Lesson Y8-U02-L05

Empire A Force for Good or Ill Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 8

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

In partnership with Revision Ninja

Lesson Y8-U02-L05, Empire A Force for Good or Ill: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 8: Year 8: Empire, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

Host this setFree Play

The 20 questions

  1. In what year did Britain abolish the slave trade?

    • 1849
    • 1833
    • 1807
    • 1919

  2. In what year was slavery itself abolished across the British Empire?

    • 1849
    • 1943
    • 1833
    • 1807

  3. Where and when did the Amritsar Massacre take place?

    • Cairo, Egypt, 1882
    • Nairobi, Kenya, 1952
    • Kingston, Jamaica, 1865
    • Amritsar, India, 1919

  4. Which 1943 tragedy killed millions in Bengal during wartime?

    • The Sepoy famine
    • The cotton plague
    • The great drought
    • The Bengal famine

  5. Which famous diamond was taken from India in 1849?

    • Regent Diamond
    • Koh-i-Noor
    • Hope Diamond
    • Cullinan Diamond

  6. Roughly how many enslaved Africans did Britain transport before 1807?

    • 10 million
    • 500,000
    • 3 million
    • 50,000

  7. For how long had Britain been the biggest slave-trading nation before 1807?

    • Exactly twenty years
    • Over a century
    • Under ten years
    • Five decades

  8. Roughly how long was the railway network built in India by 1947?

    • About 400,000 miles
    • About 400 miles
    • About 4 million miles
    • About 40,000 miles

  9. Who commanded the troops at the Amritsar Massacre in 1919?

    • General Rupert
    • General Monck
    • General Kitchener
    • General Dyer

  10. Which naval force was set up to stop slave ships at sea?

    • Mediterranean Squadron
    • Royal Marines
    • Atlantic Fleet
    • West Africa Squadron

  11. Which Indian leader is associated with the independence movement that grew after Amritsar?

    • Robert Clive
    • Cecil Rhodes
    • Thomas Macaulay
    • Gandhi

  12. In what year did Britain abolish the transatlantic slave trade?

    • 1750
    • 1807
    • 1833
    • 1688

  13. Why must historians be careful with claims listing only imperial benefits?

    • They include taxes
    • They ignore costs
    • They prove nothing
    • They list all facts

  14. Who primarily paid for the railway network built in colonial India?

    • British taxpayers
    • Railway companies
    • The Mughal Emperor
    • Indian taxpayers

  15. What crucial historical question asks 'good or ill for whom'?

    • Different perspectives
    • Total population
    • Exact dates
    • Factory output

  16. Why might two historians interpret the same empire differently?

    • Different evidence
    • Lost kingdoms
    • Different decades
    • Fake documents

  17. What does a balanced historical judgement require?

    • Choosing one source
    • Ignoring negative facts
    • Accepting all claims
    • Weighing both sides

  18. What was the main impact of the Amritsar Massacre on Indian resistance?

    • Stopped all protests
    • Fuelled independence
    • Dissolved Congress
    • Increased tax loyalty

  19. Why do benefits and harms often sit side by side in empire history?

    • No harms occurred
    • Empires were peaceful
    • Colonies ruled Britain
    • Benefits served Britain

  20. Which historical harm is hardest for defenders of the British Empire to excuse?

    • Building railways
    • Spreading cricket
    • Establishing telegraphs
    • Transatlantic slavery

All KS3 History quizzes