Empire with Michael Portillo

Michael travels to North America to explore how British rule led to armed rebellion in the USA and a loyalty in Canada that lasted until the very end of Empire. Michael first finds himself in Manhattan, discovering how the incendiary prose of the declaration of independence fired up the population to reject the very foundations of Empire: aristocracy, monarchy, and class.

Michael travels to South Africa to explore how the lure of riches led Britain into barbaric wars, dividing the country along racial lines with devastating consequences.

Michael travels to the Empire's Caribbean capital, Jamaica, to uncover how Britain amassed the wealth to conquer the world. In the mid-17th century, the undisputed global superpower was Spain, which controlled the Americas and Caribbean. But when Oliver Cromwell deposed King Charles I, he sent the first state-sponsored expeditions of conquest to take the parts of the Spanish Empire that were undefended. The first territory to be taken was Jamaica.