British Empire

Topics represented

British Empire (146) · Resistance & colonized agency (77) · Law & imperial government (62) · Colonization & sovereignty (58) · War & conquest (41) · Decolonization & independence (40) · Slavery & coerced labor (34) · Companies, trade & extraction (33) · Indigenous peoples & dispossession (28) · Self-government & Commonwealth (21) · Memory, reparation & restitution (21) · Migration & diaspora (20)

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1. 1916

   The Easter Rising accelerates Ireland’s break

   Republicans occupied buildings in Dublin and proclaimed a republic during wartime. The rising was defeated within a week, but the executions of Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and other leaders and mass arrests transformed opinion and opened the path to the War of Independence

2. 1917

   The Balfour Declaration promises a Jewish “national home”

   Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour conveyed British support for a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, with a clause against prejudicing the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities. It did not recognize Palestinian national political rights and was issued before British occupation was consolidated

3. 1919

   The Treaty of Rawalpindi confirms Afghan autonomy

   Amanullah Khan launched the Third Anglo-Afghan War, and the Rawalpindi agreement ended the conflict. Afghanistan gained effective control of foreign relations; the inherited Durand Line continued to divide Pashtun communities and remains contested

4. 1919

   British troops fire at Jallianwala Bagh

   Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered troops to fire without warning into a trapped crowd at Amritsar. The official toll was 379 dead; Indian estimates were higher, so the total remains disputed. The massacre and martial law radicalized opposition; Rabindranath Tagore renounced his British knighthood

5. 1920–1922

   Partition precedes the Irish Free State

   The Government of Ireland Act created two jurisdictions; after war and negotiation, the Anglo-Irish Treaty established a 26-county dominion. Northern Ireland opted to remain in the United Kingdom, while the oath, boundary, and partition divided nationalism and contributed to civil war

6. 1920–1922

   Mandates turn occupation into international trusteeship

   San Remo assigned Britain mandates over Iraq and Palestine, with Transjordan administered within the Palestine framework under the League of Nations system. In Iraq, a broad tribal, clerical, and urban revolt against occupation and taxation was suppressed; its cost encouraged monarchy and indirect rule under Faisal

7. 1922

   Britain declares a limited Egyptian independence

   Following the 1919 nationalist revolution politically led by Saad Zaghloul’s Wafd, Britain ended the protectorate and recognized Egypt as a sovereign state. It reserved defence, communications, minorities, and Sudan, retaining troops and decisive influence

8. 1922–1923

   The League approves the Mandate for Palestine

   The instrument incorporated the Balfour Declaration and charged Britain with facilitating the Jewish national home and developing self-governing institutions, alongside an obligation to safeguard all inhabitants. Tension between these duties and the absence of Palestinian consent structured mandate rule

9. 1926–1931

   Dominions become autonomous and equal communities

   The 1926 Balfour Declaration described Britain and the dominions as autonomous and equal in status; the 1931 Statute of Westminster removed much legislative subordination. Application varied by dominion, and this equality did not extend to colonies or Indigenous peoples within settler states

10. 1929–1930

    Ogu Umunwanyi mobilizes women against indirect rule

    Thousands of Igbo and Ibibio women organized assemblies, songs, boycotts, and the practice of “sitting on” authorities against feared taxation and warrant-chief abuses. Colonial forces fired at several locations, killing dozens; exact totals vary. Later commissions partially reformed local government

11. 1930

    Gandhi turns salt into mass civil disobedience

    Mahatma Gandhi marched with followers from Sabarmati to Dandi and symbolically broke the colonial salt monopoly. The campaign spread across India, brought in women and workers, and prompted mass arrests; Sarojini Naidu was among those who continued the protest

12. 1932

    Iraq enters the League of Nations

    The formal end of the mandate and Iraq’s admission to the League made Faisal I’s kingdom an independent state. A treaty retained British bases, military transit, and influence, while oil and minority protections remained sites of power and conflict

13. 1935

    The 1935 Act expands provincial autonomy without sovereignty

    The Act proposed a federation never fully realized and created elected provincial governments under a still-restricted franchise. Governors retained reserve powers and the center remained under imperial control; nevertheless, the 1937 elections gave Indian parties experience in office

14. 1936–1939

    The Arab Revolt challenges mandate, immigration, and dispossession

    A Palestinian general strike developed into insurgency against British rule and fears of displacement through Zionist immigration and land purchase. Britain used detention, demolition, collective punishment, and auxiliary forces; repression severely weakened Palestinian political capacity before 1948

15. 1939–1945

    The empire enters war and accelerates its own crisis

    Britain declared war on behalf of colonies—including India without consulting elected leaders—while dominions decided separately. Millions served in armed forces and war economies; Japanese invasion, the Atlantic battle, African and Asian campaigns, and wartime promises of freedom intensified anti-colonial demands

16. 1942

    The fall of Singapore shatters the myth of invulnerability

    British, Indian, Australian, and local forces surrendered to Japan after the Malayan campaign. Japanese occupation was brutal for local communities, but the defeat also shattered claims of British military and racial superiority and transformed Southeast Asian nationalisms

17. 1942

    Congress demands immediate British withdrawal

    The Quit India resolution called for an immediate end to British rule. Gandhi, Nehru, Maulana Azad, and other leaders were arrested before organizing the campaign, but strikes, sabotage, and parallel governments appeared across regions; repression killed and imprisoned thousands, with totals disputed

18. 1943–1944

    The Bengal famine exposes wartime priorities

    Millions died in Bengal in a crisis shaped by lost imports, inflation, military procurement, distribution failure, “denial” policies, delayed relief, and crop damage. Estimates commonly range from two to three million, but the total and the weight of each cause remain debated

19. 1945

    Manchester demands immediate decolonization

    Trade unionists, intellectuals, and activists from Africa and the diaspora gathered for the Fifth Pan-African Congress. George Padmore, Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, and Amy Ashwood Garvey were among those linking labour rights, anti-racism, and self-government while calling for mass action and colonialism’s end

20. 1946

    Indian naval ratings mutiny in Bombay and other ports

    A dispute over food, racist treatment, and service conditions spread from HMIS Talwar to ships and shore establishments in several cities. Workers’ strikes supported the ratings; Congress and Muslim League leaders urged surrender, but the scale exposed disaffection within the Raj’s armed forces

21. 1947

    Independence arrives with Partition

    The Independence Act created the dominions of India and Pakistan while commissions chaired by Cyril Radcliffe divided Punjab and Bengal at great speed. Partition produced one of history’s largest mass migrations and communal, state and paramilitary violence; Imperial War Museums places disputed death estimates between 200,000 and one million

22. 1947–1948

    UN partition, mandate’s end, Israel, and Nakba

    The UN recommended partitioning Palestine into Arab and Jewish states with an internationalized Jerusalem. Britain ended the mandate on 14 May 1948 without implementing an agreed transition; Israel’s creation and war accompanied the flight and expulsion of roughly 750,000 Palestinians, a widely used estimate rather than an exact count

23. 1947–1974

    The sterling area and its guarantees prolong an imperial financial network

    After the Second World War, the sterling area grouped territories and states that held reserves in pounds and applied exchange controls coordinated around London. The 1947 convertibility crisis, devaluations and the 1968 guarantee agreements show that constitutional independence did not immediately end monetary dependence or the Bank of England’s centrality. The official archive records renewals and short extensions until the guarantees ended in December 1974; this does not imply that every exchange control ended at that point

24. 1948

    Burma and Ceylon take different constitutional paths

    Burma became an independent republic outside the Commonwealth, months after Aung San’s assassination; U Nu led the new government. Ceylon became a dominion within the Commonwealth under D. S. Senanayake, retaining Westminster institutions that were later transformed

25. 1948–1960

    Counterinsurgency and resettlement in the Malayan Emergency

    The Malayan Communist Party’s guerrillas fought colonial and later independent government. The Briggs Plan isolated insurgents through food controls, detention, and relocation of nearly half a million rural residents, chiefly Chinese, into “New Villages”; independence in 1957 preceded the emergency’s end

26. 1948–1949

    Imperial citizenship accompanies Windrush migration

    Caribbean passengers from Empire Windrush disembarked at Tilbury in June 1948 as part of migration flows both before and after that voyage. The British Nationality Act, effective in 1949, created Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies and retained broad entry rights; the “Windrush generation” spans many routes, ships, and arrivals

27. 1949

    The London Declaration admits republics to the Commonwealth

    To let India become a republic while remaining a member, prime ministers agreed to recognize the monarch as a symbol of free association rather than a required common sovereign. The formula recast the Commonwealth as an organization of formally equal states, despite unequal post-imperial economic and political relations

28. 1952–1960

    The Kenya Emergency fights the Mau Mau uprising

    The Kenya Land and Freedom Army, associated chiefly with Kikuyu communities, fought over land and colonial rule. The state detained, interrogated, and relocated hundreds of thousands, executed more than a thousand convicted people, and imposed villages; insurgents also killed Africans and Europeans. Records and totals remain incomplete and disputed

29. 1952–1963

    British nuclear tests at Monte Bello, Emu Field and Maralinga

    With the agreement and support of the Australian government, the United Kingdom conducted nuclear trials at the Monte Bello Islands, Emu Field and Maralinga between 1952 and 1963. Tests and experiments contaminated lands inhabited by Aboriginal peoples, especially Anangu and Maralinga Tjarutja communities, and also exposed service personnel. The 1985 McClelland Royal Commission criticized protection of Indigenous people and safety management, revealing how a postcolonial military relationship preserved hierarchies and shifted risks onto local communities

30. 1956

    Nationalization and invasion expose British decline

    Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal company; Britain, France, and Israel coordinated an invasion under a secret pretext. Pressure from the United States, United Nations, and financial markets forced withdrawal. Egypt kept the canal, and the crisis discredited Britain’s capacity to act as an autonomous imperial power