stretched
from the wilderness of the Arctic

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to the sands of Arabia

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and the islands of the Caribbean.

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There was a time when Britannia
really did rule the waves

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and it's a memory
which has never wholly faded.

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(PINGING)

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Once, the Navy imposed blockades,

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sank enemy vessels at will,

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suppressed slavery,
mapped the world's uncharted oceans,

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and generally forced Britain's will
onto foreign governments.

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That heritage helped Britain to believe

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she's still entitled to a place
at the top table in world affairs.

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How did such a small country
get such a big head?

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So much that shaped

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the extraordinary story
of the British Empire was born here,

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in the complex,
timeworn expanse of India.

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It was here the British learned
the art of imperial power.

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Yet it was a treaty signed
thousands of miles away

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that determined the fate of India.

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In February 1 763,

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the great European powers
were meeting in Paris

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to end years of war
and to divide the world between them,

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from Canada to the Philippines.

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Britain's representative
at the peace talks

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was the Duke of Bedford,

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a stubby, arrogant little man
who'd never been to any of these places.

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In fact, his gout had made it difficult
enough for him to get to Paris.

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But the Bedfords did pretty well
out of the summit.

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The Duchess was given
an 800-piece porcelain dinner service

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by the King of France, and the Duke?

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The Duke got India for the British.

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The technologically advanced
countries of Europe

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were eying up foreign lands
for future conquest,

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and Britain had a head start.

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India was decisive.

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It gave Britain the resources,
the markets, the manpower

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and the prestige
to build a worldwide empire.

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And in the years to come,
they worked feverishly

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to secure that prize.

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First, Britain took control
of the Mediterranean,

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then they took the Cape of Good Hope
at the bottom of Africa,

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then Mauritius in the Indian Ocean,

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then Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, of course,

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and finally, Singapore.

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A web of strongholds
right across the globe.

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This was the beginning of Britain's time

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as the undisputed top dog of the world.

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Yet the whole thing was built upon
something decidedly fragile.

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A small island like Britain
couldn't, by itself,

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find the manpower
to hold on to this vast new territory.

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So they came up with a system that
would become a cornerstone of empire.

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They paid local soldiers
to fight for them.

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British officers would now lead
Indian troops.

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The colonised would provide
the fighting force of colonialism

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for centuries to come.

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(SHOUTING ORDERS IN HINDI)

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PAXMAN: The Madras Regiment,
founded in 1 758,

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is the oldest in the Indian Army.

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It spent most of its existence fighting
not for independent India,

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but for Britain.

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(OFFICER SHOUTING ORDERS IN HINDI)

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PAXMAN: It doesn't bother
Captain Dilip Shekhar

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that his regiment helped
to build the empire.

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These are the battle honours
we've won under the British.

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On the left you can see
these are outside India.

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PAXMAN: China, Afghanistan, Burma...

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-Kilimanjaro?
-SHEKHAR: Yes.

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PAXMAN: That's in the First World War,
in East Africa, isn't it?

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SHEKHAR: Yes.

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And then all these are
battles you've fought...

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Yeah, these are within India.

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PAXMAN: Sure, but three quarters
of your battle honours are

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-when you were part of the British Army.
-SHEKHAR: Yes.

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-PAXMAN: What do you think about that?
-That's great.

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You were on the wrong side then,

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from an Indian Nationalist
point of view.

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-You were fighting for the British.
-We were soldiers,

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and a soldier does not know
whose region it is for he's fighting.

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Tomorrow I have a fight
with any other country,

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I'm told to fight with that country,
I don't have any personal...

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Do you think the British being here
was a good thing or a bad thing or what?

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Whatever happened in history is history.

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But still, we should not be
going into that.

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But yes, they have done good for us,
and even bad. It was that way.

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But it's a good thing
they're not here, isn't it?

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-Yeah.
-(BOTH CHUCKLING)

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(OFFICER SHOUTING ORDERS)

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PAXMAN: But all the troops
you could hire

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could never control such a huge country.

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(HINDUSTANI MUSIC PLAYING)

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The British needed a political system
to keep them in power,

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and they found it in the Indian princes.

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In the mid-1 800s,
the British invaders signed a treaty

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with the local ruler here,
the Maharaja of Jodhpur.

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They promised him he could go on
running his kingdom just as before,

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but he'd have to pay them
for the privilege.

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This protection racket
would be repeated all over India.

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COMMENTATOR:
Fantastic goal there by Menenkhar.

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They have finally woken up,
ladies and gentlemen...

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PAXMAN: In time, the ruling classes of
the two peoples would become entwined.

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(CONTINUES COMMENTATING)

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PAXMAN: British customs
and British dress

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became part of the trappings
of Indian court life.

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(PLAYING MARCHING TUNE)

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The present Maharaja
is the product of both cultures.

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This is the family palace,

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designed for them
by a British architect.

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Understated little place.

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Morning, sir,
welcome to Taj Umaid Bhawan Palace.

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Good morning. Good morning.

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But as the British extended
their grip on India,

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they tore up the treaty they'd made
with the Maharaja's ancestor.

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They stripped the maharajas
of their power,

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but let them keep their palaces.

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GAJ SINGH II: This way.

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-This is your drawing room, is it?
-This is my drawing room, yes.

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We've tucked ourselves
into a little corner of the palace.

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And all these chaps on the walls
are your ancestors, are they?

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-Yes, that's my father behind you.
-PAXMAN: Mmm-hmm.

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SINGH II: That's my
great-great-great-grandfather.

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PAXMAN: Great-great-great-grandfather.
SINGH II: Hmm.

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PAXMAN: Splendid beard. (CHUCKLING)

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I suppose the first question is
what should I call you?

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-Baapuji.
-What does that mean?

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Everyone calls me baapuji.
Baapuji is a term of endearment

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as well as a term of respect.

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PAXMAN: But what does it mean?

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Literally it means baap,
which means father,

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and 'Ji''is like an honorific.

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But even as a child
you were called baapuji.

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Yes, absolutely.

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Your own involvement, of course,
in Britain is considerable, isn't it?

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Since the age of eight.

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PAXMAN: You were sent away
to school in England then?

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Prep school, yes.
Prep school, to Cothill.

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Then Eton, then Oxford. 1 4 years in all.

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So you were really brought up
as an English child.

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English Indian boy.

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(BOTH CHUCKLING)

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-PAXMAN: Was that good?
-But I would switch being what I was.

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Being an Englishman and then becoming
Indian when I came home.

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When you look back
at that original treaty,

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how do you feel
about the British reneging on it?

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My ancestor at that time,
he was very unhappy,

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first of all, to have signed
that treaty in the beginning,

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but he had no option left.

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It was self-preservation.
Then he was very unhappy with it.

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Until the period came when we learned
how to use that presence

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to our advantage,
get the best out of the system.

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And at that point it becomes unclear
who's pulling whose strings, doesn't it?

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-(CHUCKLING) Yes.
-PAXMAN: Quite tricky.

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At the heart of British authority
was a gigantic confidence trick.

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It worked for as long as the illusion
could be maintained.

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(PLAYING SOLEMN TUNE)

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Take Government House in Calcutta.

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It was the seat
of British power in India.

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It's still the headquarters
of the regional government today.

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When it was built in 1 803

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there were fewer
than 6,000 British officials

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nominally ruling over
some 200 million Indians.

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As one British Governor-General
who lived here put it,

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''If each black man were to take up a
handful of sand and by united effort,

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''throw it upon
the white-faced intruders,

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''we should be buried alive.''

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And that's the reason
for the scale, the grandeur,

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the sheer boastfulness of this place.

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The idea being, if you look like a ruler
the people will treat you like a ruler.

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It helps to explain that arrogant,
self-satisfied look you see

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on the faces of so many
British imperialists.

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But the appearance
was an enormous bluff.

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It could only be a matter of time
before that bluff was called.

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Lucknow, in the mid-1 9th century was,
according to visitors,

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an enchanting place.

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The British here enjoyed a life of
luxury and tranquillity.

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But in May 1 857, all that changed.

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Fired by decades of resentment,

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Indian troops rose up
and killed their own officers.

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Indian servants
murdered British families.

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The Indian Mutiny, or First Indian War
of Independence, had begun.

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It reached its climax at the British
headquarters in Lucknow.

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Here, the myth of imperial power
was shaken to the core.

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Three thousand British and loyal Indians
were trapped inside

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and surrounded by 8,000 rebels.

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A terrifying siege was about to begin.

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I think these must have been
the servants' quarters

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or the kitchen or something,

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they're too small to be formal rooms.

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But the amazing thing about it is
that this place was just obviously built

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to impress the local Indians
and it ends up

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this scene of complete,
terrified squalor.

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At the height of the siege,
there were 1 0 Europeans dying every day.

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Just here.

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And these must be the marks
of some of the cannon balls

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that struck the building.

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00:16:36,407 --> 00:16:39,683
These ones didn't actually go through,
but in other places you can see

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the balls have just gone
straight through the wall.

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And that down there, I think,
is what was the banqueting hall.

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But during the course of the siege,
became used as the hospital.

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And was absolutely packed with the
wounded obviously, but also, the sick

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'cause inevitably what happened
was that all the latrines

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filled up and overflowed and there were
corpses rotting in the heat everywhere.

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So, cholera broke out.

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And it was the job of many
of the small children

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to wipe the flies off the faces
and the wounds of the injured

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inside the hospital there.

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It must have been
an absolutely appalling scene.

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After four and a half months,
British relief forces arrived.

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As they fought their way into the
stinking ruins, they showed no mercy.

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In the story of empire, rebellion
always met with savage retaliation.

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One British commander alone
executed 6,000 men.

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Elsewhere, he flogged
suspected mutineers,

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made them lick blood from the
slaughterhouse floor and then hanged them.

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In other cases,
mutineers were tied to the ground,

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branded with hot irons,
told to run for their lives,

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and when they did so, were shot dead.

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It was not enough merely to punish,
an example had to be made.

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The psychological impact
of the conflict was massive.

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Each side now knew how very thin was
the veneer of civilised co-existence -

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00:19:06,127 --> 00:19:10,245
that with the right provocation,
they could unleash hell on each other.

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00:19:17,847 --> 00:19:21,476
Two thousand men, women and children
had perished in the siege.

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The pretence of British rule
had been shattered,

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00:19:26,967 --> 00:19:28,320
the bluff called.

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00:19:33,287 --> 00:19:37,246
And when peace returned,
British attitudes hardened.

236
00:19:40,007 --> 00:19:41,963
The poet Rudyard Kipling called it,

237
00:19:42,047 --> 00:19:45,835
''Wearing knuckle dusters
under kid gloves. ''

238
00:19:48,487 --> 00:19:52,765
The British would soon find a new way
of showing who was boss.

239
00:19:57,407 --> 00:19:58,999
Shukriya.

240
00:20:11,327 --> 00:20:14,683
This bleak patch of waste ground
outside Delhi

241
00:20:14,767 --> 00:20:19,238
was once the setting for a series
of extraordinary spectacles.

242
00:20:25,327 --> 00:20:27,443
They were called ''durbars,''

243
00:20:27,527 --> 00:20:31,156
the Indian word for a meeting
between ruler and ruled.

244
00:20:32,287 --> 00:20:36,121
It was less a meeting than
a ceremonial show of strength.

245
00:20:37,167 --> 00:20:40,762
One Indian called it,
''Terror in fancy dress. ''

246
00:20:45,927 --> 00:20:48,885
Presiding over each
of these gaudy ceremonies

247
00:20:48,967 --> 00:20:51,879
was the British ruler in India,
the Viceroy.

248
00:20:51,967 --> 00:20:54,322
One of them understood the power

249
00:20:54,407 --> 00:20:57,365
of extravagant display
better than any other.

250
00:21:01,327 --> 00:21:04,364
''Lord George Nathaniel Curzon''
went the rhyme,

251
00:21:04,447 --> 00:21:06,836
''was a most superior person. ''

252
00:21:06,927 --> 00:21:09,566
He liked to assemble
his magnificent uniforms

253
00:21:09,647 --> 00:21:13,765
including assorted foreign decorations,
from various places,

254
00:21:13,847 --> 00:21:17,237
one of them being a London
theatrical costume shop.

255
00:21:25,167 --> 00:21:30,446
Magnificent events like this were meant
to dazzle the country into submission.

256
00:21:45,327 --> 00:21:50,037
A few old statues in the corner of
this foreign field are all that's left.

257
00:22:00,487 --> 00:22:04,878
Even the caretaker of this peculiar
place isn't much interested.

258
00:22:07,287 --> 00:22:09,084
-Hello.
-Hello.

259
00:22:09,167 --> 00:22:10,805
Can I ask you some questions?

260
00:22:11,207 --> 00:22:14,199
What do you think of all the statues
just down here?

261
00:22:14,287 --> 00:22:16,676
(SPEAKING HINDI)

262
00:22:20,527 --> 00:22:23,405
Oh, I'm afraid we're some
of the occasional white men.

263
00:22:23,487 --> 00:22:25,921
But do you know what happened here?

264
00:22:26,007 --> 00:22:27,360
(SPEAKING HINDI)

265
00:22:30,207 --> 00:22:31,799
Not very interested.

266
00:22:31,887 --> 00:22:33,878
(SPEAKING HINDI)

267
00:22:53,327 --> 00:22:55,966
There's one relic of the British Raj

268
00:22:56,047 --> 00:22:59,084
that still exerts
something of its old magic.

269
00:23:04,047 --> 00:23:08,598
Like the Taj Mahal, the Victoria
Memorial is a shrine to a woman.

270
00:23:09,727 --> 00:23:13,197
A British queen
in the heart of Calcutta.

271
00:23:13,567 --> 00:23:15,842
In the person of Queen Victoria,

272
00:23:15,927 --> 00:23:20,523
the British liked to believe
the empire had achieved human form.

273
00:23:20,607 --> 00:23:23,963
They cooked up the resonant
but meaningless title

274
00:23:24,047 --> 00:23:26,163
of Empress of India for her.

275
00:23:27,087 --> 00:23:29,362
But she was more than a title.

276
00:23:32,407 --> 00:23:37,356
Victoria was Empress,
mother, virtual god.

277
00:23:37,447 --> 00:23:41,838
In the years following the mutiny,
over 50 statues of her were commissioned

278
00:23:41,927 --> 00:23:43,485
and shipped out from Britain.

279
00:23:43,567 --> 00:23:46,240
The Maharaja of Baroda for example,

280
00:23:46,327 --> 00:23:50,479
paid £1 5,500 for a solid marble statue.

281
00:23:51,207 --> 00:23:54,404
And at the feet of it,
flowers were regularly laid

282
00:23:54,487 --> 00:23:59,197
and every week it was given a shampoo
to keep the old queen looking spruce.

283
00:24:02,727 --> 00:24:05,605
Victoria had plenty to smile about.

284
00:24:08,807 --> 00:24:12,766
A mix of enterprise and cunning,
brutality and pomp,

285
00:24:12,847 --> 00:24:16,123
had turned India into
the biggest, richest

286
00:24:16,207 --> 00:24:19,119
and most significant colony in the empire.

287
00:24:32,567 --> 00:24:35,240
By the closing years of Victoria's reign,

288
00:24:35,327 --> 00:24:37,887
India formed the heart of an empire

289
00:24:37,967 --> 00:24:43,121
that stretched from Canada in the west,
to Australia in the east.

290
00:24:44,167 --> 00:24:46,237
It was time to celebrate.

291
00:24:57,047 --> 00:25:02,075
Victoria's diamond jubilee
on the 22nd of June, 1 89 7,

292
00:25:02,167 --> 00:25:06,126
was the grandest showing off of empire
Britain would ever see.

293
00:25:07,847 --> 00:25:12,796
If the Indian durbars were designed
to cow the empire's subjects,

294
00:25:12,887 --> 00:25:15,276
the jubilee was a piece of theatre

295
00:25:15,367 --> 00:25:19,519
meant to fire the British public
with imperial fervour.

296
00:25:25,487 --> 00:25:29,526
A vast cavalcade made
its way across the capital

297
00:25:29,607 --> 00:25:33,998
to the so-called 'parish church of empire':
St Paul's Cathedral.

298
00:25:40,327 --> 00:25:44,320
Thousands of troops had been
summoned from all over the empire.

299
00:25:44,407 --> 00:25:47,797
Canadian Hussars, Indian lancers,

300
00:25:47,887 --> 00:25:52,358
Cypriot policemen wearing fezzes,
Jamaicans in white gaiters.

301
00:25:52,447 --> 00:25:56,201
There were Hong Kong policemen,
Australian cavalry men,

302
00:25:56,287 --> 00:26:00,803
Diachs, Maoris, Rajas and Maharajas.

303
00:26:05,207 --> 00:26:09,280
In the midst of all this frenzy
rode the matriarch of empire.

304
00:26:10,807 --> 00:26:13,719
She allowed herself an occasional tear.

305
00:26:13,807 --> 00:26:17,720
The day was marked by celebrations
throughout her colonies.

306
00:26:34,687 --> 00:26:37,679
The Daily Mail brought out
a special edition

307
00:26:37,767 --> 00:26:40,645
in gold ink to mark the occasion.

308
00:26:41,287 --> 00:26:45,280
As the procession passed,
its star reporter was quite overcome.

309
00:26:47,687 --> 00:26:52,522
''You begin to understand, as never before,
what the empire amounts to.

310
00:26:52,607 --> 00:26:56,964
''Not only that we possess all these
remote, outlandish places,

311
00:26:57,767 --> 00:27:02,318
''but that we send out a boy
and he takes hold of savages

312
00:27:02,927 --> 00:27:05,999
''and teaches them to obey him.
And to believe in him.

313
00:27:06,767 --> 00:27:09,520
''And to die for him and the Queen.''

314
00:27:13,647 --> 00:27:17,925
But not everyone shared this
sense of wide-eyed amazement.

315
00:27:20,167 --> 00:27:24,638
There were some who looked
at the spectacle and wondered.

316
00:27:24,727 --> 00:27:30,085
They remembered the splendour of the
Roman Empire and how that had fallen.

317
00:27:30,167 --> 00:27:34,046
How could an empire that
wouldn't stop growing be sustained?

318
00:27:34,127 --> 00:27:39,155
And, in particular, how could
the great prize of India be secured?

319
00:27:42,487 --> 00:27:45,763
The answer to that
had already taken the British

320
00:27:45,847 --> 00:27:48,315
to some pretty unexpected places.

321
00:28:08,207 --> 00:28:12,723
One morning in September 1 882,
the Egyptian people woke up

322
00:28:12,807 --> 00:28:15,367
to find they were not alone.

323
00:28:17,407 --> 00:28:21,366
A British army had landed
and was advancing on the capital.

324
00:28:37,127 --> 00:28:40,164
Egypt was never part of the empire, you may say,

325
00:28:40,247 --> 00:28:42,397
and indeed, formally, you'd be right.

326
00:28:42,487 --> 00:28:47,515
Egypt was an emergency, an anomaly,
an experiment, and, for a while,

327
00:28:47,607 --> 00:28:49,404
a bit of a success.

328
00:28:49,487 --> 00:28:51,762
No sooner had British troops landed here

329
00:28:51,847 --> 00:28:54,315
than the British government
announced they'd be leaving.

330
00:28:54,407 --> 00:28:57,524
In fact, they stayed for 70 years.

331
00:29:02,087 --> 00:29:04,317
What on earth were they doing here?

332
00:29:06,847 --> 00:29:10,840
The reason could be found
just across the desert.

333
00:29:10,927 --> 00:29:12,519
The Suez Canal.

334
00:29:14,807 --> 00:29:18,402
This 1 20-mile slice
through Egyptian territory

335
00:29:18,487 --> 00:29:20,876
was the lifeline of the empire,

336
00:29:20,967 --> 00:29:24,164
dramatically cutting sailing time to India.

337
00:29:25,687 --> 00:29:28,997
Most of the ships passing through it
were British.

338
00:29:29,567 --> 00:29:34,083
They brought tea and cotton and jute
from India and beyond to Britain.

339
00:29:35,047 --> 00:29:38,676
They could take troops back
to quell another mutiny.

340
00:29:39,687 --> 00:29:43,726
Trouble near the canal
might spell trouble for Britain.

341
00:29:57,007 --> 00:30:00,477
And trouble had been brewing
in the streets of Cairo.

342
00:30:03,167 --> 00:30:07,080
Egyptians were angry about
foreign influence in their country.

343
00:30:10,247 --> 00:30:14,001
When riots broke out in the city,
the British grew nervous.

344
00:30:22,007 --> 00:30:26,956
The Cairo riots triggered
a classic piece of imperial footwork.

345
00:30:27,047 --> 00:30:29,163
The pattern goes like this.

346
00:30:29,247 --> 00:30:32,922
British people or British interests
are threatened,

347
00:30:33,007 --> 00:30:37,364
British forces are sent to protect them
and they never leave.

348
00:30:44,567 --> 00:30:49,118
In Egypt, they didn't leave because
they hardly admitted they'd arrived.

349
00:30:50,047 --> 00:30:51,878
Much of the British occupation of Egypt

350
00:30:51,967 --> 00:30:56,040
was passed off as little more
than a spot of armed tourism.

351
00:31:06,047 --> 00:31:07,844
-Good morning.
-Welcome.

352
00:31:07,927 --> 00:31:09,724
Thank you.

353
00:31:11,407 --> 00:31:15,446
For many years, Egypt was run
quietly from this building,

354
00:31:15,527 --> 00:31:17,597
now the British Embassy.

355
00:31:20,007 --> 00:31:22,646
And this was the man who ran it.

356
00:31:22,727 --> 00:31:24,843
Ruling Egypt for over 20 years

357
00:31:24,927 --> 00:31:29,762
and perfecting the strange machinery
of British power in the Middle East.

358
00:31:29,847 --> 00:31:31,565
Sir Evelyn Baring.

359
00:31:31,647 --> 00:31:35,765
Officially he was just Consul-General,
rather than Colonial Governor,

360
00:31:35,847 --> 00:31:38,805
but with 6,000 troops stationed next door,

361
00:31:38,887 --> 00:31:41,481
there was no doubt who was in charge.

362
00:31:41,567 --> 00:31:46,277
It wasn't just his size that gave him
the nickname ''Over-Baring''.

363
00:31:55,927 --> 00:31:59,363
Baring was an imperialist
through and through.

364
00:32:00,647 --> 00:32:05,516
He regarded the Egyptians, and indeed,
most foreigners, as children.

365
00:32:05,607 --> 00:32:07,677
And he treated them accordingly.

366
00:32:07,767 --> 00:32:11,316
With occasional concern and permanent disdain.

367
00:32:12,807 --> 00:32:15,765
It earned him their profound resentment.

368
00:32:22,487 --> 00:32:24,717
Baring allowed the Egyptian elite

369
00:32:24,807 --> 00:32:27,605
to imagine they were still running the country.

370
00:32:36,167 --> 00:32:40,206
''The British are easy to deceive,''
said one Egyptian politician,

371
00:32:40,287 --> 00:32:42,926
''but when you think you've deceived them,

372
00:32:43,007 --> 00:32:47,125
''they give you the most
tremendous kick in the backside.''

373
00:32:52,767 --> 00:32:56,965
Baring was a man who liked to
exercise power behind the throne.

374
00:33:02,567 --> 00:33:07,721
He did not give commands, but, it was said,
''Advice which had to be taken. ''

375
00:33:13,327 --> 00:33:17,161
Here, the workings of empire
had become almost invisible.

376
00:33:17,927 --> 00:33:20,316
The British found a word for it.

377
00:33:20,407 --> 00:33:24,161
Egypt was not a colony -
it was a protectorate.

378
00:33:37,287 --> 00:33:40,324
Baring allowed himself two hours each evening

379
00:33:40,407 --> 00:33:43,285
to exercise at the Gezira Sporting Club.

380
00:33:45,487 --> 00:33:47,079
As they did all over the empire,

381
00:33:47,167 --> 00:33:50,762
British officials in Cairo repaired to the club

382
00:33:50,847 --> 00:33:52,803
at the end of the working day.

383
00:34:02,247 --> 00:34:04,203
You can be so mean in croquet, can't you?

384
00:34:04,287 --> 00:34:07,882
-And it is in many countries now.
-It is in many countries, yes.

385
00:34:07,967 --> 00:34:09,719
(SPEAKS ARABIC)

386
00:34:09,807 --> 00:34:12,037
Have you been a member
here a very long time?

387
00:34:12,127 --> 00:34:17,360
In the club? Yes, about...
more than 50 years. 55 years.

388
00:34:17,447 --> 00:34:19,358
55 years!

389
00:34:19,887 --> 00:34:22,799
Do you remember when the British were here?

390
00:34:22,887 --> 00:34:24,718
Yes.

391
00:34:25,367 --> 00:34:27,642
And what did you think?

392
00:34:29,007 --> 00:34:34,161
I think they were forbidding
any Egyptian to enter this club,

393
00:34:34,247 --> 00:34:35,885
unless they take a licence.

394
00:34:35,967 --> 00:34:37,878
-Really?
-Yes.

395
00:34:40,647 --> 00:34:44,162
-Were you glad to see the English go?
-For sure.

396
00:34:45,727 --> 00:34:48,321
-We weren't all bad, were we?
-Huh?

397
00:34:48,407 --> 00:34:52,241
-We weren't all bad?
-All kinds of imperialism is bad.

398
00:34:57,047 --> 00:35:00,323
Was there nothing good
that the British did here?

399
00:35:01,687 --> 00:35:04,042
Nothing was good.

400
00:35:04,127 --> 00:35:06,687
All the time they were here,
70 years, and it was all...

401
00:35:06,767 --> 00:35:11,045
-70 years, more than 70 years.
-Yes, did they do nothing good?

402
00:35:14,287 --> 00:35:16,278
I think, no. Nothing.

403
00:35:19,367 --> 00:35:21,597
How many times did you come to Egypt?

404
00:35:21,687 --> 00:35:24,599
-I've been three or four times.
-Four times?

405
00:35:24,687 --> 00:35:27,406
-Yes. I think.
-You are most welcome here.

406
00:35:27,487 --> 00:35:29,284
Well, it's very nice of you.
Thank you very much.

407
00:35:29,367 --> 00:35:31,358
-Yes.
-Particularly in light of our history.

408
00:35:31,447 --> 00:35:34,359
This is one of the good things
British did in Egypt.

409
00:35:34,447 --> 00:35:36,483
There you are, you've found one thing.

410
00:35:45,287 --> 00:35:49,678
The temporary intervention in Egypt,
the bit of Empire that never was,

411
00:35:49,767 --> 00:35:52,998
would last into the middle of the 20th Century.

412
00:35:56,727 --> 00:35:59,525
Baring himself, the invisible man,

413
00:35:59,607 --> 00:36:03,043
left in 1 907 to retire to Bournemouth.

414
00:36:06,607 --> 00:36:08,723
Baring's last carriage journey

415
00:36:08,807 --> 00:36:11,605
from the British headquarters
to the railway station,

416
00:36:11,687 --> 00:36:15,680
was marked by what one witness
called, ''a chilly silence.''

417
00:36:15,767 --> 00:36:18,042
I don't suppose
he'd have cared that much,

418
00:36:18,127 --> 00:36:19,845
he wasn't here to be loved.

419
00:36:19,927 --> 00:36:24,159
But I wonder what he'd have made
of the fact that, even generations later,

420
00:36:24,247 --> 00:36:28,399
there were Egyptians travelling
to England to spit on his grave.

421
00:36:40,167 --> 00:36:44,365
As the 20th Century dawned,
Britain's sense of its role in the world

422
00:36:44,447 --> 00:36:48,076
had given it dangerous delusions
about what it could do.

423
00:36:55,327 --> 00:36:57,522
World war and its aftermath

424
00:36:57,607 --> 00:37:01,043
would expose these delusions
in a merciless fashion.

425
00:37:04,567 --> 00:37:09,687
The First World War stretched far beyond
the mud and trenches of northern Europe.

426
00:37:12,727 --> 00:37:17,596
It reached into the streets and deserts
of Palestine and the Middle East.

427
00:37:24,727 --> 00:37:28,515
Once again, Britain feared
for its key strategic asset,

428
00:37:28,607 --> 00:37:31,758
its lifeline to India, the Suez Canal.

429
00:37:33,767 --> 00:37:35,917
It had to be protected.

430
00:37:51,167 --> 00:37:54,876
The region was ruled by
Britain's war enemy, Turkey.

431
00:37:57,767 --> 00:38:02,283
In their desert conflict with the Turks,
the British needed allies.

432
00:38:03,607 --> 00:38:07,805
The Bedouin tribes of the
Arabian Desert knew this arid land

433
00:38:07,887 --> 00:38:10,447
and they knew how to survive in it.

434
00:38:11,567 --> 00:38:15,116
If they could be encouraged
to rise against the Turks,

435
00:38:15,207 --> 00:38:17,516
they might prove invaluable.

436
00:38:18,847 --> 00:38:21,077
But who could unite them?

437
00:38:29,127 --> 00:38:31,880
This is the edge of the Sinai Desert.

438
00:38:31,967 --> 00:38:34,401
It was here that a young man came

439
00:38:34,487 --> 00:38:37,604
on a secret mapping mission
for the British Army.

440
00:38:37,687 --> 00:38:41,077
It was disguised as
an archaeology field trip.

441
00:38:41,167 --> 00:38:44,318
And it was the beginning
of a long love affair

442
00:38:44,407 --> 00:38:47,160
with the desert and
with the Arab people.

443
00:38:47,247 --> 00:38:50,922
That love affair created one of the
most romantic figures in the history

444
00:38:51,007 --> 00:38:55,159
of the British Empire,
Thomas Edward Lawrence.

445
00:38:55,247 --> 00:38:56,760
Lawrence of Arabia.

446
00:39:02,847 --> 00:39:06,806
Lawrence, the illegitimate son
of an Irish baronet -

447
00:39:06,887 --> 00:39:09,117
scholar, archaeologist, linguist -

448
00:39:09,207 --> 00:39:13,564
was just the man to charm and inspire
the Arabs into a desert revolt.

449
00:39:31,407 --> 00:39:35,605
The story of an Englishman leading
an exotic army across the desert

450
00:39:35,687 --> 00:39:38,247
caught the public's imagination.

451
00:39:38,727 --> 00:39:42,356
In contrast to the mud and murder
of the Western front,

452
00:39:42,447 --> 00:39:45,962
here was a sweeping campaign
fought in blazing sunlight.

453
00:39:47,567 --> 00:39:50,923
And here, too,
was a different kind of imperialist.

454
00:39:51,767 --> 00:39:55,726
Romantic, idealistic, dashing

455
00:39:55,807 --> 00:39:57,638
and slightly nuts.

456
00:40:16,647 --> 00:40:20,401
Lawrence had a passion for the Arabs
and their way of life.

457
00:40:20,487 --> 00:40:24,082
His ability to live like them
impressed them.

458
00:40:24,167 --> 00:40:28,479
So did the gold from the British
treasury he brought to pay them.

459
00:40:35,927 --> 00:40:37,963
And he gave them something more,

460
00:40:38,047 --> 00:40:41,801
a belief in themselves as an Arab nation.

461
00:40:41,887 --> 00:40:44,082
As his masters in London had hoped,

462
00:40:44,167 --> 00:40:47,045
he coaxed them
into fighting with the British,

463
00:40:47,127 --> 00:40:50,756
with the promise of their freedom
once the war was over.

464
00:40:55,847 --> 00:40:57,803
(SPEAKING ARABIC)

465
00:41:01,327 --> 00:41:04,125
-Do you think he was a good man?
-Yeah.

466
00:41:04,807 --> 00:41:06,638
Why?

467
00:41:08,287 --> 00:41:10,118
(SPEAKING ARABIC)

468
00:41:15,287 --> 00:41:17,801
He was a real man. Yeah.

469
00:41:27,767 --> 00:41:31,555
Do you think that the promises
that he made were ever kept?

470
00:41:32,927 --> 00:41:34,883
(SPEAKING ARABIC)

471
00:41:42,207 --> 00:41:46,519
Lawrence promised his Arab fighters
freedom from foreign rule.

472
00:41:47,527 --> 00:41:50,360
They believed Palestine would be theirs.

473
00:41:51,127 --> 00:41:53,880
There would be many more promises made,

474
00:41:53,967 --> 00:41:56,003
and just as many broken.

475
00:42:06,447 --> 00:42:11,202
The war in the desert finally brought
Britain a string of heady victories.

476
00:42:12,967 --> 00:42:17,438
Imperial troops from India, Australia
and New Zealand, as well as Britain,

477
00:42:17,527 --> 00:42:19,518
swept across the region.

478
00:42:22,807 --> 00:42:24,763
By the winter of 1 9 1 7,

479
00:42:24,847 --> 00:42:27,566
the ultimate prize
was within their grasp.

480
00:42:30,687 --> 00:42:32,518
The Holy City itself.

481
00:42:41,407 --> 00:42:46,765
And so was born the dangerous conviction
that the interests of the British Empire

482
00:42:46,847 --> 00:42:48,405
and the will of God,

483
00:42:48,487 --> 00:42:50,045
might be one and the same.

484
00:42:56,487 --> 00:42:58,921
For Christians,Jerusalem was sacred

485
00:42:59,007 --> 00:43:01,760
as the site of
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,

486
00:43:01,847 --> 00:43:05,362
venerated as the place
where Christ's body was laid.

487
00:43:05,447 --> 00:43:07,836
(PEOPLE SINGING HYMNS)

488
00:43:14,687 --> 00:43:18,441
But Jerusalem
was sacred to other faiths, too.

489
00:43:18,527 --> 00:43:22,566
A thousand years before Christ,
it was the capital of the Jews.

490
00:43:27,847 --> 00:43:31,965
Sharing the city with the Jews
in relative peace, were the Arabs,

491
00:43:32,047 --> 00:43:35,278
for whom Jerusalem
was one of the holiest cities in Islam.

492
00:43:35,647 --> 00:43:37,558
(MAN CHANTING)

493
00:43:47,847 --> 00:43:49,917
For the British prime minister,
Lloyd George,

494
00:43:50,007 --> 00:43:53,716
the empire now began to feel
like a divine mission.

495
00:43:56,927 --> 00:44:01,159
Most British political leaders
had been brought up on the Bible.

496
00:44:01,247 --> 00:44:03,636
They were steeped in its geography,

497
00:44:03,727 --> 00:44:06,287
and as for its history,
well, Lloyd George claimed

498
00:44:06,367 --> 00:44:09,803
that, as a boy, he knew the names
of the kings of Israel

499
00:44:09,887 --> 00:44:13,516
long before he knew the names
of the kings of England.

500
00:44:23,727 --> 00:44:29,040
At noon on December the 1 1 th, 1 9 1 7,
British forces entered Jerusalem.

501
00:44:30,607 --> 00:44:32,802
In a show stage-managed from London,

502
00:44:32,887 --> 00:44:37,324
for this imperial victory
the trappings of power were discarded.

503
00:44:39,687 --> 00:44:42,201
Commander-in-chief
General Edmund Allenby

504
00:44:42,287 --> 00:44:45,836
dismounted from his horse
and entered the city on foot.

505
00:44:49,127 --> 00:44:51,800
To a watching world,
Allenby was proclaiming

506
00:44:51,887 --> 00:44:54,720
that he came not as a conqueror,
but as a pilgrim.

507
00:45:03,447 --> 00:45:07,759
Behind him, in borrowed army uniform,
was a jubilant Lawrence.

508
00:45:09,887 --> 00:45:12,606
But his joy would prove short-lived.

509
00:45:15,367 --> 00:45:16,766
On the walls of the city,

510
00:45:16,847 --> 00:45:18,963
Allenby ordered a solemn proclamation

511
00:45:19,047 --> 00:45:23,040
from the British government
to be read out.

512
00:45:29,727 --> 00:45:30,876
He knew, he said,

513
00:45:30,967 --> 00:45:34,516
that the place was sacred
to three great religions,

514
00:45:34,607 --> 00:45:39,362
that its soil had been sanctified
by prayer and pilgrimage.

515
00:45:39,447 --> 00:45:41,358
And he promised to preserve it.

516
00:45:42,087 --> 00:45:44,078
But for all his fine words,

517
00:45:44,167 --> 00:45:47,398
Allenby had been handed
a ticking time bomb.

518
00:45:55,247 --> 00:45:56,441
For back in London,

519
00:45:56,527 --> 00:45:59,485
the British government
had just gone even further.

520
00:46:02,767 --> 00:46:05,725
The Jews of Europe,
scattered for centuries,

521
00:46:05,807 --> 00:46:07,718
had been made a remarkable offer.

522
00:46:13,487 --> 00:46:16,684
In the Balfour Declaration,
the British foreign secretary

523
00:46:16,767 --> 00:46:20,726
committed Britain to helping the Jews
make a home in Palestine.

524
00:46:27,247 --> 00:46:31,240
Playing God in the Holy Land
was an astonishing gesture.

525
00:46:33,167 --> 00:46:36,000
The British had come to feel
they were agents of destiny.

526
00:46:37,167 --> 00:46:41,160
They had become powerful enough,
and you might say, well-meaning enough

527
00:46:41,247 --> 00:46:44,796
to believe they could solve
the problems of the world.

528
00:46:48,127 --> 00:46:51,676
The Promised Land
had now been promised once too often.

529
00:47:04,047 --> 00:47:08,837
Over the next decade, as more
and more Jews arrived in Palestine,

530
00:47:08,927 --> 00:47:12,044
tension between them and the Arabs rose.

531
00:47:15,207 --> 00:47:19,723
It came to a head at the Wailing Wall,
in the heart of old Jerusalem.

532
00:47:30,407 --> 00:47:33,604
In 1 929, riots broke out here,

533
00:47:33,687 --> 00:47:37,043
at the site sacred
to both Jews and Arabs.

534
00:47:37,127 --> 00:47:38,924
The riots spread.

535
00:47:39,007 --> 00:47:42,477
And later, Arabs murdered Jews
in their homes.

536
00:47:42,567 --> 00:47:45,684
The British police
were completely outnumbered.

537
00:47:45,767 --> 00:47:51,205
And the British authorities decided that,
from now on, all Arab outrages

538
00:47:51,287 --> 00:47:53,596
would be met with real aggression.

539
00:47:56,967 --> 00:47:58,844
MAN: The British want peace
at any price.

540
00:47:58,927 --> 00:48:01,521
They try to restore order,
search everybody.

541
00:48:02,127 --> 00:48:04,436
They act as if both sides
are equally guilty.

542
00:48:06,527 --> 00:48:07,676
PAXMAN: To the Arabs,

543
00:48:07,767 --> 00:48:10,122
the British had broken the promise of freedom

544
00:48:10,207 --> 00:48:11,799
made to them by Lawrence.

545
00:48:11,887 --> 00:48:16,836
Instead, the Arabs were having
to give up their land to the Jews.

546
00:48:20,407 --> 00:48:22,796
The Jews felt the British
were failing to honour

547
00:48:22,887 --> 00:48:24,923
the terms of the Balfour Declaration

548
00:48:25,007 --> 00:48:27,362
and the promise
of a national home for them.

549
00:48:30,047 --> 00:48:32,959
Both sides made their case with gelignite.

550
00:48:41,167 --> 00:48:43,886
Both sides committed appalling atrocities.

551
00:49:08,247 --> 00:49:12,399
Palestine became a posting
from which many never returned.

552
00:49:22,847 --> 00:49:27,682
The Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion
is full of British graves.

553
00:49:28,967 --> 00:49:32,516
Many belong to soldiers, policemen and civilians

554
00:49:32,607 --> 00:49:35,599
who died trying
to keep apart two peoples

555
00:49:35,687 --> 00:49:39,236
who had previously lived
relatively peaceably together.

556
00:49:45,927 --> 00:49:50,284
After a while, you begin to notice
one date keeps reappearing.

557
00:49:52,407 --> 00:49:55,558
The 22nd of July, 1 946.

558
00:50:10,727 --> 00:50:12,604
MAN: It was in the wing
on the right of the picture

559
00:50:12,687 --> 00:50:15,599
that the terrorists
placed their explosive.

560
00:50:17,167 --> 00:50:19,044
(EXPLOSIONS)

561
00:50:19,127 --> 00:50:21,277
The hotel housed
the British Army headquarters

562
00:50:21,367 --> 00:50:25,406
and the Palestine government offices.
And casualties were very heavy.

563
00:50:27,007 --> 00:50:31,319
PAXMAN: Ninety-one people
were killed, including 4 1 Arabs,

564
00:50:31,407 --> 00:50:34,717
28 British, and 1 7 Jews.

565
00:50:39,887 --> 00:50:43,004
Sara Agassi was 1 7 at the time.

566
00:50:43,087 --> 00:50:45,681
She was a member
of the team of militant Jews

567
00:50:45,767 --> 00:50:48,156
who bombed the King David Hotel.

568
00:50:48,807 --> 00:50:51,560
Pretending she was
just attending a dance,

569
00:50:51,647 --> 00:50:54,286
she scouted the hotel
for the terrorists,

570
00:50:54,367 --> 00:50:57,245
deciding where the bomb
should be placed.

571
00:50:58,887 --> 00:51:02,516
So they came down here with the bombs,
and then what?

572
00:51:02,607 --> 00:51:07,522
To the... To the place where...
No, it's not here.

573
00:51:07,607 --> 00:51:09,723
-There. Let's go.
-Through there?

574
00:51:12,327 --> 00:51:14,124
AGASSI: It was open.
PAXMAN: Do you recognise it?

575
00:51:14,207 --> 00:51:17,244
AGASSI: Yeah, of course.
We came from here.

576
00:51:17,327 --> 00:51:20,080
This was the place
that you had been looking at

577
00:51:20,167 --> 00:51:23,364
-when you came dancing that day.
-Yes. Here.

578
00:51:23,447 --> 00:51:26,564
Here was the bar
and here was the orchestra.

579
00:51:27,167 --> 00:51:29,123
And all this was very big

580
00:51:29,207 --> 00:51:32,995
and it had a lot of chairs and tables.

581
00:51:33,087 --> 00:51:36,363
Beautiful lamps
and everything was very beautiful.

582
00:51:36,447 --> 00:51:38,597
Now, where were the bombs put?

583
00:51:38,687 --> 00:51:41,076
Into these columns.

584
00:51:41,607 --> 00:51:44,405
PAXMAN: This is one of the columns
that supports the whole hotel, I guess.

585
00:51:44,487 --> 00:51:46,762
-Or this corner of it.
-Yes, yes. It's not one.

586
00:51:46,847 --> 00:51:50,442
One, two, three... But four, five.

587
00:51:52,007 --> 00:51:53,998
PAXMAN: Five columns, five bombs.

588
00:52:00,127 --> 00:52:03,961
What was your reaction
when you heard the bomb go off?

589
00:52:04,047 --> 00:52:07,722
-What did you think? What did you feel?
-We were satisfied.

590
00:52:07,807 --> 00:52:10,401
-PAXMAN: You were satisfied?
-Yes. It was a mission.

591
00:52:10,487 --> 00:52:12,682
You've never been worried
about what you did?

592
00:52:12,767 --> 00:52:15,327
Of course I was worried. To succeed.

593
00:52:15,407 --> 00:52:19,798
But your sense of morality,
your conscience,

594
00:52:19,887 --> 00:52:21,843
-hasn't bothered you since?
-No, no.

595
00:52:21,927 --> 00:52:23,804
We fight for our...

596
00:52:23,887 --> 00:52:25,445
(SPEAKING HEBREW)

597
00:52:25,527 --> 00:52:28,360
To do something against the British.

598
00:52:28,447 --> 00:52:30,597
What do you think about it
after all this time?

599
00:52:30,687 --> 00:52:34,123
This is over 60 years ago now.
Have your views changed?

600
00:52:34,847 --> 00:52:36,724
No. No.

601
00:52:37,487 --> 00:52:39,682
(SPEAKING HEBREW)

602
00:52:50,407 --> 00:52:54,366
PAXMAN: Do you not feel
any thanks at all to the British?

603
00:52:54,447 --> 00:52:56,563
I mean, without the Balfour Declaration,

604
00:52:56,647 --> 00:53:00,720
there would have been no Jewish homeland
in this part of the world.

605
00:53:01,407 --> 00:53:03,238
(SPEAKING HEBREW)

606
00:53:08,207 --> 00:53:10,084
PAXMAN: The motive
is neither here nor there.

607
00:53:10,167 --> 00:53:12,158
I mean, whatever the motive was,

608
00:53:12,247 --> 00:53:15,045
do you not think
that the Balfour Declaration,

609
00:53:15,127 --> 00:53:18,563
the right of the Jews to have
a homeland in Palestine...

610
00:53:18,647 --> 00:53:19,796
It was a good start.

611
00:53:19,887 --> 00:53:21,764
-That was a good thing, wasn't it?
-Yes.

612
00:53:21,847 --> 00:53:25,157
PAXMAN: And are you not grateful
for the British for that?

613
00:53:26,767 --> 00:53:28,644
(SPEAKING HEBREW)

614
00:53:39,287 --> 00:53:43,121
It was now a lot less
like the Promised Land,

615
00:53:43,207 --> 00:53:45,163
than hell on Earth.

616
00:53:45,247 --> 00:53:48,717
''Tommies go home,''
someone daubed on a wall.

617
00:53:48,807 --> 00:53:52,516
And beneath it,
a despairing squaddie wrote,

618
00:53:52,607 --> 00:53:54,882
''I wish we fucking well could.''

619
00:54:02,607 --> 00:54:07,283
What Lawrence called the British love
of policing other men's muddles

620
00:54:07,367 --> 00:54:09,927
had proved a disaster.

621
00:54:17,487 --> 00:54:19,955
The British Empire is gone
from the Middle East

622
00:54:20,047 --> 00:54:22,481
but everyone still lives
with the consequences

623
00:54:22,567 --> 00:54:25,081
of Britain's presence in Palestine.

624
00:54:26,327 --> 00:54:29,524
Divided peoples and a divided land.

625
00:54:42,527 --> 00:54:45,087
The Middle East
taught the British a lesson

626
00:54:45,167 --> 00:54:48,318
that all empires had to learn
sooner or later.

627
00:54:48,407 --> 00:54:50,637
That though you may begin with ambition,

628
00:54:50,727 --> 00:54:52,763
and come to believe
you will last forever,

629
00:54:52,847 --> 00:54:56,522
one day, you will have
a head-on collision with reality.

630
00:54:57,007 --> 00:55:00,363
In the end, and there is
no disguising this fact,

631
00:55:00,447 --> 00:55:02,358
the British ran away.

632
00:55:04,007 --> 00:55:06,601
(PLAYING THE LASTPOST)

633
00:55:11,287 --> 00:55:13,517
PAXMAN: It was May, 1 948.

634
00:55:15,127 --> 00:55:18,324
One departing official commented bitterly,

635
00:55:18,407 --> 00:55:23,083
''It is surely a new technique
in our imperial mission to walk out,

636
00:55:23,167 --> 00:55:26,443
''and leave the pots we placed on the fire

637
00:55:26,527 --> 00:55:28,404
''to boil over. ''

638
00:55:51,967 --> 00:55:55,562
The bluff of British omnipotence
had been called.

639
00:55:56,287 --> 00:56:00,724
It would be called again and again
over the next few decades.

640
00:56:02,287 --> 00:56:05,996
The empire that had lasted
more than 200 years

641
00:56:06,087 --> 00:56:08,601
would be dismantled in scarcely 20.

642
00:56:20,687 --> 00:56:23,155
The British were beginning
to lose interest.

643
00:56:24,007 --> 00:56:27,044
The battered country that emerged
from the Second World War

644
00:56:27,127 --> 00:56:30,164
was more concerned with bettering
the lives of its citizens

645
00:56:30,247 --> 00:56:32,158
than anything else.

646
00:56:33,847 --> 00:56:38,716
An American politician later remarked
that the British people had decided

647
00:56:38,807 --> 00:56:42,197
they preferred free aspirins
and false teeth

648
00:56:42,287 --> 00:56:44,164
to a role in the world.

649
00:56:52,367 --> 00:56:55,677
But it hasn't entirely turned out that way.

650
00:57:00,407 --> 00:57:03,877
In fact, we've done anything
but climb into the back seat.

651
00:57:03,967 --> 00:57:08,199
The empire may be over,
but imperial habits linger on.

652
00:57:09,007 --> 00:57:10,838
(SHOUTING)

653
00:57:17,247 --> 00:57:18,805
PAXMAN: In the last three decades,

654
00:57:18,887 --> 00:57:22,721
Britain has embarked on seven foreign wars.

655
00:57:29,607 --> 00:57:32,963
There were arguments aplenty
for fighting any one of them.

656
00:57:34,607 --> 00:57:38,441
But you can't help wondering if,
without the memory of empire,

657
00:57:38,527 --> 00:57:41,564
Britain would have plunged in
quite so readily.

658
00:57:44,647 --> 00:57:49,118
It's as if we can't quite let go
of who we once were.

659
00:57:52,287 --> 00:57:54,323
(ALL CHANTING)