End of Empire - ebook & 1985 Granada Television series by Brian Lapping

End of Empire, ebook & 14 part (one episode missing!) 1985 Granada Television series by Brian Lapping


** NOTE ** Epsiode 5 'Malaya' is missing, presumed lost. Does anyone have a copy on VHS they can digitize and share?

The British Empire was the last of the great world empires — the most extensive and the most populous in history. Its decline and fall took place within a single generation, effectively beginning with Indian independence in 1947 and ending with the creation of Zimbabwe in 1980. Save in Hong Kong, Gibraltar and a handful of tiny islands, the colonial governor became an all-but-extinct species.

Brian Lapping’s masterful account, written in association with his own Granada Television series, concentrates on the major episodes in this momentous story. India, the “jewel in the crown”, was the first to be dislodged; in 1939 the Viceroy had declared war on Germany on behalf of all the peoples of India, without consulting a ‘single Indian; other governors quickly followed suit. Yet the Second World War hastened independence in Asia and Africa. In the Middle East the British—filling the vacuum left by the Ottoman Turks—were more recent arrivals, and it was in Palestine, Iran, Egypt, Cyprus and Aden (all subordinate in varying degrees to the British) that the bloodiest struggles took place.

End of Empire is a gripping narrative of events in Asia (India, Pakistan and Malaya), the Middle East, and Africa (the Gold Coast, Kenya, Rhodesia): from Pax Britannica to independence. In addition to memoirs and histories, the book calls upon the living memories of former Colonial Secretaries, ministers, senior officials, politicians and nationalist leaders. In asking how successful British governments were in judging the precise moment of the inevitable, or why the Middle East went so badly wrong, or whether the transfer of power could have been handled differently, Brian Lapping produces some forthright conclusions. In the end, though, when the sun finally set, the British emerged in a surprisingly creditable light.