Hello, my name is Mr. Groom.

You've made a really brilliant choice to study history with me today.

This lesson is such an interesting one.

It's all about how the British Empire was contested and decolonized in the 20th century.

I'm ready.

Are you? Let's get started.

Today's lesson is called Decolonization and the Contesting Empire.

It's from the unit Interpreting the British Empire: How has it been commemorated and contested? By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to recall that in the mid 20th century, decolonization and nationalist movements took place across the British Empire.

You can see our key words on the screen.

Nationalism is the support for the political independence of a country.

To decolonize is to withdraw from a colony, leaving it independent.

To partition is to divide into parts.

The Commonwealth is an international organisation consisting of states which once belong to the British Empire.

So let's start our exploration of decolonization and contesting empire with the impact of the Second World War.

World War II, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, had a profound and lasting effect on the British Empire.

It stretched the empire's resources to the limit and accelerated its decline.

There was also significant human cost, and the sacrifice of countless colonial troops emphasised the racial hierarchy that existed within the empire.

Additionally, the financial cost of the Second World War was enormous for Britain.

The country spent vast amounts on the war, significantly increasing its national debt, much of which was owed to the United States and Canada.

For example, the Lend-Lease Act had helped sustain Britain with American aid during the war, but it also demonstrated Britain's dependency on American support.

By the end of the war, Britain's economy was severely weakened and it faced the immense task of rebuilding its war-ravaged cities and industries.

Sustaining the empire under these circumstances was likely to be impossible.

So let's check that you understood what we just heard.

To which countries did Britain owe money after the Second World War? You need to pick two.

A, Canada.

B, Germany.

C, America.

D, France.

Pause the video while you're thinking about your answer and press play when you're ready to see if you were right.

Well done.

That's right.

Britain owed money to Canada and America after the Second World War.

Now I want you to think about which of the statements below about the economic impact of the Second World War on the British Empire is correct.

Is it that it became more difficult to sustain the British Empire? Is it that it became less difficult to sustain the British Empire? Or did it have no impact on the British Empire? Pause the video while you reflect on your answer and press play to see if you were right.

That's right.

The answer was A.

It became more difficult to sustain the British Empire because of the economic impact of the Second World War.

During the Second World War, Britain was fighting against the Nazis, a force of extreme nationalism and racism.

The war therefore laid bare the contradictions within the British Empire.

The very principles for which the allies fought, freedom, equality, and the rejection of oppression stood in stark contrast to the realities of colonisation.

In 1941, a joint declaration was signed by Britain's Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and America's president, Franklin D Roosevelt, known as the Atlantic Charter.

Among its main points were a country's right to choose its own government, an agreement that went against the ideas of imperialism.

The founding of the United Nations in 1945 also showed a desire for equality and human rights, reinforcing the idea that the time had come for colonial powers like Britain to reexamine their roles.

So let's check your understanding.

Which values were represented in the Atlantic Charter? A, imperialism, B, self-government, C, freedom, or D, oppression.

Which of those values were represented in the Atlantic Charter? Have a think, pause the video, and press play when you're ready to see if you are right.

Well done.

The Atlantic Charter represented the values of self-government and freedom, laying bare some of the contradictions of the British Empire who had signed this charter.

So let's take your learning from this first learning cycle and bring it together to complete this task.

Now Andeep here is explaining how the second World War accelerated the decline of the British Empire, but Andeep has made six mistakes.

So what I'd like you to do is to identify Andeep's six mistakes, and then rewrite Andeep's explanation with the correct information.

So here's Andeep's explanation.

The British economy improved after the Second World War.

America and Canada owed Britain money following the Naval Defence Act.

The Second World War had little impact on Britain cities and industries, meaning that the British were able to maintain their imperial supremacy.

The Atlantic Charter and founding of the United Nations also showed continued support for imperialism.

So consider the six mistakes that Andeep has made and rewrite Andeep's explanations with the correct information.

Pause the video and press play when you're ready to see if you manage to complete this task correctly.

So you might have noticed that Andeep made six mistakes, and these are the mistakes that he made.

He said that the British economy improved after the Second World War.

He said that America and Canada owed Britain money following the Naval defence Act, said that the Second World War had little impact on Britain cities and industries, meaning that the British were able to maintain their imperial supremacy.

The Atlantic Charter and founding the United Nations all showed continued support for imperialism.

So everything there in purple is one of Andeep's mistakes.

So hopefully you were able to notice all six of those.

Remember, I also asked you to rewrite Andeep's explanation with the correct information.

So your rewriting of Andeep's explanation might have looked something like this.

The British economy significantly deteriorated after the Second World War.

Britain owed America and Canada money following the Lend-Lease Act.

Second World War had a devastating impact on Britain cities and industries, meaning that the British were no longer able to maintain their imperial supremacy.

The Atlantic Charter and founding of the United Nations also showed support for ideas of self-government and freedom which went against imperial ideals.

Let's move on now to look at the decolonization that started to take place in the British Empire in the 1940s.

During the Second World War, the demand for independence and calls for Britain to Decolonize grew as a result of an increase in nationalism.

By 1946, the British were preparing to leave India, but the path to independence was filled with internal conflict.

The central issue was a dispute between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, two of India's major political parties.

While the Indian National Congress wanted a single unified India.

The Muslim League pushed for the creation of a separate Muslim state.

Now, Mahatma Gandhi, a key figure in the Indian National Congress and a prominent voice for non-violence, strongly opposed the idea of partitioning India on religious lines.

However, despite his opposition, the Indian Independence Act was passed in 1947, officially ending British rule and dividing the country into India and Pakistan.

This division known as partition aimed to create a Muslim majority Pakistan and a Hindu majority India.

At the same time, India officially joined the Commonwealth as an independent nation.

The immediate aftermath of the partition saw millions of people migrate as they found themselves on the wrong side of the new borders and move to where they hoped would be safer.

This mass movement was accompanied by widespread violence with the death toll estimated at around 1 million.

The events of partition in India left deep scars, highlighting the complexities and challenges of achieving independence.

So can you remember in which year did India gain independence? Was it 1940, 1946, or 1947? Think about your answer and press pause, and then press play when you're ready to see if you were right.

That's right.

India gained independence in 1947.

Which of the following correctly describes partition in India? Is it A, the ending of British rule in India, B, the division of India into India and Pakistan, C, the parting of India from Britain? Think about your answer and press pause.

And then when you're ready to see if you are right, press play.

That's right.

Partition in India was the division of India into India and Pakistan.

Also want you to think about which organisation India officially joined as an independent country in 1947, following its independence following partition.

Was it A, the United States, B, the Atlantic Charter? Was it C, the Commonwealth? Pause the video while you think about your answer and press play when you're ready to go.

It was C, the Commonwealth.

Well done.

So as we've just heard, the events after partitions saw widespread migration and catastrophic violence, and you can see that in this photo of an overcrowded train carriage during the partition of India.

What I want you to think about now is what you can see in this image.

So look really closely at it and think about the details that you can pick out.

And I want you to use those details to suggest what that says about the impact of partition.

Have a think about those two questions.

Pause the video and press play when you want to compare your thoughts to mine.

That's right, so you can see that the train is very overcrowded as we mentioned.

It looks utterly chaotic.

The number of people on top of the train, people clambering to get onto it possibly as it was moving.

It looks incredibly dangerous.

You can think about the ease with which someone might fall off this train, fall under the undercarriage, onto the tracks, risking life and limb just to move from one place to another.

And really it seems, doesn't it? That these people are refugees.

They're trying to move to safer areas.

So this image tells us about how during partition various people within the new states of India and Pakistan were forced to move from one to the other in order to try and find a safe place to live.

Elsewhere in the world, Britain was looking for a peaceful solution to independence in Palestine, a place over which the British had assumed responsibility under a League of Nations mandate.

Finding no solution to the mounting violence and complex political situation, the British turned to the United Nations in 1947 for an international resolution.

In 1948, the United Nations decided to partition Palestine into two states and Israel declared independence.

These events laid the groundwork for the conflict between Palestine and Israel that still exists today and again shows the challenges of independence.

So let's check your understanding of what you just heard.

Who was responsible for the partition of Palestine into two states? Is it A, Britain, B, the United Nations, or C, the League of Nations? Pause the video while you think and press play when you're ready to hear whether you're correct or not.

That's right.

It's the United Nations that was responsible for the partition of Palestine into two states.

So let's take our learning from this learning cycle and complete this task to show what we've learned.

So what I'd like you to do is I'd like you to complete the table below to show whether the statements are true, T, or false, F.

Once you've found your false statements, what I want you to do is I want you to correct them.

I want you to rewrite them with the correct information.

So the following statements, are they true or false? The Indian National Congress wanted a single unified India, and the Muslim League wanted the creation of a separate Muslim state.

India gained independence in 1948.

In 1947, India joined the United Nations.

Mahatma Gandhi supported the idea of partition.

Partition in India led to migration and catastrophic violence.

The British decided to partition Palestine.

Are those true and false? And if they're false, can you correct them for me? Pause the video while you complete the task and press play when you're ready to see if you got your answers correct.

So here are the statements that are true and false.

The India National Congress did want a single unified India, and the Muslim League did want the creation of a separate Muslim state.

However, India did not gain independence in 1948.

And in 1947, India did not join the United Nations.

Mahatma Gandhi did not support the idea of partition.

Partition in India did lead to migration and catastrophic violence, but it was not the British who decided to partition Palestine.

Let's have a look at what those false statements would look like if we wrote rewrote them as you can see here.

India gained independence in 1947, not 1948.

In 1947, it joined the Commonwealth, not the United Nations.

Mahatma Gandhi opposed the idea of partition.

He did not support it.

And it wasn't the British who decided to partition Palestine.

It was the United Nations who did so.

Now let's look at Britain's African and Caribbean colonies and look how empire was contested and decolonization took place in these places.

During the 1960s, nationalism also swept over Britain's African and Caribbean colonies and propelled them towards independence.

In Africa, a wave of nations emerged from the shadows of British rule, each country celebrating its newfound freedom and joining the Commonwealth as an independent nation.

This included Nigeria, 1960, Uganda in 1962, and Kenya in 1963.

In Nairobi, the heart of the celebrations, the final lowering of the British Union flag and the raising of the Kenyan flag symbolised the dawn of independence.

Jomo Kenyatta that you can see in this photo here, soon to be Kenya's first president, stood among the key figures, leading the nation into its next chapter.

So what I'd like to do is look at that image a little bit more closely.

It's a photo of Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, and the President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, in 1963.

What I'd like you to do is to think about what you can see in this image and what it suggests about Kenyan independence.

Take your time, pause the video, press play when you think you've got your answers, and we'll see how close they were to my suggestions.

So you might have picked out these things.

They're waving flags that suggest pride.

There's crowd with lots of people smiling, suggesting their excitement and happiness at Kenyan independence.

And the presence of Prince Philip and Jomo Kenyatta, the president of Kenya, signifies the importance of this occasion.

So many of Britain's Caribbean colonies also chose to embrace nationalism and decolonize in the 1960s too.

Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago broke free from the British Empire in 1962 with Barbados following suit in 1966.

All three also joined the Commonwealth, making the 1960s a turning point in the decolonization of Britain's African and Caribbean colonies.

So let's check your understanding of what we've just heard.

In which year did Kenya become independent from Britain? Was it 1960, 1962, or 1963? Pause the video and press play when you're ready to see if you were right.

That's right.

It was 1963.

Which year did Barbados join the Commonwealth? Was it 1960, 1963, or 1966? Pause the video while you think about your answer and press play when you're ready to see if you are right.

That's right.

It was 1966 when Barbados joined the Commonwealth.

So let's take your knowledge from that learning cycle and apply it to this task.

What I'd like you to do is I'd like you to look at the following passage and complete it by adding the missing words.

In 1947 Britain blank India, leading to it being blank into two countries, India and Pakistan.

The United Nations also chose to blank Palestine.

Waves of blank could also be seen across Africa and the Caribbean as British colonies there chose to blank, with examples including Nigeria in blank and Jamaica in blank.

Many of these country also joined the blank.

Think about everything you've learned, pause the video, complete the following passage, and press play when you're ready to check if you've got the correct answers.

Well done.

So your answer should have read very similar to the following, In 1947, Britain decolonized India, leading to it being partitioned into two countries, India and Pakistan.

The United Nations also chose to partition Palestine.

Waves of nationalism could also be seen across Africa and the Caribbean as British colonies there chose to decolonize with examples including Nigeria in 1960 and Jamaica in 1962.

Many of these countries also joined the Commonwealth.

Well done today.

You focused really excellently on a tricky topic.

Let's just summarise what we've learned.

So when learning about decolonizing and contesting the empire, we've seen that the economic cost of the Second World War meant that maintaining the British Empire was no longer possible.

The second World War also made it difficult to justify the empire on ideological grounds.

So India gained independence from Britain in 1947 and was partitioned into India and Pakistan.

In 1948, the United Nations chose to partition Palestine and Israel declared independence as a result.

And nationalism also contributed to a wave of British colonies in Africa and the Caribbean choosing to decolonize, with many of these newly independent countries joining the Commonwealth.

Well done today.

Thanks once again for joining me in this lesson about the decolonization and the contestation of Empire, and I hope to see you again soon.

Bye-Bye.