Britain history. (0)

Britain History
Pre-Norman Britain
The Iberians brought their metal - working skills and the first real civilization to Britain in the third millennium B.C and were overrun by various Celtic invasions that began in the 8th century . The Celts introduced their tribal organization and an early form of agriculture before they were forced westward by the Roman invasion. Forms of Celtic language are still spoken in Britain.
Romans (with Julius Caesar in the head of them ) first tried to occupy Britain in 55 B.C., but there was a rebellion in Gaul so they had to leave to fight against it. Next time they came in 43 A.D. and their leader was Emperor Claudius . Romans brought a lot with them. Their brought paved roads, the sites of important cities, the seeds of Christianity, the Roman law, Roman baths, language and advanced civilization. They also built Hadrian’s Wall in 122 A.D. Romans occupied Britain for four centuries.
The Roman way of life all vanished after the invasions from Northern Europe by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes from the 5th century onwards. They ruined Londinium, but they were easily turned into Christianity and religion became more and more important. The Vikings , who came in the 9th century, first raided England to plunder it, but then they decided to stay . In the 10th century England fell under Danish Rule , with King Canute finally managing to unite the Anglo-Saxons and Danes at the beginning of 11th century.
Medieval England
After defeating the Anglo-Saxon King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William of Normandy (who became William I, also called William the Conqueror) introduced the Norman feudal system, rewarding his French -speaking followers with land in return for their continued support . French remained the language of the upper classes and administration until the 14th century.
The power of these Norman Barons gradually increased and during the reign of the Plantagenets began the challenge the King’s absolute power, which resulted in King John being forced to sign Magna Carta in 1215 . It consisted of long list of limitations to the King’s power and it gave more power to the origins of Parliament .
The origins of Parliament are to be found in the reign of John’s successor, Henry III. It was a meeting of the King and his Barons and servants at which various administrative and financial problems were discussed. In order to make it easier to put the decisions taken into practice, each Shire had to elect a number of knights to attend at these meetings at report the decisions to their Shires. Edward I continued this experiment and in 1295 called a parliament that became known as the Model Parliament. The House of Commons as a separate Chamber resulted from the unofficial meeting of these knights and burgesses. The person chosen to speak for these commoners in Parliament became known as the speaker.
The Hundred Years War fought between France and England had a devastating effect on the English economy . The high taxation necessary to finance the war and the Black Death ( 1348 ) led to such extreme hardship for the peasant class that there was a revolt in 1381. Although the Peasant’s Revolt was soon put down, it led to greatly improved conditions for the peasant class and was the first step towards the ending of the feudal system in England.
The Tudors
Tudor Period began when Henry VII (Henry of Tudor) of the House of York defeated Richard III of the House of Lancaster in the Wars of Roses and he was crowned as the King of England. Henry VII united the two rival houses and started the Tudor dynasty.
During Henry’s reign the medieval period came to a close. There was a revival, or Renaissance, of learning , partly as a result of the printing press, which ended the Church ’s monopoly of learning.
Henry’s son and heir, Henry VIII created the Royal Navy, which culminated with the sinking of the Spanish Armada in 1588. One of the leaders of the English navy was Sir Francis Drake , who was the first Englishman to sail around the world. The Royal Navy also enabled England to realize her imperialistic ambitions and defy the Pope and the Catholic powers of Europe.
Henry used Parliament to establish himself as the head of the Protestant Church with the Act of Supremacy (1534). His Reformation led to the creation of the religiously distinct Anglican Church. The dissolution of the monasteries provided Henry with much needed wealth .
The reign of Elizabeth I was called the Golden Age of English history, because it produced poets like Shakespeare and Spenser and prosperity for the entire nation . She also restored national unity and made England Protestant again . The discovery of America placed Britain in the centre of the world’s trading routes and brilliant naval commanders (Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh) enabled England to dominate these trade routes.
Sir Walter Raleigh is known for being the person who first brought potatoes and tobacco to Britain.
The Stuarts
In 1602 the Pilgrim fathers left England on Mayflower because of religious reasons and established colonies in America.
On 5th November 1605 English Catholics, with Guy Fawkes as their leader attempted to blow up king James I and the Parliament. They failed at their attempt and that day is nowadays called Guy Fawkes Night .
The Stuarts king James I and Charles I followed the medieval notion of monarchy, ignoring parliament. James I united England and Scotland . Charles I raised taxes without its permission and prevented it from meeting for 11 years. The conflict between the Parliament and the kings over power increased and led the country into the Civil War (1642- 1651 ) between Charles I and Parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell . Oliver Cromwell led the Parliamentarian Roundheads to victory, Charles I was executed and Cromwell rook up rule of the country, which became a republic , called the Commonwealth . He was its Lord Protector until his death in 1660.
After Cromwell’s death, the Stuarts returned to the throne, Charles I’s son was crowned Charles II. However , the Parliament was firmly established this time and no future monarch would ever seriously challenge its power.
England suffered during the reign of Charles II. The Plague (1665) killed almost 70 000 of London’s inhabitants and the Great Fire ( 1666 ) destroyed most of the city. Sir Christopher Wren was asked to build up the city. The Great Fire had two plusses – the fire killed all the rats that carried the plague and after that, all the houses were built of stone , so another fire couldn’t happen .
Although Charles had restored some power to monarchy by the time James II came to the throne, Parliament’s support was necessary to govern the country. Parliament was dominated by two groups, one wanted to exclude Charles catholic brother from the throne and the others wanted him to the throne. However, as he was filling civil and military posts with Catholic while the Protestants were being murdered, Parliament was so angered that it invited the Protestant William of Orange and Mary (James II’s daughter ) to take the Crown . This Glorious Revolution (1688) was accompanied by a Bill of Rights , which made it obligatory for the sovereign to rule with Parliament’s assistance and outlawed Catholicism for all Englishman, including the King.
In 1707 the Act of Union united English and Scottish Parliaments. The last monarch of the Stuarts was Queen Anne.
The House of Hanover
At the beginning of the 18th century the English parliament asked George of Hanover, a Protestant descendant of James I, to become king. George I was a controversial king who spent most of his time in Hanover, leaving the country in the care of the Cabinet. This was eventually headed by Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first Prime Minister and the first to live at 10 Downing Street . During the reigns of George I and George II, Parliament assumed almost absolute responsibility for running the country. Large areas of Canada and India were colonized at the expense of the French.
The single greatest threat to George I came with the Scottish Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1719. However, James Stuart , their leader, was easily defeated and fled to Rome. His son tried to claim the British throne twice, but he was soon forced to retreat. On 16 April 1746 , English army met the Jacobites in a moor at Culloden. 2000 of the Jacobites died, which ended Stuart pretensions to the crown.
The British ensured British rule at the French fort at Quebec . During the reign of George III, Britain lost its American colonies and the United States was born. Britain recognised its independence in September 1783.
In Britain, peasant farmers were replaced by farms, tiny strips of land were replaced by huge fields enclosed by hedges, so stray animals couldn’t ruin the crops or mix with improved breeds of sheep and cattle . This agricultural revolution left large numbers of the population landless, but also led to the massive increase in agricultural production .
Admiral Nelson defeated Napoleon and his troops in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, where he also died. Duke of Wellington ended Napoleon Bonaparte ’s dreams of world dominance in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Captain James Cook changed the map of the world, discovering many unknown lands like Australia , New Zealand and Tonga . British overseas colonies increased and the country became wealthier. Britain exporter coal , cloth, guns and other manufactured products . Imports included cotton, sugar , tobacco and tea.
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution began in the second half of the 18th century in which industry was transformed from hand - work at home to machine-work in factories. By 1800 Britain was the most industrialized country in the world. It was rich in coal, iron ore and wool and new methods of farming meant that England could produce enough food to feed herself and export some as well. However, the working conditions were brutal and unhealthy, safety was disregarded and there was a lot of environmental pollution.
Travelling and communications were improved. Many canals and railways were built; telegraph lines, magazines and newspaper provided people with steady flow of information. The population of Britain rose from 8 million to 14 million. The largest and richest city in Europe was London, with a population of around a million. It was also an important financial centre.
For about 200 years Britain had been a leading country in the world’s slave trade, but this finally came to an end in 1807, largely thanks to the politician William Wilberforce, who won his fight in Britain and then devoted the rest of his life to ban the slave trade throughout the world.
Between 1810 and 1820 the Highland Clearances took place in Scotland. Local crofters were forced to live their homelands if they couldn’t pay the high rents they had been charged. These lands were given over to flocks of sheep. By the end of the decade the Highlands had become a wilderness.
The 19th century was generally a time of great social reform : the slave trade was abolished, the employment of women and children was regulated by laws , primary schools were established and men could no longer be excluded from universities or politics because of their religion.
Victorian Britain
The Victorian age began in 1837, which lasted until Queen Victoria’s death in 1901.
The period was dominated by three men – her Prince Consort, Albert of Saxe-Coburg and two outstanding prime ministers, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disreali. By the end of her reign the nation was the most powerful in the world and by the 1920s the British Empire comprised about a quarter of the world’s territory and population.
Victoria had nine children, who eventually became the monarchs of many European countries like Russia , German , Sweden and Greece . After Prince Albert’s death Victoria withdrew from most public appearances for years. She put much effort into planning and building a series of memorials to her husband . During the last decades of her life she once again involved herself in state and political matters .
Britain also took part in the Crimean War ( 1853 -1856). The British part in this war, to halt Russian expanding into the Balkans, was appallingly planned and executed. Hospital conditions though were atrocious: there was no room for all the patients. Florence Nightingale was the first woman to run a field hospital in Turkey during the Crimean War. She later set up a school for nurses, turning nursing into true profession.
The Boer War, also called the South African War (1899-1902) saw the British army fight successfully against two Boer republics and make them part of the British Empire.
The Potato Famine, which hit Ireland between 1845 and 1850, was one of the greatest natural disasters the Western world has seen . Ireland lost about half o its population: one million died and another million emigrated. Irish corn crops remained unaffected, but they were exported. Profit counted more than human lives .
The Victorian age is also known for its literary achievements. Charles Dickens is considered one of the greatest English novelists of all time. His books included “Oliver Twist”, “Old Curiosity Shop”, “Nicholas Nickleby” and others. He became very rich and used his wealth for the antislavery movement , social housing projects and international copyright laws.
At the same as the middle classes were expanding in Victorian Britain, so were the working classes. New industries were developed , new factories were built and Britain’s products were exporter all over the world. Life in the new factories was one of terrible hardship. Men, woman and children were forced to work fifteen or sixteen hours a day in dangerous and unhealthy conditions for poor wages . Parliament was forced to come to terms with the new social conditions. The Reform Act of 1832 was follower by other urgently needed social reforms: the creation of police force ; free, compulsory education; the extension of the vote . Meanwhile the working classes were becoming organized. While the ideas of Karl Marx were never won much support among British workers , the idea of socialism was nevertheless a potent force in late Victorian Britain. The founding of the Labour Party , led by Keir Hardia, gave the proletariat a greater voice in Parliament.
Britain’s Decline as a World Power
After Victoria, his eldest son came to the throne in 1901 when he was 60 years old. He ruled nine years and then he died. The next monarch was George V, who ruled for 26 years and was confronted with many crises, including World War I, Ireland’s fight for (and winning of) independence, women’s battle to secure the vote, the General Strike of the 1920 and the Great Depression of the 1930s . During the World War I, he changed the name of the royal family, which used to be Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to Windsor.
The white settler colonies of British Empire had always enjoyed considerable self- government and in the first decade Canada , Australia , South Africa and New Zealand were all allowed to draw up their own constitutions to become dominions. The non-white colonies were not so fortunate.
World War I started in 1914. It was between France, the UK and the British Empire, Russia and the US (known as “the Allies ”) on one side and Germany , Turkey and Austria-Hungary on the other. When the Allies won in 1918, more than 10 million men had been killed. The only positive outcome in Britain was that women got the right to vote in the 1919 elections. During the war, Britain also struggled to main control of Ireland, where demands for independence were increasing. Britain was unable to resist the rise of nationalistic movement. The Irish Free State was eventually created on 6 December 1921.
In the mid-1920s life was getting harder for the lower classes. A slump in the mining industry in 1925 led Britain’s miners to a nationwide strike. The General Strike started on 4 May 1926 and many people stopped work in support of the men who worked in the mines. The strike had a great effect on their conditions, but it was not successful in its political aims.
The war was followed by a period of severe hardship throughout Europe as the depressed economies struggled to recover from the war effort. It was a period of great social unrest and mistrust between various classes. Unemployment was high, wages low and there were numerous strikes by all the unions in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the owners of the coal mines cutting miners’ wages. The great Depression of the 1930s actually began with the collapse of American financial markets in 1929. Over three million people out of workforce of 14 million were unemployed. The formation of a National Coalition Government, including Conservative leaders and former Labour Party leaders, proved to be no solution.
The next monarch was Edward VIII. He was deeply in love with Mrs Wallis Simpson , an American divorcee, whom he could not marry because Britain’s sovereign was the titular Head of the Church of England, which did not sanction remarriage of divorced persons. Finally Edward chose love over duty and his brother Albert was declared King George VI. One of his first acts was to name Edward the Duke of Windsor.
George VI and his wife , Queen Elizabeth were very popular , especially during World War II, when they continued to live in London (while it was being bombed) and accepted the same food restrictions as ordinary people. George VI brought the Crown and people closer together.
World War II (1939-1945) involved almost every major in the world. The war was fought by the Allies on one side (Including the UK, France, Poland and after 1941 the us and Soviet Union) and the Axis (including Germany, Japan and Italy ) on the other. About 55 million people were killed around the world until Japan surrendered in 1945 after the US had dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities, ending the war.
The war years were hard for Britain and its people: many building were destroyed; a system called “rationing” was introduced by the government, restricting the amount of food, petrol and clothes that people could have. During the summer and autumn of 1940, British aircraft tried to prevent Germans from bombing British cities. This was called the Battle of Britain. The British were successful.
After the war, it was difficult for George VI to rule the Empire as India and Pakistan won their independence and the British Commonwealth of Nations was created. It was established in order to encourage trade and friendly contacts between its member , who were mostly formerly part of the British Empire. Labour Party came to power and promised the greatest social revolution in British history: the coal and railway industries were to be nationalised; a comprehensive welfare state was to be created; health and hospital care were to be free for all; a national insurance scheme was to be introduced to ensure tat everyone received a state pension retirement.
Britain and Ireland
British colonization of Ireland began in the Middle Ages under Henry II, but the real conquest of Ireland dates from the beginning of the 17th century, when James I of England began the systematic expropriation of land from the Irish by sending anti-Catholic Protestants from Scotland to settle in Ulster which had always put up the greatest resistance to English rule. Fifty years later, Oliver Cromwell put down Irish rebellions with extreme ferocity. In 1690 the Irish made another attempt to resist the conquest of their country, but they were defeated.
The Irish continued to resist. By the end of the 19th century, most people in Britain favoured Home Rule for Ireland, but the Protestant Unionists in the north were sufficiently strong to prevent it. In 1916 a group of Irish Republicans staged Easter Rising in Dublin . The uprising was put down, but the brutal methods used by the British troops strengthened Irish resistance and let to the formation of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who fought against British occupation. This resulted, in 1921, in independence being conceded to the 26 counties of southern Ireland, which became the Republic of Eire in 1949. Ulster was allowed to remain within the United Kingdom.
Eventually, in 1969, the British government sent in the British Army to restore peace , but they became the enemies. Relations reached their worst point in 1972 on Bloody Sunday when British troops fired on a civil right demonstration in Derry , killing thirteen people. In reaction to this and other atrocities, the IRA began a military and terrorist campaign against British rule which is still continuing.
Nowadays there are many people who want uniting the two parts of Ireland, but there are also as many people who can’t imagine living without British rule.