Francis Drake was an explorer and fought for Queen Elizabeth I in the Spanish Armada. However, along with John Hawkins, he was also involved in the first English slaving voyage, taking enslaved people from Africa to be sold in the Americas in the 1560s.

Jamestown was England’s first permanent settlement in the Americas, founded in May 1607. It was built on land close to the local Powhatan people and the chief’s daughter Pocahontas acted as a messenger between the indigenous people and the colonists.

Nanny of the Maroons was the leader of a rebel community of formerly enslaved people in Jamaica in the 1730s. Thanks to her guerilla tactics, the Maroons signed a peace treaty with the English.

The Bengali leader Siraj ud-Daulah fought for independence against British troops, led by Robert Clive, at the Battle of Plassey in June 1757. Clive’s men won and this led to British rule in India.

A group of Americans, including George Washington, fought the ruling British forces in the American War of Independence (or the American Revolutionary War), after declaring their independence on 4 July 1776.

Theobald Wolfe Tone was one of the key leaders of the political group the Society of United Irishmen. They fought for greater Irish representation in parliament and launched the Irish Rebellion, 1798.

Olaudah Equiano was key figure in the British abolition movement, fighting against the slave trade. He wrote letters to powerful people and published a best-selling autobiography describing his life experiences as an enslaved person.

In 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act banned slavery in the British Empire, after decades of protests by abolitionists.

Bennelong was an Aboriginal man and Australia’s first diplomat. He was kidnapped by British forces in 1789 and escaped, but eventually chose to help Governor Arthur Phllip communicate with other native Australians.

The Boer War was a war between the British, who wanted access to African gold mines, and Afrikaans farmers called the Boer people, from 1899-1902. Soldiers from Africa, South Asia, Canada and Australia fought in the conflict.

The Windrush Generation is the name given to the people who arrived in the UK from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1973. They first arrived on the ship Empire Windrush in June 1948, responding to a call-out for people to work in Britain.

Mahatma Gandhi fought for Indian Independence against British rule and promoted non-violent forms of protest, such as the 1930 Salt March. Thanks to his work, India finally gained independence in 1947.