Olivia: When does maintaining control spill over into sheer, calculated terror? Welcome to When It Happened, where we find the moments that define a story. I'm Olivia. Olivia: This week, we're looking at Niall Ferguson's Empire. The main character? The British Empire itself – vast, ambitious, bringing railways and rule of law, but harbouring a brutal dark side. Ferguson charts its staggering rise across a quarter of the globe and its complex, often violent decline. Amidst this sprawling history, one specific, horrifying event exposes the rot beneath the imperial veneer, a moment where control became carnage. Olivia: Picture Jallianwala Bagh, a walled garden in Amritsar, India, April 13th, 1919. Thousands of unarmed civilians – men, women, children – peacefully protest restrictive laws. Suddenly, troops under Brigadier-General Dyer march in, block the only narrow exit, and open fire without warning. For ten minutes, bullets tear through the trapped crowd. Hundreds die, over a thousand are wounded. It's not chaos; it's a deliberate massacre, designed to inflict maximum terror. Olivia: Why is this single afternoon so pivotal in Ferguson's account? Because Amritsar shattered the myth of benevolent British rule. It starkly revealed the raw violence the Empire would use when challenged. This wasn't a mistake; it was policy intended to 'teach a lesson.' Instead, it became a point of no return, galvanizing the Indian independence movement under Gandhi and embodying the themes of force, resistance, and the Empire's moral decay. Olivia: The key takeaway? Unchecked power can morph into appalling cruelty with terrifying speed. Ferguson forces us to confront history's ugliest chapters, not for blame, but to understand the true cost of empire – a crucial lesson as powerful nations navigate the world today. Olivia: That’s all for this week’s When It Happened. Join me next time for another defining moment.