Lesson Y8-U02-L06

The Legacy of Empire Today Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 8

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y8-U02-L06, The Legacy of Empire Today: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 8: Year 8: Empire, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What does 'significance' mean in history?

    • How old a document is and whether the paper and ink are still in good condition
    • How many people are alive today and how many of them live in the same country
    • How much something mattered then and still matters now
    • Which king ruled the longest and how many wars he fought during his long reign

  2. What is the Commonwealth?

    • A single state ruled from London with one parliament and one king for all members
    • A trade union for ship builders and dockworkers across the whole British Isles
    • A free association of 56 countries, most once ruled by Britain
    • A treaty ending the Civil War signed by the King and Parliament at Westminster

  3. What does 'legacy' mean?

    • A gift of money left to a family member in a will after a person has died
    • A military rank given to officers who had served with distinction in a long war
    • A type of ship used by merchants in the Atlantic trade during the 1700s
    • Something from the past still here and having effects today

  4. Which of these is one of the five Rs historians use to test significance?

    • Rural
    • Resonant
    • Regal
    • Romantic

  5. Roughly how many people lived under British rule at the empire's peak?

    • About 4.5 billion
    • About 45 million
    • About 458 million
    • About 4.5 million

  6. In what year did the Windrush arrive at Tilbury, bringing Caribbean migrants to Britain?

    • 1948
    • 1960
    • 1807
    • 1919

  7. About how many people speak English around the world?

    • About 1.5 billion
    • About 15 billion
    • About 15 million
    • About 150 thousand

  8. In what year were the Benin Bronzes looted by British forces?

    • 1960
    • 1897
    • 1848
    • 1807

  9. Which Bristol merchant's statue was pulled down by protesters in June 2020?

    • Edward Colston
    • Cecil Rhodes
    • Robert Clive
    • Thomas Macaulay

  10. Roughly how many enslaved Africans did the Royal African Company's trade carry in Colston's time?

    • About 8.4 million
    • About 84,000
    • About 840
    • About 84 million

  11. Which 1960 speech spoke of 'the wind of change' sweeping across Africa?

    • Churchill's speech
    • Rhodes's speech
    • Gandhi's speech
    • Macmillan's speech

  12. Which of these is an example of a 'contested' legacy?

    • Museum objects like the Benin Bronzes
    • Multicultural Britain, which grew from migration after the arrival of the Windrush
    • The Commonwealth Games, which bring together athletes from many countries each four years
    • English as a global language, spoken by about 1.5 billion people around the world

  13. Why is the 1948 Windrush arrival a significant legacy of empire?

    • It was a battle in India, fought between the Company's army and the local Mughal forces
    • It created the East India Company, which ran much of India for a century and more
    • It ended slavery across the empire, and so it marked the end of the British slave trade
    • It resulted in lasting change to who lives in Britain, and it connects to debates on migration today

  14. Source A says campaigners 'asked, politely' for a truthful plaque. Why does this matter?

    • It shows the honouring of a slave trader was resonant and contested, with campaigners ignored
    • It shows the statue was made in 1948, long after the slave trade had been abolished
    • It proves the statue was built by enslaved people who were forced to work on the site
    • It shows the Royal African Company was a charity that gave money to the poor of Bristol

  15. Why do historians say the Colston debate shows that the legacy is 'resonant'?

    • It ended the Commonwealth and restored the monarchy in the same year as the statue fell
    • It is only about a statue's weight and the cost of moving it from one place to another
    • It happened in 1648, during the first English Civil War and the years that followed
    • It connects to issues people care about now, such as race and how we honour people

  16. Why do people in the empire debate use different criteria?

    • They have the same values and disagree only about the exact dates of the key events
    • They only read one book, which gave them all the same narrow view of the past
    • They were all born in the same year, so they had the same experiences and memories
    • They value different things and apply significance criteria differently

  17. Which argument would a campaigner against removing statues make?

    • Statues were all made from gold
    • Protesters in 1648 pulled down statues
    • Removing a statue erases history and should not be decided by a crowd
    • A statue honours a slave trader, so it should be pulled down

  18. Which of these is a 'contested' legacy rather than a clearly positive one?

    • Tea and curry are common in British shops
    • English is spoken worldwide
    • Calls for reparations for slavery continue today
    • The Commonwealth holds sporting events

  19. Why is 'famous' not the same as 'significant'?

    • Significant things are always unknown to the public and rarely discussed in school
    • Significance needs criteria like resulting in change and still resonating today
    • Only kings, queens and great generals can be significant in the story of the past
    • Famous things are always more significant than things that nobody has ever heard of

  20. Why does the British Empire remain so heavily debated, according to the lesson?

    • Historians refuse to write about it because the subject is too painful and disputed
    • It ended in 1066, so it has no relevance to the modern world or the people who live in it
    • It is part of who Britain is today, and the story we tell about it is an argument about ourselves
    • It has no legacies that anyone can point to in the country or in the wider world today

All KS3 History quizzes