This next piece is from Great Britain and it captures the grandeur of what was the world’s first superpower. At the end of the 19th century, Queen Victoria ruled a quarter of the planet. Her realm was famously the empire upon which the sun never set. Humming with newfangled inventions from the industrial age, with a middle class that was both educated and prosperous, Britain was on a roll.

Pomp and Circumstance, by Sir Edward Elgar, seems to provide a fitting soundtrack to the confidence that was Britain’s at the dawn of the 20th century. Now, today, we Americans know this piece because we use it at commencement ceremonies to celebrate educational triumphs. But if you happen to be ruling a vast empire or bushwhacking a brave new future for the common man, this piece works well for other triumphs too. So now chin up as we travel to England with vivid images and the regal sounds of Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” march No. 1.

[music: Pomp and Circumstance No. 1]