Narberth Museum has several objects that have an implicit connection to the British Empire’s colonisation of lands across the globe. These range from objects connected to hot beverages such as tea and coffee, tobacco, objects made from mahogany, rubber, asbestos and silk, objects with a link to missionary work and more contemporary images of events showing the practice of ‘blackface’. Using these the story of the Empire can be told in a way that views the components of everyday objects through a different lens. During the eighteenth-century Britain became the world’s leading imperial power, building a global trading system closely tied to the enslavement and exploitation of Indigenous peoples, and winning decisive victories over France, though the loss of the American colonies forced a shift in focus toward India and the wider world. In the nineteenth century, industrialisation underpinned rapid expansion, with Britain establishing control over India, large parts of Africa, and territories in Asia and the Pacific, promoting ideas of free trade and a “civilising mission” while ruling diverse peoples through unequal and often coercive systems. The people colonised by the British had British laws and customs imposed upon them, lost their ability to govern themselves and were, in many cases, violently oppressed. Taxes on colonised people were often high and the British brutally exploited natural resources for their own financial gain. The British Empire stripped many colonies and indigenous peoples of their land, languages and vibrant cultures, and along with harsh conditions and disease, saw decline in Indigenous populations. The Empire, at its height, was responsible for colonising around 26% of the world, controlling over 400 million people - at its peak in the late 19th and early 20th

centuries, it controlled territories on every inhabited continent and wielded unmatched influence over global trade.