India, often declared "the jewel in the crown" for the Empire, had won its independence just five years before. In 1952, British troops were fighting independence movements in Egypt and Kenya.

Save guides, add subjects and pick up where you left off with your BBC account. When World War Two broke out in September 1939, Britain called upon countries from across the British Empire for help.

Below is a map from 1901 showing the “British Empire” at one of its peak periods. The map doesn't convey the extent of British influence, especially, in Latin America. This is what historians ...

For most Americans, D-Day remains the most famous battle of World War II. It was not the end of ... that would emerge after the war. Only the British empire was expected to survive as the standard ...

Elkins is a Pulitzer Prize-winning professor of history at Harvard University and author of the recently-released Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire “Queen Elizabeth was a life ...