Roman Britain (55 B.C.-A.D. 410)

Lecture 1 Ancient Britain

Prehistoric Britain

A million years ago, the whole of northwestern Europe, including Britain, was in the grip of the last Ice Age. During this period, the ice advanced and retreated several times across the land. Britain was joined to Europe by a land bridge.

Archaeologists think that the earliest ancestors of modern human beings may have entered Britain overland from Europe more than half a million years ago. These hominids belonged to the Old Stone Age. They used stone tools and may have discovered how to control fire. They travelled as hunters, following herds of migrating wild animals. The earliest known settlements in Britain date from about 250,000 B.C. They include a site at Clacton, Essex, where stone choppers have been found.

About 70,000 BC, the last of the severe glaciations began, and for much of this period, no hominids lived in Britain. Those who did venture into Britain during short mild spells dwelt in caves. These hominids included the earliest modern human beings.

About 12,000 B.C., the last Ice Age was ending, and the climate had begun to improve. People still dwelt in caves and hunted for food. Cheddar in Somerset and Creswell Crags in Derbyshire have produced many interesting finds from this period. These finds include Britain's only surviving works of Paleolithic art. One such find, the Dancing Man of Creswell Crags, is a puzzling engraving on a piece of bone. It is said to resemble a masked male dancer.

The Pre-Celtic Period

By about 8000 B.C., Britain at last emerged from the Ice Age. Over the next 5,000 years, the improving climate changed the environment. The slowly rising temperature caused the ice sheets to melt and raised the level of the sea. Britain lost its land link with the rest of Europe after the formation of the English Channel and the North Sea about 5000 B.C.

Some historians refer to the original population as the Scots and Picts with whom newcomers started merging. The Picts inhabited mainly Scotland and the Scots lived in what we know as Ireland [or ‘Scotia’].

Britain attracted new settlers during this period. They hunted and fished, and their culture was more advanced than that of the Paleolithic Period. Archaeologists call these settlers Mesolithic(Middle Stone Age) people. One group of these settlers migrated from Denmark not long after 8000 B.C. Their most famous remains are at a settlement at Star Carr, North Yorkshire.

Mesolithic people made such tools as saws and mattocks. Mesolithic hunters domesticated the dog The people of this time also cleared a few areas of forest by fire, and some experts think they used the clearings for herding deer and other game.

Shortly before 4000 B.C., scattered tribes of people travelled to Britain from the mainland of western Europe. These people brought the settled and highly organized culture of the Neolithic(New Stone Age) Period with them. They were mainly farmers and village traders. They cleared large areas of woodland and made fields for planting crops and farming livestock. They also made and traded in Britain's earliest pottery.

The Neolithic people appear to be the first in Britain to have put up buildings of stone and wood. They also built the first roads—wooden trackways across marshy areas such as the Somerset Levels.

Neolithic people buried their dead in communal chambered tombs built of stone. These tombs belong to the class of huge monuments of stone called megaliths. Megalithic monuments also include vast circles of standing stones. The best known of these, Stonehenge was probably begun about 2700 B.C. and completed by Bronze Age builders.

Between 3000 B.C. and 2500 B.C., people began using metal in Britain. New immigrants arrived in the country. One group came about 1700 BC from the Rhine-land and the Netherlands (an Alpine race), and mixed with another from Spain and Portugal (the Iberian people who came here earlier - around 2400 BC). The newcomers were skilled in the use of copper and gold. Unlike the slim, long-headed people of Neolithic Britain, they were stocky and round-headed. Archaeologists refer to the new settlers as the Beaker Folk, because of the distinctive beaker-shaped pottery vessels they buried with their dead.

The Beaker Folk tended to live in isolated round houses, not in villages. They usually buried their dead singly under round barrows.

By about 1400 B.C., Bronze Age people had completed Stonehenge and had built a larger monument at Avebury, in Wiltshire. They also built stone circles in many other places.

Archaeologists know little of life in the Bronze Age, but many experts think that the use of the wheel and the plough began in Britain during this period.

The Celts

Soon after 800 BC, as the Bronze Age ended, Britain was invaded by the Celts - anew group of immigrants. They belonged to several different groups, but all used a form of the same language, called Celtic. These newcomers are therefore called Celts. Some historians believe that the Celtic language had already spread to Britain earlier in the Bronze Age, perhaps as a result of trade with Europe. By the time the Romans reached Britain, in 55 B.C., Celtic had replaced Britain's earlier language almost entirely.

The Celts are supposed to have come from Central Europe in three distinct waves. The first Celtic comers were the Gaels. They made iron tools and weapons of high technical quality. The Britons arrived some two centuries later, pushing the Gaels to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall, and took possession of the south and east and probably gave their name to the whole country. They brought tools, weapons, shields, and very artistic personal ornaments. Some time after 100 B.C., the Belgae, the most advanced of the Celtic tribes, arrived in southern Britain from Gaul (France), and occupied the greater part of what is known as the Home Countries [the central part of Great Britain.]. They used ploughs, made pottery or potter's wheels, and struck metal coins. The Belgae built farms and large settlements that developed into Britain's first towns.

Thus, the whole of Britain was occupied by the Celts who merged with the Picts and Scots, as well as the Alpine part of the population. The term “Celtic” is often used rather generally to distinguish the early inhabitants of the British Isles from the later Anglo-Saxon invaders.

It was a patriarchal clan society based on common ownership of land. It was then that social differentiation began to develop: the tribal chiefs and the semi-dependent native population.

The Celts were good warriors. Their communities were ruled by warrior chiefs. They were the first people in Britain to use chariots and to ride on horseback. Celtic war-chariots were famous beyond the limits of the country. The Celts were heathens. The priests were called Druids and their superior knowledge was taken for magic power. In England itself Celtic influence is felt to this very day, though this influence is much weaker, as compared with the other parts of the country. The Celts worshipped nature. The oak-tree, mistletoe and holly were sacred. Water was also worshipped as the source of life. There are place-names in England connected with the Celts. For example, Avon — the name of a river, which means "water" in Celtic. The origin of the name Severn — the longest river in the country — is connected with the name of a Celtic goddess — Sabrina. On the eve the Roman conquest, the Britons were at the stage of decay.

Lecture 2 The Dark Ages (410-1066) and the Norman

Conquest (1066-1337)

Many people today still call the period between the departure of the Romans in the 400's and the invasion of the Normans in 1066 the Dark Ages. This is because few reliable historical records of these times exist, and our knowledge of them is therefore limited.

The Anglo-Saxon settlement

Romanized Celtic leaders operated the Roman system of local government until about 446, when they made a final, fruitless appeal to Rome for protection. From then onwards, power fell more and more into the hands of local chiefs. From time to time, some of them established a lordship over others. Tradition says that one such overlord, Vortigern, controlled an area from Kent to South Wales.

The Anglo-Saxon raids continued. These raids were part of a general migration of Germanic tribes in search of new land for their increasing population.

During the fifth century, a number of tribes from the northwestern European mainland invaded and settled in Britain in large numbers. These tribes were the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. The Jutes and the Angles came from the Jutland peninsula (today southern Denmark). The Saxons arrived from the territory between the Rhine and Elbe rivers (northern Germany). At first they came as mercenaries hired by Celtic tribal chiefs who fought one against the other, then seeing that the country was weak to defend itself, they came in great numbers conquering it altogether.

Tradition says that the Anglo-Saxon settlement of England began in 449, when Vortigern invited two Jutish chiefs, Hengest and Horsa, to help him defend Kent against invading tribes. Hengest and Horsa later rebelled against Vortigern. Horsa died in battle, but Hengest and his descendants eventually conquered Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight by about 550.

The Angles occupied the central part of southern Britain and the northern and eastern coasts. The Saxons settled around the River Thames. They advanced westwards to the Bristol Channel by 577 and to the Irish Sea by 613. By then, almost all of present-day England was under Anglo-Saxon rule. Quite soon the country began to be called "the land of the Angles", later "Englaland" and as you easily see England.

In the west of the country, their advance was temporarily halted by an army of [Celtic] Britons under the command of the legendary King Arthur. Nevertheless, by the end of the sixth century, the Angle-Saxons and their way of life predominated in nearly all of England and in parts of southern Scotland.

Wherever the Anglo-Saxon settlers went, they displaced the local Romanized Celtic Britons, forcing them northwards and westwards into present-day Scotland and Wales. Some Britons took refuge in Cornwall or across the Channel in Brittany. In the 500's and 600's, the Angles made gains in Scotland and captured the land between Wales and the Celtic kingdom of Strathclyde. In the 700's, Offa, king of Mercia, built a defensive dyke that defined the English boundary with Wales.

The Anglo-Saxons and Jutes were close to each other in speech and customs, and they gradually formed into one people referred to as the Anglo-Saxons. For a long time the tribes fought with one another for supreme power.

Anglo-Saxon England

Altogether, seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms developed in England—East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, and Wessex. By the early 600's, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex dominated the other four kingdoms. In the 700's, Mercia had important commercial and diplomatic links with Europe.

In the 800's, Wessex became the politically dominant kingdom. Egbert, its king, conquered the Welsh of Cornwall in 815. In 825, he defeated Mercia and seized Mercia's subject kingdoms of Kent and Sussex. In 827, Egbert forced Mercia and Northumbria to accept his overlordship. After 827, local kings still ruled in East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria, but Egbert claimed to rule the whole of England.

Egbert's successors include Alfred the Great, one of England's most significant early monarchs. Alfred was a great statesman, general, and man of letters. He wrote and translated books, opened schools, formed laws, and helped to found England's navy.

Among Alfred's descendants were two more outstanding kings. Athelstan, who ruled from 924 to 939, was acknowledged as overlord by the Danes and by the Celts of Scotland and Wales. Edgar the Peaceful, who reigned from 959 to 975, reformed the laws and coinage and founded religious institutions.

Anglo-Saxon life. The Anglo-Saxons made little use for towns and cities. They had a great effect on countryside, where they introduced new farming methods and founded thousands of self-sufficient villages which formed the basis of English society for the next thousands or so years.

The earliest Anglo-Saxon kings were military leaders who ruled with the aid of thanes (lords).The Anglo-Saxons settled in small tribal villages or townships of timber huts thatched with straw, reeds, or heather. By the 800's, village life had become more organized. The Anglo-Saxon kings had allotted land to their thanes and had made them overlords of some villages. Villagers became dependent on their thane and had to give him food and labour.

Saxon villages consisted of about 20 to 30 families, all faithful to their leader. Local rules were made by the " moot ", which was a small meeting held on a grassy hill or under a tree. Sometimes it judged cases between the people of the village. The many villages were, as time went by, grouped into " hundreds ", and the "hundreds" were grouped into " shires ". Each "hundred" had an open-air court of justice, and the judges were called aldermen. Important cases were judged by the sheriff of shire or by a king's representative called a reeve. These cases were discussed at a shire moot or meeting, which was a kind of local parliament, which met usually twice a year. The King's council was called the Witan, which was a kind of parliament of wise nobles and clergy. The Witan advised the king and was the highest law court. It could make laws and choose, or elect new kings.

The Anglo-Saxon peoples spoke languages belonging to the Germanic group of languages. The speech of the Anglo-Saxons predominated in England and formed the basis from which the English language developed.

The Anglo-Saxons were pagans and worshipped different gods: the sun, the moon, and such nature gods as Odin (Woden) and Thor. Their names are reflected in the names of the days of the week: Tiu (Tuesday) was the god of war, Woden (Wednesday) was the supreme god and the god of kings, Thor (Thursday) was the god of storm, Frigga (Friday), Woden's wife, was the goddess of nature and of love.

St. Augustine, a missionary from Rome, brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons in the south. He converted Kent in the late 590s and founded the Church of England in 597.

Life under the Normans

The lord of a manor held all the manor's land as the king's tenant-in-chief. The lord kept some land as his demesne. He let other land go to freeholders, who could leave his manor if they wished. The rest was farmed by villains, who were bound to stay on the manor and had to give the lord part of their produce. They also had to work on the demesne.

Some land around the manor was common land for keeping cattle, poultry, and sheep. People gathered fuel from the woodland and grew hay on the meadowland.

The law. There was no single source of justice. The king's council was the supreme court, and the king was the fount of justice. However, normally only great lords were tried by him. Freemen were usually tried by their fellow freemen in regional or local courts, called shire or hundred courts.

Under Anglo-Saxon law, a person could be cleared by the oaths of a group of men who believed the person to be innocent. But a person who was a known criminal or who had been caught in the act might have to undergo trial by ordeal. In the 1200's, trial by jury began replacing trial by ordeal.

Henry I extended royal control over criminal cases and appointed royal officials in shire courts. Henry II sent judges throughout the country to hold royal courts.

In 1215, the barons rebelled against King John's taxation. Under the leadership of Archbishop Stephen Langton, they forced him, at Runnymede, in present-day Surrey, to promise to observe their rights. They also forced him to accept Magna Carta, a charter that brought benefits to the common people as well as the barons. In Henry III's reign, Simon de Montfort led the barons in a rebellion against the king. This rebellion, called the Barons' War, ended with de Montfort's defeat at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. De Montfort had been the first person to summon ordinary citizens to discuss affairs of state with the barons and bishops. This idea led to the growth of Parliament.

 

 

Years of progress (1837-1906)

General Outline. Not long before this century began, Britain had lost its most important American colonies in a war of independence. When the century began, the country was locked in a war with France. By the middle of the 19th century, Britain established her industrial superiority in the world.

The strengthening of the capitalist state machine continued in this period. During the long reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), the revolutionary changes that had transformed Britain from a mainly agricultural nation to an industrial one were followed by developments that took it further along the road of industrialism.

Soon after the end of the century, Britain controlled the biggest empire the world had ever seen. One section of this empire was Ireland. During this century, it was part of the UK, where the British culture and way of life predominated.

Another part of the empire was made up of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. These countries had complete internal self-government but recognized the overall authority of the British government.

Another part was India. The British officials developed a distinctly Anglo-Indian way of life. They imposed British institutions and methods of government on the country.

Large parts of Africa also belonged to the empire. Most of Britain’s African colonies started as trading bases on the coast, and were incorporated into the empire at the end of the century. The empire also included numerous smaller areas and islands, which were acquired because of their strategic position along trading routes.

There was a change in attitude in Britain towards colonization during this century. Previously, it had been seen as a matter of settlement, of commerce, or of military strategy. By the end of the century, it was seen as a matter of destiny. Britain became the world’s foremost economic power. This gave the British a sense of supreme confidence, even arrogance, about their culture and civilization. The British came to see themselves as having a duty to spread this culture and civilization around the world.

Political developments. Many men who did not get the vote in 1832 resented the Reform Act and worked to change it. They drew up a charter demanding votes for all men, payment of members of Parliament, the abolition of the rule that members of Parliament must be property owners, the creation of electoral districts of roughly equal populations, and the annual election of parliaments. Members of the movement became known as chartists. The chartists held many demonstrations throughout Britain. A final, sensational demonstration in 1848 failed ridiculously. But most chartists were serious men, and all their demands—except for annually elected parliaments—have since been granted.

Further parliamentary reform came later in the 1800's. The Reform Act of 1867 extended the vote to working men in the towns. The Reform Act of 1884 gave the vote to agricultural labourers. Both these acts also redistributed parliamentary seats.

From 1830 to 1841, with one short break, the Whigs formed the governments. The Tories opposed the Reform Act in 1832. But in 1835, the Tory Party issued a document called the Tamworth Manifesto, which said that the party should combine reform with respect for tradition. The Tories began to call themselves Conservatives. In 1841, they won power under Peel.

Meanwhile, the aristocratic Whigs became, largely under the leadership of William Gladstone, the new Liberal Party. The Liberals represented particularly the middle classes and Nonconformists (Protestants outside the Church of England). In the late 1800s, the trade unions and a group of socialist intellectuals called the Fabians formed the Labour Party. The first Labour members entered Parliament in 1893.

Industrial developments. British industry continued to expand. Coal output more than doubled between 1846 and 1862, and iron production increased by six times between 1833 and 1865. An expansion in trade as well as raw material production made Britain very prosperous and the world's leading manufacturing nation. It retained its industrial lead through the skill of its inventors. Sir Henry Bessemer discovered a less costly way of making steel, and steel replaced iron in engineering, railways, and shipbuilding. In 1844, Isambard Brunei laid the first electric telegraph on the Great Western Railway from Paddington to Slough. In 1866, British engineers laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1884, Sir Charles Parsons made the first practical steam turbine. In 1826, Patrick Bell invented a reaping machine for cutting cereals. He also devised a way of extracting sugar from sugar beet.

Near the end of the 1800s, Britain faced growing competition overseas. Such industrialized countries as France, Germany, and the United States protected their own manufactures against British goods by imposing high tariffs (taxes on imports). The United States and Germany overtook Britain in steel production. Britain's exports went into decline. Only coal, machinery, and ships maintained their share of the export market. Britain suffered an industrial slump between 1875 and 1896.

4.2. The United Kingdom in the 1^st Half of the 1900s

By the beginning of this century, Britain was no longer the world’s richest country. The first twenty years of the century were a period of extremism. The Suffragettes, women demanding the right to vote, were prepared both to damage property and to die for their beliefs; the problem of Ulster in the north of Ireland led to a situation in which some sections of the army were ready to disobey the government; and the government’s introduction of new taxes was opposed by the House of Lords so that even Parliament seemed to have an uncertain future in its traditional form. But by the end of the First World War, two of these issues had been resolved to most people’s satisfaction (the Irish problem remained)

In the first half of the 1900s, Britain fought in two world wars that considerably changed its international influence and status. Many countries that before 1945 were British colonies became independent countries as the British Empire developed into the Commonwealth of Unions. In 1906, Britain was the world's richest and most powerful nation, but the Soviet Union and the United States, with their vast resources of people and materials, eventually overtook Britain.

Affairs in Parliament. In 1906, the Liberals won a general election by a large majority and again returned to government in January 1910. It then introduced a bill to end the power of the Lords to reject financial bills. The bill also provided that any other bill, if passed by the Commons three times in two years, should become law without the approval of the Lords. The Liberals also proposed to reduce the length of a Parliament from seven to five years. The Lords passed the bill. It became law as the Parliament Act of 1911.

The Liberals passed more social reforms. In 1911, the Shops Act enforced early closing once a week. By another act, members of Parliament received payment for their services. A National Insurance Act provided sickness insurance for all low-paid workers and unemployment insurance for people in some jobs.

World War I. In the late 1800s, Britain, with its vast empire, relied on the Navy for defences and followed a foreign policy of splendid isolation. But with the early 1900s came a need for alliances. In 1902, Britain allied with Japan to meet a possible Russian attack on India. In 1904, Britain and France, both fearing German aggression, signed a treaty called the Entente Cordiale. In 1907, this became the Triple Entente, when France's ally, Russia, joined. The Entente was opposed by the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy.War was becoming imminent. The assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, at Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 was the pretext which led to open conflict.

On August 1, 1914 Germany declared war on Russia, on August 3 it declared war on France.

World War I began in 1914. The Allies—Britain, France, the United States, and other countries—fought the Central Powers—Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. The war was caused chiefly by political and economic rivalry among the various nations. Britain entered the war on August 4, 1914, after German troops invaded neutral Belgium on their way to attack France.

In the course of the war a coalition government was formed with the participation of the Liberals, the Tories and a few Labour representatives. Lloyd George emerged as the dominant figure in the government doing his best to divert growing labour unrest by propagating 'national unity'.

The fighting lasted until 1918, when the Allies finally defeated Germany. On August 8, 1918 the allied forces staged a major breakthrough surrounding and destroying 16 German divisions. Germany was defeated and the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.

Lloyd George served as prime minister during the second half of the war. He helped write the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended the war with Germany. The treaty set up the League of Nations, and gave Britain control over German colonies in Africa. The Treaty of Sevres, signed with the Turkish Ottoman Empire, gave Britain control over some Turkish possessions in the Middle East.

The war had a shattering effect on Britain. About 750,000 members of the British armed forces died. German submarines sank about 7 million metric tons of British shipping. The war also created severe economic problems for Britain and shook its position as a world power.

In January 1924, a new party, the Labour Party, came to power under James Ramsay MacDonald. The party represented socialist societies and workers' groups. While the Labour Party grew stronger, the Liberal Party declined. Many voters could see little difference between Conservatives and Liberals. They saw the Labour Party, with its socialist aims, as an alternative to the Conservative Party. The Labour Party held office only until November. It lacked a majority in the House of Commons, and needed the Liberal Party's support. The Liberals soon withdrew their support.

In the 1929 elections, the Labour Party became the largest party for the first time. MacDonald returned as prime minister. A few months later, the worldwide Great Depression began. In 1931, MacDonald formed a government of Labour, Conservative, and Liberal leaders to deal with the emergency. The government increased taxes, abandoned free trade, and cut its own spending. But the United Kingdom could not escape the effects of the Great Depression.

In the depth of the depression, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party won control of Germany. Germany began to rearm, but few leaders in the United Kingdom, or elsewhere, saw the danger.

Meantime, the United Kingdom faced an unusual problem at home. King George V died in 1936, and his oldest son became King Edward VIII. Edward wanted to marry an American divorcee, Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson. The government, the Church of England, and many British people objected. Edward then gave up the throne to marry "the woman I love." His brother became king as George VI.

Neville Chamberlain, a Conservative, became prime minister in 1937. Chamberlain thought he could deal with Hitler. In 1938, Hitler seized Austria and then demanded part of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain and Premier Edouard Daladier of France flew to Munich, Germany, to confer with Hitler. They gave in to Hitler's demands after the German dictator said he would seek no more territory. Chamberlain returned to Britain and said: "I believe it is peace in our time." The people sighed in relief. But Chamberlain met sharp attacks in the House of Commons. Winston Churchill, a Conservative, called the Munich Agreement "a disaster of the first magnitude."

World War II. In March 1939, Germany seized the rest of Czechoslovakia. On September 1, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. Two days later, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. In April 1940, German troops invaded Denmark and Norway. Chamberlain resigned on May 10, and Churchill became prime minister. On that same day, Germany attacked Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

Churchill told the British people he had nothing to offer but "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" to win "victory at all costs." Germany conquered France in June, and the UK stood alone against the Nazi war machine.

The United Kingdom prepared for invasion, and Churchill urged his people to make this "their finest hour." He inspired them to heights of courage, unity, and sacrifice. Hundreds of German planes bombed the UK nightly. German submarines tried to cut the UK's lifeline by torpedoing ships bringing supplies to the island country. Severe rationing limited each person's share of food, clothing, coal, and oil. The British refused to be beaten, and Hitler gave up his invasion plans.

In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. In December, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, and the United States entered the war. The UK, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the other Allies finally defeated Germany and Japan in 1945. Near the end of the war, the UK helped establish the United Nations.

About 360,000 British servicemen, servicewomen, and civilians died in the war. Great sections of London and other cities had been destroyed by German bombs. The war had shattered the UK economy, and the country had piled up huge debts. The United States and the Soviet Union came out of the war as the world's most powerful nations.

The welfare state. The Labour Party won a landslide victory in 1945. The party had campaigned on a socialist programme. Clement Attlee became prime minister, and the Labour Party stayed in power until 1951. During those six years, the UK became a welfare state. The nation's social security system was expanded to provide welfare for the people "from the cradle to the grave." The Labour government also began to nationalizeindustry by putting private businesses under public control. The nationalized industries included the Bank of England, the coal mines, the iron and steel industry, the railways, and the road haulage industry.

Although the Labour government struggled to restore the economy, conditions improved little. Rationing and other wartime controls continued. The government borrowed heavily from the United States.

Decline of the empire. World War II sealed the fate of the British Empire, though the UK had begun loosening control over its empire earlier. In 1931, the UK granted independence within the empire to Australia, Canada, the Irish Free State, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and South Africa. They became the first members of the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of countries and dependencies that succeeded the empire.

After World War II, the peoples of Africa and Asia increased their demands for independence. The UK could no longer keep control of its colonies. Nevertheless Britain tried to keep international ties with its former colonies through a new organisation called the British Commonwealth of Nations. All the former colonies were invited to join it as free and equal members. Now there are 53 member states with the population of more than 1, 7 billiard people.

While the UK was breaking up its empire during the postwar years, other nations of Western Europe joined together in various organizations to unite economically and politically. The UK was reluctant to join them. Throughout history, the UK had preferred to stay out of European affairs—except to keep the balance of power in Europe. By joining the new organizations, the UK feared it might lose some of its independence, and would also be turning its back on the Commonwealth.

Most important, it did not join the European Economic Community (EEC). This association, also called the European Common Market, was set up by France and five other nations. After the EEC showed signs of succeeding, the UK set up the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) with six other nations. But it was only a mild success, and the UK later regretted its refusal to join the EEC.

George VI's health declined during 1951, and Princess Elizabeth was soon frequently standing in for him at public events. In October of that year, she toured Canada, and visited the President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, in Washington, D.C.; on the trip, the Princess carried with her a draft accession declaration for use if the King died while she was out of the United Kingdom. In early 1952, Elizabeth and Philip set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand via Kenya. At Sagana Lodge, about 100 miles north of Nairobi, word arrived of the death of Elizabeth's father on 6 February. Philip broke the news to the new queen. Martin Charteris, then her Assistant Private Secretary, asked her what she intended to be called as monarch, to which she replied: "Elizabeth, of course." Elizabeth was proclaimed queen throughout her realms, and the royal party hastily returned to the United Kingdom. She and the Duke of Edinburgh moved into Buckingham Palace.

In the years after World War II, British foreign policy was closely allied with that of the United States. The UK joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and fought in the Korean War (1950-1953).

Modern Britain

On this background, the Conservatives won the elections of 1970, and Edward Heath formed the new Tory government. In 1971, agreement was reached on terms for the UK's entry into the EEC. The UK joined the EEC in 1973. However, continuing inflation, fuel shortages, strikes, and other matters caused serious problems for the Conservative government. In home policy, Heath decided to show his firm hand by a dramatic confrontation with miners. As a result, the Tories lost the 1974 general election.

Elections in 1974 brought the Labour Party back to power, and Harold Wilson again became prime minister. In 1976. James Callaghan succeeded him as prime minister and as leader of the Labour Party.

The new Labour government of Wilson – Callaghan took some positive measures: the miners received a wage increase; the full working week was restored. The Labour government managed to disguise the old policies by proposing a “voluntary” wage-freeze policy called the Social Contract. This led to a fall of Labour support.

Long-standing conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland became a serious problem during the late 1960's and the 1970's. In 1969, the government began sending troops to Northern Ireland to try to stop riots from occurring. But the violence continued. The UK Parliament at Westminster established direct rule over the country at various times.

Some people in Scotland and Wales demanded complete independence from the UK for their countries. In March 1979, the UK government allowed the people of Scotland and Wales to vote on the question of whether they should have their own legislatures. The voters in both countries failed to approve the establishment of the legislatures. The process under which Scotland and Wales would have received more control over their affairs is called devolution.

Elections held in May 1979 returned the Conservatives to power. Margaret Thatcher replaced Callaghan as prime minister. She became the first woman ever to hold the office. She headed the cabinet for more than 10 years. The government’s economic policy was focused on encouraging private enterprise and de-nationalization. As prime minister, Thatcher worked to reduce government involvement in the economy. The introduction of the poll tax in 1989 met overwhelming opposition in the country.

In April 1982, Argentine troops invaded and occupied the disputed Falkland Islands. British and Argentine forces fought air, sea, and land battles for control of the Falkland Islands. The Argentine forces surrendered in June 1982.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Party briefly allied with a Labour administration in 1978. In 1982, the Liberals formed an electoral alliance with a new party carved out of the Labour Party's right wing. This was the Social Democratic Party. In 1987, the Liberals and Social Democrats agreed to terms for merging the two parties. In 1990, the new party was named the Liberal Democrats.

In November 1990, Thatcher resigned as Conservative Party leader and prime minister. John Major succeeded her in both positions. In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. In early 1991, UK forces took part in the allied bombing of Iraqi military targets and in the ground offensive to liberate Kuwait.

Present-Day Britain

The economic policy of Great Britain in the 1990swas characterized by the strategy of economic regulation, which promoted the victory of the Conservatives in the general election in 1992. The cabinet headed by John Major continued the economic and social policies traditional for this party. This led to a fall of the Conservatives.

In 1997, Britain’s opposition Labour party routed the ruling Conservative party in the national election, and its leader Tony Blair replaced Major as head of the government. He became Britain’s youngest Prime Minister since 1812, ending 18 years of Tory rule since 1979. Blair repeated his success in the general election of 2002.

As Prime Minister Tony Blair presided over an optimistic first term in which Devolution brought self-governing powers to both Scotland and Wales, reversing control from London. The late 1990s and into the millennium saw an increased celebration of British culture in its myriad of aspects from the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations of 2002 to huge programmes of urban renewal of the long neglected industrial cities of the north, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow, making them the great cities of culture they are today.

On 27 June 2007, the new Prime Minister Gordon Brown replaced Blair. Brown is the first prime minister from a Scottish constituency since 1964. He is also one of only five prime ministers who attended a university other than Oxford or Cambridge. Brown has proposed moving some traditional prime ministerial powers to the realm of Parliament, such as the power to declare war and approve appointments to senior positions. He has also proposed moving some powers from Parliament to citizens, including the right to form "citizens' juries", easily petition Parliament for new laws, and rally outside Westminster.

Brown was committed to the Iraq War, but said in a speech in June 2007 that he would "learn the lessons" from the mistakes made in Iraq. Brown said in a letter published on 17 March 2008 that the United Kingdom will hold an inquiry into the Iraq war.

In a speech in July 2007, Brown personally clarified his position regarding Britain's relationship with the USA: "We will not allow people to separate us from the United States of America in dealing with the common challenges that we face around the world."

In the local elections on 1 May 2008, Labour suffered their worst results in 40 years. Gordon Brown was quoted in the press as having said that the results were "a painful defeat for Labour".

As for the domestic policies, the Labour government admitted that the recession had been deeper than predicted, but claimed that the government's action to pump money into the economy had made a "real difference" to families and businesses. Later the year of 2009, a number of measures to help economic recovery were announced, including a public sector pay freeze, a levy on bank bonuses and a package of measures to help the unemployed.

The country's leading economic think tank forecasts that with spending on health and education protected, the areas most likely to face severe cuts are defence, housing, transport and higher education. Moreover, it is estimated that the cost to each individual family of paying back the national debt will be £2,400 a year for eight years.

 

Lecture 1 Ancient Britain

Prehistoric Britain

A million years ago, the whole of northwestern Europe, including Britain, was in the grip of the last Ice Age. During this period, the ice advanced and retreated several times across the land. Britain was joined to Europe by a land bridge.

Archaeologists think that the earliest ancestors of modern human beings may have entered Britain overland from Europe more than half a million years ago. These hominids belonged to the Old Stone Age. They used stone tools and may have discovered how to control fire. They travelled as hunters, following herds of migrating wild animals. The earliest known settlements in Britain date from about 250,000 B.C. They include a site at Clacton, Essex, where stone choppers have been found.

About 70,000 BC, the last of the severe glaciations began, and for much of this period, no hominids lived in Britain. Those who did venture into Britain during short mild spells dwelt in caves. These hominids included the earliest modern human beings.

About 12,000 B.C., the last Ice Age was ending, and the climate had begun to improve. People still dwelt in caves and hunted for food. Cheddar in Somerset and Creswell Crags in Derbyshire have produced many interesting finds from this period. These finds include Britain's only surviving works of Paleolithic art. One such find, the Dancing Man of Creswell Crags, is a puzzling engraving on a piece of bone. It is said to resemble a masked male dancer.

The Pre-Celtic Period

By about 8000 B.C., Britain at last emerged from the Ice Age. Over the next 5,000 years, the improving climate changed the environment. The slowly rising temperature caused the ice sheets to melt and raised the level of the sea. Britain lost its land link with the rest of Europe after the formation of the English Channel and the North Sea about 5000 B.C.

Some historians refer to the original population as the Scots and Picts with whom newcomers started merging. The Picts inhabited mainly Scotland and the Scots lived in what we know as Ireland [or ‘Scotia’].

Britain attracted new settlers during this period. They hunted and fished, and their culture was more advanced than that of the Paleolithic Period. Archaeologists call these settlers Mesolithic(Middle Stone Age) people. One group of these settlers migrated from Denmark not long after 8000 B.C. Their most famous remains are at a settlement at Star Carr, North Yorkshire.

Mesolithic people made such tools as saws and mattocks. Mesolithic hunters domesticated the dog The people of this time also cleared a few areas of forest by fire, and some experts think they used the clearings for herding deer and other game.

Shortly before 4000 B.C., scattered tribes of people travelled to Britain from the mainland of western Europe. These people brought the settled and highly organized culture of the Neolithic(New Stone Age) Period with them. They were mainly farmers and village traders. They cleared large areas of woodland and made fields for planting crops and farming livestock. They also made and traded in Britain's earliest pottery.

The Neolithic people appear to be the first in Britain to have put up buildings of stone and wood. They also built the first roads—wooden trackways across marshy areas such as the Somerset Levels.

Neolithic people buried their dead in communal chambered tombs built of stone. These tombs belong to the class of huge monuments of stone called megaliths. Megalithic monuments also include vast circles of standing stones. The best known of these, Stonehenge was probably begun about 2700 B.C. and completed by Bronze Age builders.

Between 3000 B.C. and 2500 B.C., people began using metal in Britain. New immigrants arrived in the country. One group came about 1700 BC from the Rhine-land and the Netherlands (an Alpine race), and mixed with another from Spain and Portugal (the Iberian people who came here earlier - around 2400 BC). The newcomers were skilled in the use of copper and gold. Unlike the slim, long-headed people of Neolithic Britain, they were stocky and round-headed. Archaeologists refer to the new settlers as the Beaker Folk, because of the distinctive beaker-shaped pottery vessels they buried with their dead.

The Beaker Folk tended to live in isolated round houses, not in villages. They usually buried their dead singly under round barrows.

By about 1400 B.C., Bronze Age people had completed Stonehenge and had built a larger monument at Avebury, in Wiltshire. They also built stone circles in many other places.

Archaeologists know little of life in the Bronze Age, but many experts think that the use of the wheel and the plough began in Britain during this period.

The Celts

Soon after 800 BC, as the Bronze Age ended, Britain was invaded by the Celts - anew group of immigrants. They belonged to several different groups, but all used a form of the same language, called Celtic. These newcomers are therefore called Celts. Some historians believe that the Celtic language had already spread to Britain earlier in the Bronze Age, perhaps as a result of trade with Europe. By the time the Romans reached Britain, in 55 B.C., Celtic had replaced Britain's earlier language almost entirely.

The Celts are supposed to have come from Central Europe in three distinct waves. The first Celtic comers were the Gaels. They made iron tools and weapons of high technical quality. The Britons arrived some two centuries later, pushing the Gaels to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall, and took possession of the south and east and probably gave their name to the whole country. They brought tools, weapons, shields, and very artistic personal ornaments. Some time after 100 B.C., the Belgae, the most advanced of the Celtic tribes, arrived in southern Britain from Gaul (France), and occupied the greater part of what is known as the Home Countries [the central part of Great Britain.]. They used ploughs, made pottery or potter's wheels, and struck metal coins. The Belgae built farms and large settlements that developed into Britain's first towns.

Thus, the whole of Britain was occupied by the Celts who merged with the Picts and Scots, as well as the Alpine part of the population. The term “Celtic” is often used rather generally to distinguish the early inhabitants of the British Isles from the later Anglo-Saxon invaders.

It was a patriarchal clan society based on common ownership of land. It was then that social differentiation began to develop: the tribal chiefs and the semi-dependent native population.

The Celts were good warriors. Their communities were ruled by warrior chiefs. They were the first people in Britain to use chariots and to ride on horseback. Celtic war-chariots were famous beyond the limits of the country. The Celts were heathens. The priests were called Druids and their superior knowledge was taken for magic power. In England itself Celtic influence is felt to this very day, though this influence is much weaker, as compared with the other parts of the country. The Celts worshipped nature. The oak-tree, mistletoe and holly were sacred. Water was also worshipped as the source of life. There are place-names in England connected with the Celts. For example, Avon — the name of a river, which means "water" in Celtic. The origin of the name Severn — the longest river in the country — is connected with the name of a Celtic goddess — Sabrina. On the eve the Roman conquest, the Britons were at the stage of decay.

Roman Britain (55 B.C.-A.D. 410)

Caesar's expeditions. By 56 B.C., the Roman general and political leader Gaius Julius Caesar had almost completed his conquest of Gaul. But Gallic resistance was hard to break and was being strengthened by help from Britain. Julius Caesar led his forces into Britain in 55 B.C. and again in 54 B.C. On both occasions, he landed in Kent. In 54 B.C., he advanced inland and captured Wheathampstead, near present-day St. Albans, Hertfordshire. But a rebellion in Gaul forced him to withdraw from Britain.

At the time Caesar landed, Britain, which the Romans called Britannia, consisted of tribal communities ruled by kings or queens. The country's importance as a trading centre was already well known, but probably grew after Caesar's expeditions.

The Romans did not invade Britain again until nearly 100 years after Caesar's two expeditions. They then occupied the southern part of the island for more than 350 years. During this period, Britain was a province of Rome. It was ruled by Roman governors and defended by Roman armies and fleets.

The arrival of the Romans. The Roman Emperor Claudius ordered the conquest of Britain in A.D. 43 (A.D.-Anno Domini; Latin — "in the year of Christ"). At the Battle of the Medway, the Romans defeated the tribes of southeastern Britain led by Caratacus. Claudius himself marched in triumph into Colchester, where many tribal chiefs submitted to him. The Romans then advanced northwards and westwards from London, building roads and establishing forts. Caratacus fled to the southern part of present-day Wales. There, he headed a tribe called the Silures and resisted the Romans until A.D. 51, when he was defeated and captured. By A.D. 61, the Romans controlled the country as far north and west as the Humber and Severn rivers.

Between A.D. 71 and 79, the Romans subdued western Britain. Gnaeus Agricola, appointed governor in A.D. 78, advanced northwards to the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. In the A.D. 120's, Emperor Hadrian built a wall from the Solway Firth to the River Tyne to defend Roman Britain from raids by the Pictsand other tribes of northern Britain. From A.D. 140 to 142, during the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius, Roman forces built a second defensive wall from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde as defences against Picts and Scots, but they could not hold it against tribal attacks and eventually abandoned it.

[The Picts (from Latin Picti “painted”) lived in east and northeast. They were the

descendants of pre-Celtic natives and spoke a Celtic language. During and soon after Roman invasion they seem to have developed two kingdoms north of Firth of Forth. By the 7^th century there was a united “Pictland”. It is famous for its beautifully carved memorial stones and crosses, the round stone towers – brochs, and the underground stone houses – weems.

The union of the lands of modern Scotland began in 843 when Kenneth I king of the Scots became also king of the Picts. He joined Pict-land to Scot-land to form the kingdom of Alba].

The rule of the Romans. Not all of Britain was firmly in the hands of the Romans. In the south and southeastern parts Roman influence was greatest, while in the north and west the country remained much untouched. The Romans failed to conquer northern Britain and sent no expeditions to Hibernia (Ireland).

Southern Britain, as was mentioned above, was considerably influenced by Roman civilization. There, the Roman way of life spread from the towns to the countryside. The Romans imposed their own way of life and culture, making use of the existing Celtic aristocracy to govern and encouraging this ruling class to adopt Roman dress and the Roman language [Latin]. It was during this time that the Scots migrated from Ireland to Scotland, where they became allies of the Picts and opponents of the Romans. This division of the Celts into those who experienced direct Roman [the Britons in England and Wales] and those who did not [the Gaels in Ireland and Scotland] may help to explain the development of two distinct branches of the Celtic language.

Many towns were built by the Romans, which were connected by good roads. Some of these roads still exist to this very day. For example, Watling Street from London to Chester, or Icknield Way connecting London with Cirencester. Most British towns with names ending with "chester" were, in Roman times, fortified camps.

The Romans built most towns to a standardized pattern of straight, parallel main streets that crossed at right angles. The forum (market place) formed the centre of each town. Shops and such public buildings as the basilica (public hall), baths, law-courts, and temple surrounded the forum. The paved streets had drainage systems, and fresh water was piped to many buildings. Some towns had a theatre for animal fights, gladiator shows, and plays. Houses were built of wood or narrow bricks and had tiled roofs. In some houses, hot air from a furnace was conducted through brick pipes under the floor to provide heat.

The largest of the towns was called Londinium. It began life as a Roman fort at a place where it was possible to cross the river Thames. Many believe that here was a Celtic settlement called "Llyn-dyn" which meant "lake-fort" and which the Romans changed into Latin.

The departure of the Romans. Roman rule in Britain ended when the Roman Empire declined. Massive migrations of less civilized peoples, such as the Goths, Huns, and Vandals, had for years been putting pressure on the frontiers of Rome's provinces. In the 300's, Germanic tribes penetrated into Rome's western provinces. During the same period, Saxon pirates from Germany raided the southeastern coast of Britain. In 368, Pictish tribes severely damaged Hadrian's Wall and destroyed much of northern Roman Britain. A Roman army quickly restored order, but its control soon lapsed.

Roman forces withdrew steadily from Britain to Gaul and Italy. By 400, Hadrian's Wall and the forts of Cambria were abandoned. By 407, almost all the Roman soldiers had left Britain. In 410, people in the towns appealed to Rome for protection against the Saxons. But the Romans replied that Britain had to see to its own defence. Rome itself was being attacked by Goths.

Despite their efforts, Romanized Britons were in time easily conquered by the Saxons and related Germanic tribes called Angles and Jutes. The Anglo-Saxons destroyed Roman culture wherever they settled. Consequently, the Roman occupation had few lasting effects on Britain, except for good roads in the southern part of the country and the survival of the Christian Church in Wales and Cornwall.

One reason why Roman Britannia disappeared so quickly is probably that its influence was largely confined to the towns. In the countryside, where most people lived, farming methods had remained unchanged and Celtic speech continued to be dominant. The Roman occupation had been a matter of colonial control rather than a large-scale settlement.