Episode 3 | Empire with David Olusoga

Duration: 59'30''

Synopsis

David Olusoga reveals how the Empire reached its maximum size after the First World War but within a generation had begun to collapse, as he uncovers the story of decolonisation.

Further Information

More clips from Empire with David Olusoga

Episode 1 | Empire with David Olusoga

Episode 1 | Empire with David Olusoga

BBC Two | 2025 | 59'35''

David Olusoga tells the story of the British Empire, from its origins under Elizabeth I to the establishment of colonies in America, th...

Episode 2 | Empire with David Olusoga

Episode 2 | Empire with David Olusoga

BBC Two | 2025 | 59'27''

David Olusoga reveals how the loss of the American colonies led to the colonisation of Australia and how the Indian indenture system wa...

Jamestown colony | Empire with David Olusoga

Jamestown colony | Empire with David Olusoga

BBC Two | 2025 | 8'42''

In Jamestown, David looks at evidence of the first English colonies in the Americas and their tobacco plantations.

Joint-Stock Companies | Empire with David Olusoga

Joint-Stock Companies | Empire with David Olusoga

BBC Two | 2025 | 5'00''

This clip discusses the joint-stock companies set up under Elizabeth I.

Transportation of Convicts to Australia | Empire with David Olusoga

Transportation of Convicts to Australia | Empire with David Olusoga

BBC Two | 2025 | 9'41''

David explains how Britian sent their problem convicts abroad to the colonies for cheap labour, and many ...

Treatment of Aboriginals in Australia | Empire with David Olusoga

Treatment of Aboriginals in Australia | Empire with David Olusoga

BBC Two | 2025 | 15'35''

David explains the horrendous treatment of the Aboriginal peoples of Tasmania by the British.

More resources about History

S01E02: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand | Days That Shook the World

S01E02: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand | Days That Shook the World

BBC Two | 2004 | 28'56''

How the duke's death led to the start of the First World War.

Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley

Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley

BBC One | 2018 | 1'28'57''

Documentary, presented by Lucy Worsley, which uses dramatised testimony to tell the story of a group of working-class women conducting a dange...

04: The Battle Against the Spanish Armada | Battlefield Britain

04: The Battle Against the Spanish Armada | Battlefield Britain

BBC Two | 2004 | 58'48''

Peter and Dan Snow take a look at the battles that shaped our nation. Drake's unlikely sea victory against th...

01: Medieval London | Filthy Cities

01: Medieval London | Filthy Cities

BBC Two | 2011 | 58'59''

Dan Snow gets down and dirty in medieval grime to discover how the London of today was forged in the filth of the 14th century.

S01E04: Hiroshima | Days That Shook the World

S01E04: Hiroshima | Days That Shook the World

BBC Four | 2003 | 59'15''

Documentary recalling 6 August 1945, when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, with testimony from American colonel Paul Tib...

Clare Balding's Secrets of a Suffragette

Clare Balding's Secrets of a Suffragette

Channel 4 | 2013 | 46'51''

In 1913 Suffragette Emily Davison stepped into the path of the King's horse at the Derby. Clare Balding examines the story of Emily,...

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

BBC One | 2002 | 27'58''

In a one-off precursor to his Historyonic's series, Nick Knowles gets a behind-the-scenes look at why a Yorkshire-born zealot called Guy Fa...

04: Revolution | Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain

04: Revolution | Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain

BBC Two | 2007 | 59'20''

Andrew Marr revisits the Britain of Margaret Thatcher and comes to some surprising conclusions about the British nat...

S01E10: The Assassination of JFK | Days That Shook the World

S01E10: The Assassination of JFK | Days That Shook the World

BBC Two | 2003 | 29'42''

The stories of a day that rocked the American presidency: the assassination of its youngest leader, John F. Kenn...

Dunkirk (2017)

Dunkirk (2017)

BBC One | 2020 | 1'37'04''

Hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops find themselves in an impossible situation. Christopher Nolan's epic wartime action thriller.

The Somme: From Defeat to Victory

The Somme: From Defeat to Victory

BBC One | 2006 | 58'23''

Drama-documentary which offers a new perspective on the most infamous battle of World War I, revealing how it was on the Somme that the Bri...

03: Paradise Lost | Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain

03: Paradise Lost | Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain

BBC Two | 2007 | 58'34''

As the 1960s progress, Harold Wilson takes centre stage in a rapidly changing Britain as the country looks to a f...

02: The Land of Lost Content | Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain

02: The Land of Lost Content | Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain

BBC Two | 2007 | 58'44''

The 1950s were a period of apparent calm, order and prosperity for Britain, but much of the populace w...

05: The Battle of Naseby | Battlefield Britain

05: The Battle of Naseby | Battlefield Britain

BBC Two | 2004 | 58'58''

Peter and Dan Snow take an in-depth look at the battles that shaped our nation using state-of-the-art graphics. They go back t...

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

BBC Two | 2018 | 1'35'05''

Transforming archive footage more than a century old, Peter Jackson brings to life the people who can best tell the story of World War I: the ...

Selma (2014)

Selma (2014)

BBC Two | 2017 | 1'58'38''

Biopic chronicling the three-month period in 1965 which saw Dr Martin Luther King Jr lead a turbulent march from Selma to Montgomery in a bid to secure equal vo...

05: Sewer King | Seven Wonders of the Industrial World

05: Sewer King | Seven Wonders of the Industrial World

BBC Two | 2003 | 48'36''

As 19th century London's sewage problem reached crisis point and cholera was rife, Joseph Bazalgette proposed a scheme...

The Children of the Holocaust

The Children of the Holocaust

BBC Two | 2014 | 58'21''

Powerful animated films, in which elderly Jewish Holocaust survivors tell their stories of Nazi persecution in their childhood and how they esc...

05: 1968 Vietnam | Peter and Dan Snow: 20th Century Battlefields

05: 1968 Vietnam | Peter and Dan Snow: 20th Century Battlefields

BBC Two | 2007 | 58'47''

Peter and Dan Snow reveal the techniques use by US marines to flush out Communist fighters who lived in a ne...

1917 (2019)

1917 (2019)

BBC One | 2022 | 1'48'00''

During the First World War, two soldiers are ordered across no-man's-land and deep into enemy territory to deliver a message. If they fail, an entire battalion, ...

More from David Olusoga

Social housing development | A House Through Time

Social housing development | A House Through Time

BBC Two | 2020 | 2'28''

A new block of social housing is built next to 10 Guinea Street, in space left from the Blitz.

Joint-Stock Companies | Empire with David Olusoga

Joint-Stock Companies | Empire with David Olusoga

BBC Two | 2025 | 5'00''

This clip discusses the joint-stock companies set up under Elizabeth I.

03: The Two Nations | Union with David Olusoga

03: The Two Nations | Union with David Olusoga

BBC Two | 2023 | 59'09''

The 19th-century union appears secure, but beneath the surface run deep divisions, leading to the emergence of a new working-c...

02: Medical Drugs | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer

02: Medical Drugs | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer

BBC Four | 2021 | 53'15''

Documentary series about the effect of medicine on life expectancy. How knowledge gained from the discovery ...

The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files

The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files

BBC Two | 2019 | 58'55''

How black immigrants who made Britain their home came face to face with the government's 'hostile environment'. David Olusoga exposes...

08: The Cult of Progress | Civilisations

08: The Cult of Progress | Civilisations

BBC Two | 2018 | 59'00''

David Olusoga explores the artistic reaction to imperialism in the 19th century.

Shifting historical opinions on the British Empire | A Timewatch Guide

Shifting historical opinions on the British Empire | A Timewatch Guide

BBC Four | 2017 | 5'58''

David Olusoga explains how historical perspectives of the British Empire have shifted through time.

Neil Kenlock - Photographing the black British experience | Black and British: A Forgotten History

Neil Kenlock - Photographing the black British experience | Black and British: A Forgotten History

BBC Two | 2016 | 4'26''

David Olusoga talks to Neil Kenlock about his photographs of the experienc...

01: Profit and Loss | Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners

01: Profit and Loss | Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners

BBC Two | 2015 | 59'21''

In 1834 Britain abolished slavery, a defining and celebrated moment in our national history. What has been largely for...

French troops from Sub-Saharan West Africa | The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire

French troops from Sub-Saharan West Africa | The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire

BBC Two | 2014 | 4'06''

David Olusoga investigates the WW1 experiences of French troops from Sub-Saharan W...