History Summarized: The British Empire

How is it that the history of some islands off the northern coast of Europe balloons into a worldwide history? Empire is how! Let's dig into the history of Britain since Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland in 1603, and follow that narrative through the monumental rise and precipitous fall of the British Empire.

Special thanks to the community members on Discord who assisted me with my script: Corvin the Crow, Johnny, Jdedredhed, Joud, Jéuname, Klieg, RileyTheProcrastinator, The Missing Link, and thesleepingmeerkat

SOURCES & Further Reading: The Great Courses Lecture series "Foundations of Western Civilization II: A History of the Modern Western World" by Robert Buchols lectures 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 30, "The History Of England" volumes 3 "Rebellion" & 4 "Revolution" & 5 "Dominion" by Peter Ackroyd, "Scotland: A Concise History" by Fitzroy MacLean, "The Great Cities in History" by John Julius Norwich, "A Concise History of Wales" by Geraint H. Jenkins, "Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World's Oceans" by James Stavridis.

Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.

With an Amara account, you can translate this very video by following this link:

[OverlySarcasticProductions]

Britain: *Sees unclaimed land
Britain: ...
Britain: *SIPS TEA AGGRESSIVELY
-B

[asdkant]

Reminds me of something I read recently: "the only reason there are pyramids in Egipt is they are too heavy to move to the british museum"

[themandownstairs]

"Their plan was certainly extreme, and their idiocy correspondingly immense"
A fine addition to my collection of "anime plot or history summary" quotes

[geraldgrenier]

"The Sun never set on the British Empire" didn't mean it would never end, it was quite literal. There was never a time of day were the sun wasn't above a part of it

[grantm]

"France was egging them on" - that sentence is doing A LOT of heavy lifting.

[shadowldrago]

"Geopolitical Megazord" may be my new favorite sentence.

[MayeurDonz]

"Britain became the biggest empire in Human History."
Wales: "And I helped!"

[Stoneworks]

Damn 4:56 was a really succinct but strong emotional beat. Good writing Blue, and good editing Indigo

[Shiroya_Rumika]

World: *"Hey, Britain, how many countries did you colonized ?"*
Britain: *Start singing Yakko's World*

[locomotivefaox]

Frenchman standing on the coast looking out with binoculars

“Monsieur, the britONs.. they have... stopped fiegh-teng eachother.”

The whole world: shit.

[Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

A British video? I say, I am certain that it will simultaneously be both the most _civilized_ and _uncivilized_ video we have ever seen, as any good British video must be!

[tyrannosaurusrhett]

Blue: "And so the World Wars happened."
Me, a WWI historian: !!!
Blue: "Yes, they're very important. We're not getting into it."
Me: - Sad WWI historian noises-

[DeusBlackheart]

As a Scotsman, who is deeply interested in the history of Britain, I say you did a really good job summarizing. You missed some things, but if you didn't it would be 6 hours long.

[elbiesee]

"Hey King George, what's the opposite of tea? YEET!"

*almost spits out hot mouthful of therapeutic tannins

[thedangermouse]

But Blue you missed the amazing part were Britain declared itself the centre of the world, with the times zones and trade. Also just the fact that this video is in English says a lot about the British Empire.

[TheNightmareRider]

"George, the British Empire covers half the globe. While the German Empire covers a small sausage factory in Tanganita."

[bskorupk]

Overly Sarcastic Productions: "History Summarized: Britain"
Me: "I'm Carving 'Baldric' Sir!"

[christinacaro]

quote i will never forget:
blue: what's the opposite of tea?
blue: *YEET*

[thegoose]

Fun fact: After being sworn in as king, Charles II had Cromwell's corpse dug up and executed posthumously to get revenge for his father

[Skinineful]

"Napoleon's own hubris"

I mean, also Britain's infinite amount of cash which allowed them to pay the entirety of Europe to attack Napoleon. That had a small role.