Episode 1

At its height, the British Empire - the biggest the world has ever seen –ruled over a fifth of the world’s land surface and almost a quarter of its people. Scattered across the world are the ruins of the empire, from slave fortresses and plantations to schools and railways.

But perhaps the greatest effect of the empire can be seen in its living legacy. Today, there are billions of people around the world whose ancestors were part of the story of empire. This is in many ways a shared history – often full of complexities and contradictions – which has changed the demographics of the world and forged new communities and identities.

In the first episode, David Olusoga traces the story of the British Empire from its origins under Elizabeth I in the late 16th century, when England was a relatively poor country compared to the lucrative global empires of its European rivals Spain and Portugal, through to the emergence of private charter companies and the beginnings of an empire of both trade and settlement.

In Jamestown, he looks at evidence of the first English colonies in the Americas and their tobacco plantations, while in Barbados, he reveals how the mass production of sugar brought immense wealth to plantation owners and immense suffering to the enslaved Africans employed in the crop's production.

In Bath, he sees how the plantation owners used their extraordinary wealth to build and buy the most fashionable properties of the day, while in India, he shows how the East India Company was able to take full control over the subcontinent in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly under the leadership of Sir Robert Clive.