American Reacts to How did The British Empire rule the World? 

I am Canadian and we had to learn all this in school. I can't believe Americans didn't learn any of this. Did you guys just start your history lessons at 1776?

It's literally frightening about how little so many Americans know about the world. Even the vast impact of great countries and empires on their own history.

I know Americans don’t know much about the world, but how can you not know about Canada? You share both a language and a border?!

"who knew?" everyone who had history classes in europe.....

Canada still has the Queen/King as head of state. How did you miss that?

They were not pirate ships, Royal Navy vessels. Samuel Pepys and others, changed how the Royal Navy was governed which led it to be a force to be reckoned with. (During the reign of Charles II). You don't get it, post WW2 some nations were given independence, the Empire became the Commonwealth, many nations stayed within it, by choice. The Queen remains the head of state of many, that includes Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It's an international club, for want of a better word, some nations who were not part of the Empire are members of the Commonwealth.

Basically the end of Empire came about because of WW2. The USA only joined part way through the conflict as did the Soviet Union, so for the first 2-3 years of WW2 Britain was fighting the combined forces of Germany, Italy, Japan and their allies alone, as countries across Europe and Asia fell like dominoes. This proved very costly for Britain financially and essentially wrecked the economy. By the time the war concluded it was no longer financially affordable to run an Empire, and also the US which was anti-colonialist put lots of pressure on Britain to end imperialism. It is quite ironic though as for instance shortly after WW2, the Americans asked Britain to remain as the colonial power in Malaysia for longer because they feared it may otherwise go over to communism as Vietnam had. Also though, Britain saw its empire project as a civilising mission and so gave more and more autonomy to colonies as they developed with the aim that they would become independent when applicable. So by the 1930s Ireland, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand had already achieved this.

The empire changed from the "empire" to the commonwealth of nations to which most of these countries are still a part

I understand how limited the public education is in the U.S. BUT am very surprised(you didn't know about British colonies in your own country's history 🤦‍♀️) that as an adult you still know so little about the rest of the world. You can learn in an informative & entertaining way through documentaries and even some historically correct movies based on true events. RU-vid & Google search are at your fingertips, literally to find them

The British East India Company mentioned a few times in this video, was the main trade for the new world. For the British that lived in the 13 colonies a long the east coast of what is now America. When those British subjects wanted independence & fought for it, the flag of the British East India Company was used to design the American stars & stripes flag. The 13 red/white stripes, just like on that company flag was copied onto the US national flag. Keeping the red/white/blue of the British Union flag too. The American war of independence was fought between British subjects, an 'American' did not exist until the declaration was signed. And many didn't want to break away from the mother nation. The stars & stripes flag shows the heritage of those that made a new nation. 🇬🇧🇺🇸

as a Canadian I'm proud to be part of the Commonwealth and will always revere Her Gracious Majesty. We'll see what happens next I guess

It didn't break up as such, it became the Commonwealth, but the sheer cost of two vicious world wars made the upkeep of the empire too expensive to maintain.

The Royal Navy were not pirates. Watch "How Britain stopped slavery" to get an idea of what their role was

The empire fell for 2 major reasons 1 the debt of ending slavery was so big it took untill 2015 to fully pay off 2 fighting to save the world from tyranny and keep freedom alive in 2 World wars practically alone... the latter for 3 years, while scared countries looked from under their blankets , So basically it ran out of money

What you have to realise is that although the British Army was very well organised it was never very large. Britain coopted local rulers and recruited local soldiers in India. In Australia local army and police units were appointed. In the 13 American colonies Britain had loyalist volunteers as well as Native American allies and escaped slaves forming black regiments. Canada had local militias. The British Army would only be sent in force if there was conflict. Also a large number of these territories had the largest population centres on the coast or major rivers and the Royal Navy ships were floating fortresses with artillary and marines and could often trigger surrender or negatiation with a blockade.

I love to see you marvelling at these new notions ! It must be exhilarating.

It was the Merchant Navy (unarmed) that established the Empire. The Royal Navy was there to defend the merchant ships.

Canada, Australia and New Zealand all have the same sovereign as the UK - for now.

Its not like an island it is an island..... i've visited U.S. a few times, one time in Fort Bragg, NC, in a bar, four of us, me from Greater Manchester (AKA Shaun Ryder), Marv (North East, Gordie), Vince (Scouser) and Geezer (Cocknie) - bless the waitress, when she got to Vince, after struggling with me and Marv, she Said 'hey, do you guys speak english'....marv said 'Speak it pet i am it'....she had no idea, omg how we all laughed, oh fuck hahahahhhaa,

That is why everywhere you either speak the English language or are learning it.

This lad is a very nice person. He cheerfully admits his ignorance of the continent he is from. He, for me, exemplifies American's lack of an enquiring mind when it comes to history and geography. Canada is on your northern border and you don't know anything about the place. Although this lad is as thick as a plank...he is at least willing to learn.

The tonnage of British ships doubled in the 20 years after Charles II was restored to the throne. We also invented standardisation of daily required ship parts before that every ship was a total one-off. So, forget your Henry Ford, we got there first for ship bits and bobs and repairs.

They’re just ships… all ships had sails back in the day, not just pirates…

Didn’t show up on the map, they also owned British Samoa, British Virgin Islands, Hawaii, half the Islands in the Caribbean, New Zealand, Singapore and Fiji. By the end of WW2 to 1965, they lost most of it with the countries either being granted or taking independence. With some exceptions, most of the former colonies and Dominions formed and became the Commonwealth, even after becoming Indepedent.

You need to watch "Every Country England Has Invaded :Visualised" by Real Life Lore, it'll give you a better idea of how and when England got its Empire. I know you've already watched The Difference Between The UK, Great Britain and England so you know that the Commonwealth is run by the Crown and Queen Elizabeth is its head, its basically all former nations and some that still are part of the Empire consisting of 54 countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. England and the UK are still a huge influence on the world with many overseas territories, that's why so many countries still have the Union Flag on their flag, even Hawiai which as you know is a US state has the Union Flag on its flag.

You do realise there's still a commonwealth?!

The Royal Navy were not pirate ships!!

It used to take at least six months for a sailing ship to sail from Britain to India in the 1800's. Crazy huh??

How did the British Empire end in 1938? The clue is in the date. In 1939 Britain refused the offer of neutrality by Nazi Germany and declared war, very soon going it alone, while other nations, mostly the US, stood back and made a very handsome profit, not entering the war until their hand was forced at the very end of 1941. The war debt to the US and Canada was not paid, with interest, until 2007 by which time the US shared world leadership with the Soviet Union, and when the Soviet Union collapsed at the very end of 1991, did the US become world leader, soon to lose out to the enormity of China, which brings concern to all democratic loving countries.

Why did you call them pirate ships, they weren't.. Again I learnt a lot of this in primary school in Australia but I don't think it's been taught anymore.

When those early ships were going around the world there was no Suez Canal shortcut like we use today. They had to go right round the bottom of Africa to reach Australia or India. Voyages of 6 months. Often longer.

Love your reactions and absolute shock at the fact that Great Britain is basically the Daddy of modern humanity. That's why we are so hard to impress. Along with committing numerous atrocities on half the planet, the Brits were also experienced in war for a thousand plus years before the U.S existed. You won that because we were too busy fighting the French on our doorstep. It really is worth learning pre-America history and how Europe became united as it is now. We were all at war with each other at one time or another. The British also acted as mediators between countries and brought Christianity and education to some far flung communities who wouldn't have survived into the last century, let alone the 21st century.

Canada has the biggest land area after Russia.

The Indian Mutiny of the Sepoy soldiers was the result of their religious opposition to the animal fat used in the production of cartridges. When India gained independence in 1948 it was the 12th largest economy in the world. The railway infrastructure alone was larger than most countries. Most rail lines in the US go East to West, the Brits on the other hand built the railway infrastructure on a greater scale throughout the Empire. The Commonwealth shares similar rule of law and government as that in the U.K. this plus a common language is a major factor in international trade. That’s why English is the language of trade and communication on a world wide scale. Most air traffic controllers use English to communicate with aircrew.

Great reaction thanks 😀is Americas motto 'i don't understand" ? Surely the whole point of you watching videos is so that you then do understand ? Though watching poorly made cartoons do not help 😀

The empire didn’t break up, each country was given its independence although most became part of what became the Commonwealth of nations; 54 countries from which its citizens can join the UK military. While Britain is indeed a small island, our Queen and now King is head of state to over a billion people. This is why it was such a force during the world wars and continues to be today.

Britain linked its colonies by telegraph cable so was able to communicate with them well before telephone was invented.

The UK can thank WW2 for the break up of the British Empire. At the end of the war Britain was stretched to capacity, financially fook’d, and incapable of administering its colonies. The British navy was worn out and a lot of colonies starting with India sued for the right to independence and ability to govern without British interference. India divided in 1947 to become Pakistan and India (which was the jewel in the crown of the British empire) and once India was gone, all the other colonies decided they wanted to be free of Great Britain. And so the rot set in and without it’s ability to exert its influence, one by one over the course of 50 years the colonies gained their independence.

You are correct in the statement that practically everyone was building empires

You need to check out the commonwealth. Do a search for ' the queen's 54 countries'

The football World Cup is being held it Qatar. Isrealis were unhappy trying to buy tickets because they couldn't find isreal on the list of countries, only to find they were under the name "occupied territories of Palestine" 😂😂 class from Qatar

17:55 short answer, World War 2. Britain no longer had the resources to hold on to it after that. There were resistance movements for years but after the war, they picked up momentum. India went first then various African nations and once a few got independence, wasn’t long before the rest followed. The Empire was largely gone by the 1970s. Also the US was taking over as a global superpower by then, it was more than happy for colonies to get political independence but economically end up dependent on the US, particularly once the Cold War got going.

Please tell me Wuzer/Ryan Was/Ryan Wass if you're related to Tyler Bucket/Tyler Walker and the other Tyler (whose name temporarily escapes me)

We had a close economic empire. Then the Commonwealth. Then we had our heads turned because General De Gaulle wouldn’t let us join his European club. So, we dropped Canada, Australia and New Zealand and co in favour of people who’d snubbed us or tried to kill us. It took us a while to rediscover why we’d fought with them so many years.

Yeap as has been said the Empire is still kinda there as the Commonwealth but that is also voluntary. After the Second world war the UK was broke and started to willingly give counties their independence. Funny some didn’t want it 🤷‍♂️. So now we have a mixed bag of commonwealth. Commonwealth realms. Crown colonies. British over seas territories etc.

France for example under Napoleon Bonaparte didn’t do anything like Britain did he was a dictator and went conquering, we defeated the French in 1814 sent him to the Island of Elba he escaped and after thrashing him at The Battle of Waterloo sent the little Corsican to the Island of St Helena he died six years later. Britain 🇬🇧 took Egypt 🇪🇬 from the French.

I have a book, called "Britain Overseas" written nearly 100 years ago which clarifies some of the points raised. It focuses on what is often called the second Empire which was unlike the first, which essentially was established to facilitate trade at a great advantage to Britain and, as in the case of America and later Australia, to provide somewhere to dump its undesirables and convicts. The second Empire placed more emphasis on spreading the British way of life and the Christian religion. Many (sometimes referred to as the "white" colonies, having a population with European majority ) became self governing within the Empire, initially having power only for internal matters and later fully self governing within the Commonwealth. Examples of these are Canada, Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand differs a little from other colonies in that it was not claimed by Britain but power of governance was ceded to Britain by the local Maori and they became British citizens with full rights as such.

There was more to the American Revolution than the issue of taxation without representation.The Americans didn't want a central bank bleeding them dry. But that issue is hushed up because it still has huge relevance today.

One our major exports thru the empire was our convicts (yeah free labour), many were sent to the US up to independence at which time we started exporting to Australia

Look at the flags of Australia, New Zealand,, Hawaii! They incorporate the British Union flag. Another way of telling British influences is by language. The fact that South America speaks Spanish and Portuguese shows those countries original empires.

The breakup was pretty peaceful. Basically it got too big to manage and they started giving more and more power to the locals. Then one by one they just became fully independent.

The British are ultimately descended from Vikings - we just re-branded ourselves but the message is still the same - we come in peace, we want to trade, if you don't want to trade that cool because we also love a good fight and as were here it would be a shame to miss an opportunity :) After WWII we re-branded again and became the Commonwealth - you should check out the Commonwealth as it's got bigger recently. Sadly the USA opted out of the Empire and the Commonwealth in preference for keeping Slavery going.

Pretty impressive considering we survived the Roman's, the Norman's, the Vikings and such. In retrospect they contributed to what we became.

The Naval Defence Act 1889 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It received royal assent on 31 May 1889 and formally adopted the "two-power standard" and increased the United Kingdom's naval strength. The standard called for the Royal Navy to maintain a number of battleships at least equal to the combined strength of the next two largest navies in the world.

Technically in Britain what happened is that colonisation took place as the crown giving its permission for "companies" to "operate" on behalf of the crown, meaning some military was deployed, but the vast majority of Britton were not directly operating in the military or under the crown. Again, I am not an historian at all so I might have misunderstood things, please feel free to correct me

Great Britain "ruled" India for 200 years, and even today, especially today, it remains very British.

Great videos! Keep them coming 😊

A comment that was made many years ago was "the sun never sets on the British Empire" Think about it! it's a pretty clever saying and is quite true.

there is a saying "There is no sunset over British Empire"

reason the empire broke up was hugely impacted by both world wars and britain wanting to help other countries rather than to rule and exploit them so most of our colonies were given independence by the british and instead of leaving most colonies in worse positions after colonisation we helped them and made their development much faster, this also included the machinery and infrastructure etc we left behind and gave.

Fun fact: Britain still controls 14 overseas territories (areas far from the British Isles still under British control). I recently moved to southern Spain from the UK and I happen to live only 20 minutes away from Gibraltar, a British overseas territory

Being an Island Britain had a large navy that conquered large parts of the world. Many of those countries are still part of the British commonwealth. Many others were given independence without a fight.

Please let us listen to commentary , I have family and friends living in Australia and Canada who we trade with and I have had many happy holidays there.

It's like a island? Really I hadn't noticed that I live on a island, I find it frightening how little most Americans know about the rest of the world.

The US repeatedly tried to seize Canada - and failed. (Most famously in the War of 1812, where British forces responded to the burning down of the Canadian city of York with the burning of the White House and other public buildings in D.C.) The US was unusual in violently leaving the empire - overwhelmingly other places simply negotiated as Britain grew exhausted and bankrupt after being a primary combatant in two world wars. Even so, to this day the Commonwealth of Nations (the more equitable successor of the empire) and remaining British Overseas Territories (like Gibraltar, Bermuda and the Falkland Islands) remain solid. Fun fact: in the 1920s the US was sufficiently terrified at the prospect of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance resulting in the US getting 'boxed-in' that they used economic blackmail, threatening to call in Britain's WWI debts, to have it dissolved. This played a key role in making the Japanese angry at the West as a whole and helped trigger the war in the Pacific during WWII.

Maybe it would be helpful if the States (and I mean the 50 STATES!) think about their curriculum in history....that would help to improve the image that we Europeans have about Americans when it comes to their knowledge in history (and other subjects) and their own history BEFORE 1776...Really. These are things you also learn in Germany in history classes.

Britain gave a lot of it's wealth to the USA in order to fund the war effort in WW1 and 2. USA was providing ammunition etc.

Britain had one man a bike and a notebook in India.

On an historical note: A huge part of the "British Empire" was gained after winning the 7 years war against France.

You know that the British lost a few million men fighting the Germans in 2 World Wars. The First World War from 1914 to 1918. Then World War 2 from 1939 to 1945. Britain had to retreat from their World empire to defend the homeland especially in the 2nd World War. Especially in 1940 the Germans were bombing Britain and fighting an air campaign overhead.

Because ships sink… that will stay with me.

Check out The Commonwealth Games, held every 4 years where the former British Empire members and current ones compete in a similar event to the Olympics. Next one is due to be help in 2026.....just not sure where as yet.

Wow Ryan !!!!!! Really?????? I do enjoy watching you, but this one threw me totally. Scary that you knew none of this.....we all know the US education system is not the best, but WOW !!!! It does however help us to understand a little better the strange goings on there. Cudos to you for at least being curious enough to want to learn. Love from Oz

Also, I don't pretend to know how things happened, but the way we learn it in France (which means probably to take with a pinch of salt) but apparently in France, when arriving to a place, we tried to provide citizenship to the people, build schools and "educate" (how terrible as it may be) the populations, for assimilation in the empire. From the videos I have seen around North America, the indian tribes there were pretty happy to deal with the French and were not happy about having to deal with the British after they took over following the 7 years war. But again it does not mean that it went all beautifully and I am pretty sure there are some massive holes in what we learn at school...

The Royal Navy protected British Trade ships FROM pirates! The British started colonising America in the 1500s and America was known as English America from 1607-1707. After the Union of England and Scotland it was known as the British Empire. America was part of the British Empire till 1783.Also Canada, which was colonised also by British and French. (America was colonised by many different Europeans) And Canada is still part of the British Commonwealth (colonies of The British Empire) It was WW1 & WW2 and the massive cost of both wars which is the reason Britain lost its Empire, it could no longer afford to build infrastructures, like railways, roads, schools and Hospitals in the colonised countries, nor the Armies to run them. And the massive debt Britain acquired to END slavery, many reparations had to be paid to slave owners mainly American slave owners, which Britain only finished paying in 2015! And of course, the 'war debt' we owed America which was finally paid off in 2006!

After WW1, we couldn't afford the upkeep of monitoring. Then WW2, and nations wanted independence. The Queen signed the deals for their independence. Historically the country Britain invaded took a while to realise, then had to fight them out. India, Ireland America etc

So hard to concentrate on the reactions. Literally spend all my time waiting for the left hand to come up so I can see what ring is worn 😂 also legit spend each video just wishing Ryan was here rn 👌

I love how you called them pirate ships.... 😂👌

As an Englishman I am glad to have ruled over rtheb greatest empire ever known. This small Island has the greatest history in the world.

At the end of WW2, the labour party was elected partially on the promise that give independence to it's empire, focusing on India in particular. This was also coupled with the fact that Britian was almost bankrupt after the war and didn't want to spend money defending the empire as well as The USA using it's economic control of post war Britian to effectively take control of some of the British empire for itself.

I really don't know anything about it other than what I'm saying right now but I believe that there at some point was a treaty or something like that written that forced all European colonies in Africa to withdraw and hand back control to the African population, which is likely how the British Empire lost its African colonies. It's kinda odd that I've not heard more about this considering that Europe at one point controlled all of Africa with the exception of Ethiopia so whatever forced them to relinquish their colonies must have been a HUGE deal!

What happened was the second world war. Although ultimately victorious, Britain and the then empire countries all suffered great losses. After the war rebuilding the homeland was the priority for most and there was no desire in Britain to fight requests for independence from those who had sacrificed so much to help with the war effort. Many of the countries that wanted independence were given it through peaceful diplomatic agreement. But, as the empire declined, the British commonwealth was established and much of the trade and goodwill with these nations was maintained.

They missed Gibraltar, which gave us eyes and ears over so much trade in the Mediterranean and North Africa. Of the 22 countries we never got round to invading at some point, I can't understand why we never invaded Sweden.......🤔🇬🇧

The Brits also started the Industrial Revolution, for example they had steam power first and invented the steam train (look it up). It all fell apart during WW2 and after when basically Britain got bombed to bits by the Germans and went into HUGE debt to the US for decades. It was way too expensive to maintain such an empire and so bit by bit they either let independence movements have their way or they left asap. Out of the British Empire we now have the Commonwealth of Nations (it used to called the British Commonwealth). You can look that up in Wikipedia if your interested. Cheerio.

The colonies of the British empire had viceroys that governed the colonies.

So America winning America alone but won when France and Spain jumped on Britain’s back rather than a straight war.

The Balfour conference was when countries such as Canada , South Africa etc decided to break away from the British Empire .. the name was. Hanged to British Commonwealth..

Ryan, after the colonies etc had their own goverments they became members of the Commonwealth a very important organisation on TODAY. The Commonwealth includes countries which were never part of the British Empire. The narrator wrong attributed the American war of independance to taxation; the actual event was that the American colonists wanted to abandon the land agreement between Britain and the indigious people.

always makes laugh that people who speak english don,t know why, they speak english

Steve, I forgot to mention Austria. The Austro-Hungarian Empire included part of Ktaly, all of the Balkans and more.

Steve, other colonists included Portugal, Spain, France, The Netherlands, Italy and yes, Germany. Namibia was Germany West Aftrica.

The demise if the British was due to the first world war , which decimated them, YET still at the beginning of WW2 they had the worlds largest navy and most professional armed forces, they were the ones that tried to creats "peace in our time" and actually gave a declaration to Germany NOT to invade Poland or they would declare war on Germany, Germany invaded and so the British declared war. With the British fighting as the ONLY nation defying the Nazis they poured all their money into fighting the Germans, when they were offered the concept of lend lease by the USA, unfortunately the USA never kept its word with this concept and the British had sent ALL their money and reserves to the USA, which the USA said "THANK YOU" and kept it! Then at the end of the war the USA said...now repay us! The British said, we did the fighting so you did not have to ( up until the last 6 months of WW2 the British had more men on land , more planes in the air and more ships at sea in DIRECT conflict with the enemy than did the USA IN ALL THEARTRES OF THE WAR!) So the British sent a delegation to the USA in 1952 to argue that they should share the costs equally but the USA demanded they repay , the British had BLED themselves to death defending the world, the USA actually had a plan to decalre war on Britain in 1926 but with fascism rising they did not, however saw the opportunity of not having British competition at the end of WW2 thus ordered total repayment of the lend lease costs. Britain FINALLY repaid all the debt in about 2010 , the ONLY country in the entire world to repay a debt due to WW2 !

Britain now has the Commonwealth... Without those Commonwealth nations fighting for Britain, before America entered the war, Germany would have taken over the UK, leaving the U.S. with no European foothold. The Battle of Britain had Canadian, Indian, Australian, South African and other nationality pilots that all helped win the Battle of Britain, keeping Germany out!

The empire ended but the influence is still there, the commonwealth,Britain does recruit soldiers, from the commonwealth.

I love watching you learn about these things. And, if I have it right, Britain still rules 15 countries and 54 countries are a part of the British Commonwealth, though a few are about to seek independence, I think.

Our Empire broke up largely because of the Second World War. We had to put all of our resources into it from 1939, not 1941, in order to stand against the whole of Europe.

WW2 and its immense costs nearly bankrupted the UK and by then India in particular wanted Independence (Think Ghandi) by then. The UK signed the Atlantic Charter with the US in 1942) which was driven by its need to gain full financial and industrial support from the US to help win the war. The US extracted a committment in that Charter for the UK to abandon its Empire at some future time after WW2. Canada, Australia and NZ had become self governing Dominions by 1931. India was offered independence in 1940 if it continued to fight for Britain against the Germans and Japanese and that was agreed - so in 1947 they gained it. The UK by then began to realise and understood it could no longer control most of its colonies in the modern era of locally run democracy if they wanted to be independent as we had insufficient funds and therefore a military to do so anymore - the RN was cut to a third pf its size by 1948 - thus the lynch pin of ur power was gone. and the main focus for what we diud spend was on protecting ourselves from the new direct Soviet threat in Europe including nuclear destruction. It took nearly 40 years to peacefully (in principle) let each colony become independent although the UK fought serval major wars in some of its colonies in the 50s, 60s and 70s making sure independence was possible rather than Soviet or Chinese communist take overs occurring - and when in 1997 Hong Kong was given (back) to China that marked the offical end of the British Empire. A number of small "countries" remain as British Overseas territories still (mostly Caribbean) as they felt unable to be independent due to their size. The other ex colonies are now part of the free association known as the (British) Commonwealth of which King Charles is the Head. Its actually bigger in number than all the ex Empire colonies counted together as several other (African) nations joined it after their independence form other nations such as Portugal. 15 of the former colonies still retain the King as Head of state including Canad, Australia and NZ of course. The latter all retain the Union Flag within their national flags too

Tere are currently 56 countries in the Commonwealth. Every 4 years, just like the the olimpics , games occur where these countries particapate.

If the extent of the British Empire in the 1930s surprises you, did you know that it wasn't until the 1990s that we gave back Hong Kong to China?

It’s like Amazon with guns