From the eighteenth century until the 1950s, the British Empire was the largest and most far-flung political entity in the world, holding sway at one time over one fifth of the world's population. The territories forming this colossus ranged from tiny islands to vast segments of the world's major continental land masses, and included Australia, South Africa, India, and Canada. This vast empire left its mark on the world in a multitude of ways, many of them permanent.
In this Very Short Introduction, Ashley Jackson introduces and defines the British Empire, shedding light on a series of key questions, reviewing how it evolved into such a force, and looking at the legacy it left behind.

What were the forces that thrust the British Empire to its extraordinary position of greatness and then just as powerfully drove it into decline? And why is nearly every nation on earth, in one way or another, the consequence of the British Empire?

Two are the starting points of this book. On the one hand, the use of Doña Marina/La Malinche as a symbol of the violation of the Americas by the Spanish conquerors as well as a metaphor of her treason to the Mexican people. On the other, the role of the translations of Bartolomé de las Casas’s Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias in the creation and expansion of the Spanish Black Legend.

For more than a dozen years the Byzantine Empire preserved and extended the treasures of Christian civilization. Today its artistic glories lie scattered through many lands, and it is not easy to obtain an accurate and comprehensive picture of its rich traditions. The first part of this text contains an analytical survey of the principal problems involved. The second gives a detailed appreciation by periods of the empires achievement in architecture, mosaic, painting, sculpture, manuscript illustration, and other arts.

In this fascinating and meticulously researched book, bestselling historian Arthur Herman sheds new light on two of the most universally recognizable icons of the twentieth century, and reveals how their forty-year rivalry sealed the fate of India and the British Empire.