How Britain Built the Greatest Empire In History - Dan Snow

**Konstantin Kisin** (0:00)
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**Dan Snow** (0:49)
Late night bites with friends, already hard to beat.

**Konstantin Kisin** (0:53)
That first too hot bite of fries you couldn't wait for, followed by ice cold Pepsi. Now that hits different.

**Dan Snow** (1:00)
Suddenly, the energy kicks back in, the night goes longer, and the laughs don't stop, because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment.

**Konstantin Kisin** (1:09)
Food deserves Pepsi.

**Francis Foster** (1:11)
Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today.

**Dan Snow** (1:17)
It's an extraordinary story. It's a little island off the coast of Eurasia, and then around about 1700, 1750, it goes absolutely mental. We are on the doorstep of the new world. This is epic. So you've got the British and Irish archipelago locked down.
You're not trying to conquer France. So you're like, lads, all that energy, boom, to the West. It will build the largest empire that the world has ever seen.
In North America, the Brits wrecked shop. They conquer Canada, they conquer the whole of the USA, east of the Mississippi. They briefly conquer Cuba, they conquer several islands in the Caribbean.

**Francis Foster** (1:55)
There were moments where it did go wrong.

**Konstantin Kisin** (1:57)
Oh, yeah.

**Francis Foster** (1:58)
Why did we lose the United States?

**Dan Snow** (2:01)
Why would you bring this up?

**Konstantin Kisin** (2:06)
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Dan Snow, welcome back to TRIGGERnometry.

**Dan Snow** (2:32)
Good to be back, lads.

**Konstantin Kisin** (2:34)
The first interview we did, the history of England, it did over a million downloads. Absolutely no doubt, we're hands down one of our favorite episodes we've ever recorded.

**Dan Snow** (2:43)
It's really kind of you, but I think it's nice because people just love a good chunk of history, right? We learn it at school, we learn little bits of it here and there, and it's nice to join all together sometimes.

**Konstantin Kisin** (2:50)
Well, we almost did that, and what I was going to say is, we did a whole two hours. I know. As the hour 50 mark, you were like, we're just getting to the best bit, and I was like, we've got 10 minutes left.

**Dan Snow** (3:00)
You guys look like you're about to have a stroke.

**Konstantin Kisin** (3:02)
No, we wanted to talk, and you said we're getting to the good bit, which is of course the Industrial Revolution.

**Dan Snow** (3:08)
This is the bit I know about.

**Konstantin Kisin** (3:09)
The British Empire.
Let's get into it, starting there. All right, boys.

**Dan Snow** (3:14)
It's really one of the most exciting questions in the whole of human history. I'm not saying that because I'm British, I'm British Canadian, my mom's Canadian. I'm a product of this Imperial system, but it is one of the most extraordinary stories. It was a little island off the coast of Eurasia, for about 4,000 years, it doesn't really do very much.
It plays no huge significant part in human affairs. Then around about 1700, 1750, it goes absolutely mental and will build an empire. It will build the largest empire that the world has ever seen, which at its peak about 200 years later, quite short-lived empire, we can talk about that as well. I bet it's peak 1922-ish, roughly a quarter of the world's population and a quarter of the Earth's area. That's underplaying it for reasons we can talk about, but a quarter of the world's area formerly under the command of this funny old island in the North Sea. I mean, it's an extraordinary story. Why? And with enormous implications, it's why the world speaks English today, it's why many of the world's great cities exist in the form they do. Global capitalism, ideas about democracy, it's why there's parliaments and speakers around the world.