British & US Culture and Society

Overview of British History

Pr. El Bakkali
SIII- Session II
Oct ‘22
 Outline
´ STONE AGE BRITAIN (5000 BC- 55BC)

´ THE CELTS (800-600 BC- Roman occupation)

´ ROMAN BRITAIN (55BC- AD 440)

´ ANGLO-SAXON AND VIKING PERIOD (440-1066)

´ EARLY MIDDLE AGES (1066-1290)

´ LATER MIDDLE AGES (1290-1485

´ THE TUDOR AGE (1485-1603)

´ THE STUARTS(1603-1714)

´ GEORGIAN ENGLAND (1714-1837)

´ THE VICTORIAN AGE (1837-

´ MODERN BRITAIN (2Oth Century-)

 The Beginnings of British History: Stone Age Britain

´Over thousands of years, groups of people came from the continent

of Europe to Britain.
´The very first people were Stone Age hunters living all over Europe
and the British Isles. It was about 2400 BC when the first farmers
arrived in England from southern Europe; these are the people who
built the mysterious stone monuments like Stonehenge.
´Then, about 1700 BC another group of taller and stronger invaders
who used metal tools came from Holland and Germany.
´Like all the groups who invaded Britain throughout its early history,
they married and mixed in with the native population.
Stonehenge
 The Celts

´The Celts came to England about 800 BC from Central Europe

(France and Germany).
´Another group of warlike Celts invaded in the 4th century BC and
conquered land in the north of England and Scotland and Ireland.
´They became the first aristocracy to control most of Britain.
´They imposed their language (Gaelic) on the people, which still
survives today to some degree in Ireland and Scotland and Wales.
 The Romans

´ After the Celts, the Romans first came in 55 and 54 BC. They lived peacefully in
England for about 300 years.
´ They brought to Britain a highly developed legal system, system of taxation,
engineering skills, Roman architecture and the Latin language.
´ In the 4th century Rome was converted to Christianity and Christian
missionaries went to Britain to spread that religion.
´ This is called a period as the Celtic-Roman because the two different cultures
lived together peacefully.
´ In the 4th century AD, during the period of the collapse of the Roman Empire,
the Roman troops in Britain left.
´ After the Romans left, the Celtic people who remained were then invaded by a
new group of people who had a very big influence on British history: the Anglo-
Saxons.
 The Anglo-Saxons

´After the Romans left England in the 4th century, the peaceful
Celtic Britons were attacked by the warlike Angles, Saxons and Jutes,
three groups of people who came from West Germany and Denmark.
´They took control of most of the country they called, “Angela-land”
between AD 450 and 600.
´They were an agricultural people who lived in long houses and spoke
a language we now call “Old English,” which is, of course, a Germanic
language.
 The Vikings

´The Vikings came from Scandinavia. They were similar to the

Anglo-Saxons, but more aggressive and warlike.
´Their Scandinavian language (Old Norse) was also Germanic so that
was relatively easy for them to communicate with the Anglo-Saxons
who had come from Germany and Denmark years before.
´When Vikings attacked in their long boats, the Anglo-Saxons
united under King Alfred the Great (872-901) to try to fight them off.
´King Alfred is called The Great because he kept part of England
free from Viking control.
´The Danish Vikings controlled the east northeast by the 9th century;
the Saxons were able to maintain control in the west.
 “The Middle-Ages” in British History (1066-1485)

v England was ruled by the Norman French.

v The country was united under a feudal system.
v Great castles, cathedrals and monasteries were built
v England went to war with France over land and lost
v The Norman French rulers gradually became English.
v The language of the people gradually changed into “Middle English.”
v England went to war with Scotland and lost.
v The Black Death (plague) killed off almost half the population
 The Normans

´ In October 1066 William, the Norman king invaded England, becoming King
William I (William the Conqueror) of England.
´ Within five years, the Normans had conquered all of England. They imposed
unity on England and helped to link England with the culture of the rest of
Europe. William gave a lot of land to the Norman nobility (known as barons).
These barons then owed military service to the king. The nobility gave land to
others to work on as farmers.
´ The French invaders became the upper-class aristocracy who ruled over the
English. French was the language of the upper classes, of law and government
and the army. The Anglo-Saxon peasants did notspeak French.
´ The Normans built many castles which helped them to rule the land they had
conquered. They also builtbeautiful churches in the shape of a cross.
´ The arches above the doorways were always rounded (Romanesque style).
They build fine monasteries which became the center of village life.
 The Rise of the English Nation

´ By the 13th century, the rulers of England thought of themselves as English, not
French. The rulers eventually spoke English like everyone else, not French.
English and French had mixed over the years andevolved into what we now call
Middle English.
´ This period was a time of great changes in government andsociety.
´ Oxford and Cambridge universities started in the 13th century.
´ Also the power of a Parliament started growing in this period.
´ Edward I (1272-1307) was a strong king who tried to take Scotland- but
failed (because of brave Scotsmen like William Wallace and Robert Bruce)
 The Tudor Age (1485-1603): Renaissance, Reformation and a
New World

´ The social and economic order of the medieval period was beginning to break
down.
´ More and more peoplewere rejecting the authority of kings and the Catholic
Church.
´ This was the period of the English Renaissance, and the growth of a new form
of Christianity which rejected the authority of the Roman Catholic Church:
Protestantism.
´ The two most famous English monarchs in this period were Henry VIII and
Elizabeth I of the House of Tudor
 Henry VIII (1509-1547)

´Henry VIII was a typical Renaissance prince: a poet, musician, fine

horseman and lover of the arts.
´When he was 36, he still had no son and became tired of his Spanish wife
Catherine of Aragon. He loved Anne Boleyn and asked the Pope permission
to divorce Catherine so he could marry Anne. The Pope said no, and Henry
broke with Rome. There was a lot of anti-Catholic feeling in England so
Parliament and the people supported Henry against the Pope.
´Parliament made the king the “Supreme Head of the Church of
England,” and helped him to destroy the Catholic Church.
´Henry took church lands and buildings and gave much of the wealth
to his friends. He ordered that church services should be in English
instead of Latin and that each church should have an English bible.
 Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

´ Henry’s first daughter, Mary, was Catholic like her mother Catherine, and tried to bring
Catholicism back toEngland. However, when she died, the next in line was Henry’s second
daughter Elizabeth (by Henry’s second wife, Ann Boleyn). She came to be queen at age 25.
She was fluent in Greek, Latin, French, and Italian. She studied theology and became a strong
Protestant. When she came to power England had no army or police and a weak bureaucracy.
When she died in 1603, she left England as one of the most powerful nations on earth.
´ In 1559 Elizabeth made Protestantism as the national religion by having Parliament pass
the Act of Supremacy: this law made the queen (or king) the supreme head of the Churchof
England. There were rumors that Catholics were going to try to assassinate Elizabeth and that
Mary, Queen of Scots was involved. Parliament wanted her executed and Elizabeth had her
head cut off (in 1587). King Philip of Spain wanted to help the Catholics in England (this
was a time of fighting between Catholics and Protestants).
´ In this same year Shakespeare arrived in London. He wrote 20 plays which Elizabeth enjoyed
very much. Many of his historical plays celebrated England’s greatness. This was a time of great
economic growth forEngland. This was also the beginning of the great age of exploration and
discovery around the world.
 The English Civil War

´ Under Elizabeth, the power of Parliament was growing. After she died, her cousin, king
of Scotland, became King James I of England (1603). This was the end of the Tudor
dynasty and the beginning of the House of Stuart.
´ At this time, there were religious reformers who thought the Anglican Church (Church of
England) was not strict enough and they wanted to reform it. These groups of religious
reformers were called Puritans, because they wanted to purify the church. There was a lot of
hostility towards these Puritans and some escaped England to make a new religious
community, first in Holland, and then later inAmerica (in Massachusetts).
´ After King James I died, his son became King Charles I (1625). Charles believed in the
divine power of kings and tried to rule without Parliament. He tried to arrest Members of
Parliament. Parliament fought back. Thus began the English Civil War
´ Civil war started in 1640, with Oliver Cromwell as the leader of Parliament. The main
issues of this war were religious toleration and more power for Parliament. Puritans
supported the Parliament against the king. King Charles I was defeated by Cromwell’s
army and executed on January 30, 1649, and for the first and only time in English history,
there was no monarch.
 England without a King: “The
Commonwealth” (1649-1660)

´The time England had no king,

´It was ruled by Cromwell as a “commonwealth” rather than a
kingdom.
´ There were many different groups (religious and political) competing
for power, and so the army generals under Cromwell took control.
´ England became a military dictatorship under Puritan rule.
´There were strict religious laws (e.g., the theaters were all closed).
 The Restoration (1660-1713)

´Eventually the people got tired of this Puritan form of government

and wanted a king.
´King Charles II was invited back to England and the people rejoiced
(1660). Theatres were opened and a period of great artistic and cultural
achievement began.
´The main spirit of the Restoration was that of reason. The power and
wealth of the middle classes grew. This was a time of great commercial
success around the world, and scientific achievement.
´This was also the beginning of science and medicine and the period
known as the English Enlightenment. Also, the king no longer had
absolute power; he had to share power with the Parliament.
 The Rise of the British Empire
´ During the 17th and 18th centuries the British sailed across the seas with the
purpose of increasing Britishpower and wealth, competing mostly with France for
colonies around the world.
´ Emigration was a solutionto the over population problem in Britain. Little by
little, people looking for freedom or wealth settled in these far away places. By the
late 19th century, under queen Victoria, England ruled about 1/4 of the world’s
land and population. During this period, England also became the leading
industrial nation in Europe.
´ In fact, England was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. In 1834, Britain
stopped slavery inall its colonies.
´ In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonies became more independent, and the
big companies were not allowed to monopolized trade. It became too difficult to
maintain such a huge Empire, and so it gradually disappeared; today there is only a
linguistic and cultural connection with Great Britain.
 Major Colonies in the British Empire 1
´ America 1607 - Jamestown was founded in Virginia as for trade (tobacco and
cotton). Massachusetts started by strict Puritans (Pilgrims). By mid-18th century
there were 13English colonies stretching up and down the east coast of America.
´ Canada The Hudson Bay Company was important for exploring Canada and
setting up trade. The British went to war with France in Canada and won (1763).
On the west Coast of Canada (British Columbia), Vancouver was started for the
China trade (1788). In 1936 Canada became a self-governing nation in the British
Commonwealth
´ India: “The Jewel in the Crown”
´ The East India Company started in 1600; it had a monopoly on trade for the next
150 years. In 1750, the British defeated the French in India and the British East
India Company took control of India. The Indian people tried to revolt in 1857 but
lost. After this, the British government took over the administration of India, until
Indian independence in 1947.
 Major Colonies in the British Empire 2
´ Australia and New Zealand (called New South Wales) were discovered by the
British (Captain Cook) and made part of Britain (in 1770). In the beginning,
Australia was a prison colony for Britons convicted of fairly minor crimes. In 1813
the islands of New Zealand were made part of New South Wales, under British
protection. New Zealand became an independent country within the British
Commonwealth and Empire. By the 1840, six separate colonies covering all of
Australia were decided; in 1910 they formed intoone Commonwealth of Australia.
´ South Africa In the 19th century, the British and the Dutch (Boers) fought each
other for control of South Africa. In 1880 an Independent Boer Republic was started,
but South Africa remained under British rule. Finally in1948 the Boers (Afrikaner
National Party) took control of the government.
´ Hong Kong In 1841 the British took Hong Kong Island to trade with China. The
shipped opium from India and sold itto China and imported lots of Chinese goods.
Britain had a year lease (till 1997) on Hong Kong. They never gave the Hong Kong
people democracy
 Conclusion

´The British Empire came to an end in the 20th century after Britain
fought in two world wars.
´Many profound changes occurred in English social and political life,
as was the case throughout most of Europe and America in the 20th
century.
´This last century, the 20th century, really requires a separate much to
fully understand all the important changes that have taken place.
´Although Great Britain is now radically different from its pre-20th
century history, it still has many influences from the past.
 References

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