Hello and welcome to this lesson on the British Empire and migration to Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries.

This lesson is part of a broader inquiry looking at migration to Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the course of this inquiry, we'll cover lots of different things, but today we're just going to be looking on the impact of the expanding British Empire on patterns of migration, the experiences of those migrants, but also the impact they had on Britain.

Now, in order to do that, you're going to need a piece of paper and a pen.

If you don't have one, absolutely fine.

Just pause the video now, go and get everything you need, and then come back and press play when you're ready to go.

Now we are ready to get started, and you'll see our lesson outcome on this slide here.

By the end of this lesson, I'm hoping you'll be able to say that you could explain the reasons for increasing migration from across the British Empire and describe the experiences and impact of these migrants.

Now, in order to do that we're going to need some keywords, and for today, we have got five.

The first is colony, and that's somewhere under the full control of another country and usually occupied by settlers of that country.

The second is the Transatlantic Slave Trade that you might have learned about elsewhere already, and that's the trade between Europe, West Africa, and the Americas, where goods were exchanged for enslaved people who were sold onto plantations in European colonies.

The third is civil liberties, and that's a person's right to be subject to laws that are only for the good of the community.

Fourth, lascar, and that's a sailor who's usually from India or southeast Asia.

And finally an ayah, and that's a nurse, maid or nanny who's usually of Indian descent.

Now, we've had a very quick look at these keywords.

We're going to be seeing them again in the context of the lesson, but now you've got a brief definition, I'm sure they'll make loads more sense.

I hope.

So we're going to start off this lesson looking at the reasons for migration from across the empire.

So by 1700, Britain had established a trading presence across the Americas, Asia, and Africa.

And in some places they'd successfully established colonies.

As the destination for millions of enslaved people, the British merchants had bought or kidnapped on the West African coast, British colonies in the Caribbean and the 13 colonies in North America were very profitable.

The East India Company had been expanding its trade in India for a century by this time, and they'd secured control of large parts of the former Mughal Empire.

But looking much closer to home, Ireland was not yet part of Britain, and for many was considered and treated as a colony of the British Empire.

In the 17 and 1800s, things would change drastically.

By 1783, Britain had lost its hold on North America, and consequently, the British government was willing to use any means necessary to secure and expand its control in Africa and Asia.

By 1900, the British Empire had reached its geographical peak.

So we can see an illustration on the slide here of merchants in the East India Company.

We can see them trading lots of goods, these goods that were super profitable, but especially after losing their control over North America, as the 13 colonies became independent, this trade became increasingly important.

And in 1807, things would also shift drastically because the Transatlantic Slave Trade had been abolished.

And then slavery itself was outlawed in 1833, but in place of their role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Britain established colonies across large parts of Africa, including modern day Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa.

Then in 1858, India also became a formal British colony.

And the wealth gained from the British Empire meant that India became known as the crown jewel of the British Empire.

But also closer to home, things changed in the 1800s.

The Act of Union slightly earlier in 1801, had made Ireland a formal part of the United Kingdom, but for many, this did not bring as much change as expected.

And so were still often used as an example throughout this period of migration from across the British Empire.

Now, before we go on to look at what did this mean for patterns of migration and why were all of these changes a reason for migration in the 18th and 19th centuries, we're just going to pause 'cause I've got a quick question for you.

Which two of the following statements are examples of the growing British Empire? By 1783, Britain had lost their hold on North America.

B, in 1858, India had become a formal colony.

C, the trade in enslaved people had been abolished in 1807, and D, after 1833, British colonies spread across Africa.

So pause the video now, make a decision, and then come back and press play.

Well done, hopefully you said B and C.

In 1858, India became a formal colony, and after 1833 British colonies spread across Africa.

Really, really well done.

But what did this mean for patterns of migration? Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, west African migrants came to England as unfree servants.

They'd often been bought through Britain's role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and then gifted to wealthy English families.

However, as the trade in enslaved people came to an end in 1807, there were increasing numbers of African migrants who settled in Britain as free individuals, particularly as increasing civil liberties gave them greater freedom to live and work in England away from the fear of being enslaved.

But this didn't just impact West African migrants.

For Indian migrants, an increasing British presence in their nation provided more opportunities for people working as lascars and ayahs to travel to England, where some found opportunities to stay and settle.

And for wealthier Indian people, the reasons for migration were often different.

They often migrated willingly as a result of increasing opportunities to take up jobs in government, but also for a better education.

Now, before we go on to look at one more group, I've just got a quick question for you.

So Jun's been sitting in on our lesson, but he's not necessarily been paying great attention because he said, "The growing empire had no impact on patterns of migration." Now I need you to help him out.

Can you please help explain why Jun's statement is incorrect based on what we've learned so far? So pause the video, have a go explaining to him, and then come back when you've got something down.

Brilliant, so hopefully you included any of the following in your explanation.

That Britain's role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade led to increasing numbers of unfree migrants, many bought and gifted to wealthy families.

After 1807, increasing numbers of African migrants settled in Britain as free individuals.

Lascars and ayahs had more opportunities to travel to Britain, or you might have added that wealthier Indian migrants migrated for work and education.

Any of the following would be absolutely fantastic.

But like I said, we've got one more group and they come up when you think about increasing civil liberties, so laws that give greater freedoms for the good of the community and increasing civil liberties in Britain, increased migration from Ireland in the late 1700s before they had become formally part of Great Britain.

The 1778 Papist Act granted Irish migrants, the right to own land, join the army and gave Irish Protestants the right to vote.

Something Irish Catholics continued to be excluded from, but also from 1801, the Act of Union meant that Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, meaning the Irish people on the British mainland were citizens and therefore not migrants, although attitudes towards them did not always suggest this, hence why they're included here as an example of migrants from across the empire.

So I'd like you to have a go answering this question for me.

How did the 1778 Papist Act lead to increasing migrations? A, because it attracted Irish Catholics as they were given the right to vote.

B, it attracted Irish migrants as they could now own land and join the army.

Or C, it made Ireland a part of the United Kingdom.

So pause the video, make a decision, and come back and press play when you're done please.

Great job, hopefully you said B, that it attracted Irish migrants as they could now own land and join the army in Britain.

Really well done.

So what I'd like you to do is have a go at completing this table for me by deciding whether each of these statements is referring to the reasons for migration of West African migrants.

You will write WA, Indian migrants, you'll write IN, or Irish migrants, you'll write IR.

Pause the video now, make a decision for me, then come back and press play when you've completed the table.

Brilliant, so hopefully your completed table looks a little something like this.

Greater civil liberties brought freedom from the fear of being enslaved.

We know that refer to West African migrants.

The 1778 Papist Act gave Catholics the right to own land.

We know that's Irish migrants.

In 1801, Ireland became part of the United Kingdom.

Irish migrants.

The empire gave more opportunities for lascars and ayahs to travel to Britain, Indian migrants, and enslaved people also bought and gifted to British families.

We know that applies to West African migrants.

So we've got lots of different examples here of the ways in which the expanding British Empire and its changing nature, so for example, its role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, changing to the control of colonies across Africa led to migration to Britain.

Now in the next part of the lesson, we're going to be looking at the experiences of migrants from across the empire.

Now for Irish migrants, their experiences in the 18th and 19th centuries were varied.

Irish Catholics often faced hostility despite the 1778 Papist Act, Irish Catholics were still unable to vote until 1829, despite being British citizens since 1801, after the anti-Irish Murphy Riots in Birmingham in 1876 led by William Murphy, who was an anti-Catholic speaker.

Catholics in the area received no compensation for any of the damages caused by the anti-Irish mob who rampaged through the predominantly Irish areas of the city.

So we can see that there was great hostility towards Irish migrants, specifically Irish Catholics.

And as a result of incidents like the Murphy Riots, most Irish migrants in this period settled in Liverpool where there was a large and well established Irish community, and therefore, much more positive experiences with many building successful businesses across the city.

Even so, most Irish migrants in Liverpool were still confined to living in some of the poorest areas because of the low wages paid from migrant labour.

Even after some government reforms were introduced in 1869 to improve living conditions, many still found themselves living in poorly kept accommodation.

Attitudes did change, but slowly.

Most Irish migrants worked constructing the new railways of industrial Britain and became known as navvies.

As a result of their huge contributions to the development of railways in the industrial period, navvies did go on to face less hostility.

So we can see it's a real mix of experiences here.

It depended on your religious background as an Irish migrant, where you settled, what job you worked in, but across the board there was a huge variety of experiences.

So I'd like you to have a go at answering this question for me.

Which two of the following statements about the experiences of Irish migrants is correct? A, many Irish migrant settled in Liverpool setting up successful businesses.

B, the 1778 Papist Act gave equal rights to all Irish migrants, leading to positive experiences for all.

C, Irish Catholics faced greater hostility with fewer rights than Irish Protestants, and D, Irish navvies faced greater hostility because of their work on the railways.

Pause the video, make a decision, and come back and press play when you've got an answer for me.

Brilliant, hopefully you said A and C.

That many settled in Liverpool setting up successful businesses and the Irish Catholics faced greater hostility with fewer rights than Irish Protestants.

Now for West African migrants in the 18th and 19th centuries, their experiences were impacted by the complicated question of slavery in the British Isles.

As slavery was technically never legal in Britain, some African migrants settled and became successful black Britains and this number only increased after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.

Ignatius Sancho, who we can see on this slide for example, had been born on a slave ship, worked as a butler and then set up his own business in London.

And once he became the owner of property, he was qualified to vote making him the first black person in Britain to vote in 1774.

Joseph Emidy is another example.

He began his life as an enslaved person, but by 1802 had settled in Falmouth England and went on to become a successful classical musician.

We also know about Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who migrated from modern day Sierra Leone and became another famous musician in the late 1800s.

However, we shouldn't be too swayed by these examples as they are in many cases exceptions, but still examples of the fact that it did happen for some West African migrants in this period.

But the reality for most was that they did not enjoy such success and that they lived and worked in poor conditions with few opportunities.

So it's important to remember there is a variety of experiences.

We have several examples of successful West African migrants, but the reality for most is that they would live and work in poor conditions with very few opportunities.

So true or false question for you.

It was only after 1807 that West African migrants were able to successfully settle in Britain.

Pause the video, make a decision, and then come back and press play when you're done for me.

Brilliant, we know that this statement is false, but I need you to tell me why.

Is it false because Ignatius Sancho became the first black person to vote in Britain in 1774? Or is it false because Samuel Coleridge-Taylor became a successful musician in the late 1800s? Now, these are both examples that we have looked at just now.

We need to think about which one applies to our statement.

Pause the video, make a decision, and then come back and press play.

Brilliant, we know that Ignatius Sancho became the first black British person to vote in 1774.

While Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is an example of a successful black British migrant, that was in the late 1800s, so he does not prove that there were successful West African migrants before the abolition of the slave trade.

Now thinking about the experiences of Indian migrants.

For Indian migrants in this period, the variety of experiences were similar to that of African migrants, but for very different reasons.

Indian migrants who travelled to Britain as lascars and ayahs, so remember, those were some of our keywords, they had to search for any job that they could find if they wanted to settle permanently.

Because ship workers were not interested in helping lascars find different work and the families who employed ayahs for the journey back to Britain tended to abandon them as soon as they were home, many were forced to find jobs as street entertainers and cleaners for which they received little to no pay, and so were forced to live in the poorest areas.

A few ayahs lucky enough to find welcoming families in Britain who then paid for their education in order to enter higher skilled work.

There were some Indian migrants who came from better off backgrounds and they were able to access better opportunities in Britain with laws changing so that they could attend university and be elected to parliament.

One example of this is a man who's donor Sir Mancherjee Bhownaggree.

So I'd like you to tell me whether the statement is true or false.

All Indian migrants to Britain had similar experiences.

Pause the video, make a decision, and come back and press play when you've got an answer for me.

Brilliant, we know that this statement is false, but we need to think about why.

Is it false because poorer Indian migrants came as lascars and ayahs, whereas wealthier migrants attended universities? Or is it false because most Indian migrants were from wealthier communities and so did not need to find work on arriving in Britain? Pause the video, make a decision and come back and press play when you've got an answer for me.

Brilliant, hopefully you said A, because we did just learn that poorer Indian migrants came as lascars and ayahs, whereas wealthier migrants attended universities.

So what I'd like you to do for this part of the lesson is to complete this table.

And in order to do that, you need to summarise the positive and negative experiences of migrants from across the empire.

So give yourself about 10 minutes to go over any information that you need and then use that to complete this table and then come back when you're done.

So hopefully your completed table looks a little something like this.

In terms of positive experiences, you could have said that some Irish migrants who settled in Liverpool set up successful businesses, that over time, Irish navvies faced less hostility due to their contributions to railways and canals, that several Britains of African descent were able to become successful musicians and that wealthier Indian migrants attended university and worked in parliament.

But if you are thinking of negative experiences, you might have included some of the following.

The Irish Catholics in Britain faced greater hostility than Irish Protestants and had fewer rights, that most West African migrants were forced to live and work in poor conditions, and that most Indian people migrated as lascars and ayahs and were then only able to find low paying jobs.

So you can see for each group that we looked at, there's examples of both positive and negative experiences.

Really well done.

So in the third and final part of our lesson, we are going to be looking at the impact of migrants from across the empire.

And first, we're going to be considering their impact on the economy.

You might have already realised across this entire time period of migration to Britain from 1800 to present, migrants often had an economic impact on Britain.

And this was certainly the case with migrants from across the British Empire.

Irish navvies' contribution to the building of railways and canals, for example, was essential to Britain's Industrial Revolution.

And we can see a railway map of Britain here in the 1840s.

And many of these railway lines were constructed by Irish migrants.

As a result of their work, raw materials and manufactured goods were able to travel between factories, mines, and the major port cities much faster.

But in addition to this, many members of the Irish community in Liverpool opened successful businesses as bakers, butchers, tailors, and greengrocers.

There were also African migrants who had a significant impact on the economy.

One famous example was George Africanus.

He was born in modern day Sierra Leone.

He settled in Nottingham where he set up a successful business based on providing servants to work for local wealthy families.

So we can see here so many different examples of the huge economic contribution that migrants made from across the empire.

Now, before we go on to look at a different area of impact, very quickly Jacob's been sitting in with us and he is made a great statement.

We know it's true, it's a nice summary.

He said, "Colonial migrants had an economic impact on Britain," but as we know, these statements don't stand by themselves.

So I need two details from you to support Jacob's statement, just two.

So pause the video now, jot down a couple of examples and then come back and press play when you're done.

Great, so hopefully you said Irish navvies' contribution to the building of railways and canals was crucial to the Industrial Revolution.

You might also have added that many members of the Irish community in Liverpool opened successful businesses.

You could also have used the example of George Africanus, a West African migrant, born in modern day Sierra Leone, who settled in Nottingham, where he set up a successful business based on providing servants to work for local wealthy families.

Really, really well done.

If you didn't get any of them, that's fine.

You can pause the video now and jot it down very quickly.

And the final thing we're going to look at today is the impact of migrants on politics.

So migrants also had a significant impact on politics at the time.

The main group who contributed to politics were Indian migrants, as well as Sir Mancherjee Bhownaggree who was elected to parliament, there were also others such as Dadabhai Naoroji.

Naoroji became a MP in the 1980s who was known for criticising British rule in India, but also made sure to represent the interest of Indian people who had migrated to and settled in England.

The growing presence of Irish migrants also led to some political changes.

Despite Ireland becoming part of the United Kingdom in 1801, Irish Catholics still lacked many rights, including the right to vote.

The economic importance and the size of Irish populations across Britain and England, and a significant amount of petitioning to parliament from Irish Catholic communities led to the 1829 Emancipation Act that gave Irish people in England the right to vote, specifically Irish Catholics.

So we have examples of Indian migrants in Parliament and the changes that they made, the impact that they had, and what they were known for.

We have examples of the impact of the growing number of Irish migrants, specifically Irish Catholics, and the laws introduced to give them greater civil liberties.

So what I'd like you to do is to tell me which two of the following statements identify impacts the migrants had on British politics.

A, that Dadabhai Naoroji became an MP known for criticising British rule, that George Africanus set up a successful business in Nottingham, finding employment for servants, C, the growing number of Irish people led to the 1829 Emancipation Act, and D, the Irish navvies has made significant contributions to the railways and canals.

Pause the video now, make a decision and then come back and press play when you've got an answer for me.

Brilliant, hopefully you said A and C.

While B and D are valid impacts on migrants in this period, they are looking at the impact specifically on the economy, whereas this question's requiring you to identify the impact on politics.

So for our final task for today, I would like you to explain how migrants from across the empire impacted Britain.

And in your answer I need you to make sure that you include the following, Industrial Revolution, bakers, butchers, tailors, and greengrocers, and the 1829 Emancipation Act.

So pause the video now, give yourself 10 to 15 minutes to complete this task and come back when you're done for me please.

So hopefully your final answer looked a little something like this.

Migrants from across the empire impacted Britain in two main ways.

First, they impacted the economy.

One example of this is the work of Irish navvies on the railways and canals that played a crucial role in the Industrial Revolution.

Irish migrants also settled in many cities, but most in Liverpool, where they set up successful businesses as butchers, tailors, and greengrocers.

Secondly, migrants impacted British politics.

One example is the work of Dadabhai Naoroji, who was an Indian migrant, elected as an MP who became known for criticising British rule in India.

The sizable population and contribution of Irish migrants led to 1829 Emancipation Act, as increasing numbers of Irish migrants protested for greater rights.

Absolutely brilliant if you were able to summarise both the economic and political impact of migrants from across the British Empire.

You've done absolutely brilliant work today.

And we are just going to finish off by looking at a summary of what we've covered.

So we learned that the British Empire expanded through the 18th and 19th centuries, which influenced migration from Asia and Africa to Britain.

For a few migrants, Britain provided opportunities for highly successful lives.

For most, however, opportunities were much more limited and experiences for migrants were often negative.

Migrants from across the empire made enormous contributions to the success of Britain's economy and British politics was also significantly influenced by migrants and migrant issues.

So really, really well done for today.

You've done an absolutely brilliant job.

I'm so impressed, and you should be too.