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Since the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, the British Empire has become an especially contested topic. Teachers tasked with helping pupils to understand it and employees and volunteers in the heritage sector trying to convey its significance to the public often feel as if they are negotiating a minefield. On one side lurks a right-wing press that sees critical examination of the past as “woke”, and patriotic Britons ready to be offended by anything critical of their ancestors’ actions. On the other are critics of an insufficiently critical approach to a self-comforting, “white supremacist” view of slavery and colonial exploitation.

The way through the minefield is to draw on the findings of specialist researchers who have dedicated their careers to a nuanced and holistic understanding of the British colonial past. Being grounded in the relevant historiography is essential, for instance, if one is to steer between disavowing the unprecedented nature and significance of trans-Atlantic slavery for the creation of modern Britain on the one hand, and exaggerating it as the single most important contributor to Britain’s industrialisation on the other. The truth lies in between: this uniquely capitalised and commercial form of trafficking and enslavement enabled inputs of capital, technological innovation, raw materials and markets that comprised key ingredients in Britain’s ‘take-off’ because they were combined with resource endowments and military and political innovations that also converged within late eighteenth century Britain. It also set in train enduring disparities marked by race.

As someone who has taught, researched and written academic and popular books about British colonialism for over thirty years, and who has intervened in public debates over empire, resisting its over-simplification and politicisation, Alan Lester is in a good position to identify the key truths about the colonial past and its ongoing afterlives based on curiosity-driven research and evidence, that Britons ought to know.

Join us for an online CPD workshop "Talking about the British Empire and its Afterlives" with prof Alan Lester on Monday 1 June 2026 from 2pm to 4pm. In this course, he will focus on key questions such as:

How was the British Empire created?

How did it differ from empires that had gone before?

What was distinctive about its trans-Atlantic system of enslavement?

What were the Empire’s key components in the western, eastern and southern hemispheres?

How did the abolition of slavery relate to the Scramble for Africa?

Why did the Empire collapse?

Why is it so contentious now?

The aim of the day is to help you navigate through the British Empire minefield and leave those whom you educate better informed.

Written by , Professor of Historical Geography at the School of Global Studies

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