A Taste for Power

S1, E1: In India, the British learn the art of imperialism, using local rulers and troops to maintain power. But it is little more than a confidence trick, an enormous bluff—and as the mutiny of 1857 shows, it’s only a matter of time before that bluff is called. Suez becomes a vital link to the empire in the East, and in the years after World War I the British find themselves embroiled in the intractable problems of Palestine.