After Empire: What Happened Next? [audio 15min]

"Empire" 90th of 90: The dismantling of empire went on until the 1970s and 80s. Not all went. Britain still has (sometimes reluctantly) crown colonies. WWII changed the strategic shape and politics of the globe. The invention of long-range aircraft and nuclear bombs changed the rules of deterrence. Yet some still believed in a greater Britain, a third empire and that the answer to Britain's economic woes had to be in Africa. The basic objectives in Africa were large-scale self-governing and integrated societies. Not independent as, say, the Gold Coast wanted to be, but based on British democracy. But, by the 1960s, the very Africa that Britain had hoped to capitalise on was changing, as Macmillan famously pointed out on 3 February 1960 in his "Wind of Change" speech: "Fifteen years' ago this movement [of freedom in India] spread through Asia. Many countries there of different races and civilisations pressed their claim to an independent national life. Today the same thing is happening in Africa ... The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and, whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact." Some countries, for example the Seychelles in the 1970s, never really wanted to go. But the mother country was firm. Off you go. You'll like it when you get there. "This Sceptred Isle: Empire" is a narrative history of the British Empire from Ireland in the 12th century to the independence of India in the 20th, told in 90 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee and narrated by actor Juliet Stevenson. ~Visit website to listen again to 5 most recent episodes, plus interactive maps and timeline, biographical dictionary, image galleries, quizzes, sources, resources, listeners' comments.