The History of the United Kingdom

Table of Contents
Argument…………………………………………………………………………3
Chapter 1. Prehistoric,Roman,Medieval England ………………………………..4

Chapter 2. Well known dynasties …………………………………………………7

Chapter 3 Modern UK and The Queen Elisabeth the Second…………………….10

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………12

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….13
ARGUMENT

United Kingdom, island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe. The
United Kingdom comprises the whole of the island of Great Britain—which contains England,
Wales, and Scotland—as well as the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The name
Britain is sometimes used to refer to the United Kingdom as a whole. The capital is London,
which is among the world’s leading commercial, financial, and cultural centres. Other major
cities include Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester in England , Belfast and Londonderry
in Northern Ireland, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Swansea and Cardiff in Wales.
The origins of the United Kingdom can be traced to the time of the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan,
who in the early 10th century CE secured the allegiance of neighbouring Celtic kingdoms and
became “the first to rule what previously many kings shared between them,” in the words of a
contemporary chronicle. Through subsequent conquest over the following centuries, kingdoms
lying farther afield came under English dominion.
Wales, a congeries of Celtic kingdoms lying in Great Britain’s southwest, was formally united
with England by the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542. Scotland, ruled from London since 1603,
formally was joined with England and Wales in 1707 to form the United Kingdom of Great
Britain. (The adjective “British” came into use at this time to refer to all the kingdom’s peoples.)
Ireland came under English control during the 1600s and was formally united with Great Britain
through the Act of Union of 1800. The republic of Ireland gained its independence in 1922, but
six of Ulster’s nine counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland. Relations
between these constituent states and England have been marked by controversy and, at times,
open rebellion and even warfare.
The United Kingdom has made significant contributions to the world economy, especially in
technology and industry. Since World War II, however, the United Kingdom’s most prominent
exports have been cultural, including literature, theatre, film, television, and popular music that
draw on all parts of the country. Perhaps Britain’s greatest export has been the English language,
now spoken in every corner of the world as one of the leading international mediums of cultural
and economic exchange.
CHAPTER 1.PREHISTORIC,ROMAN,MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

In 2010 archaeologists working near Happisburgh in Norfolk uncovered flint tools dated to about
900,000 years ago. The people who used them were early humans (known as hominoids) who
periodically visited Britain in warmer eras between Ice Ages.
During this time Britain wasn’t an island, but a peninsula of the European continent. What is
now the river Thames ran into the North Sea at Happisburgh.The oldest human remains so far
found in England date from about 500,000 years ago, and belonged to a six-foot tall man of the
species Homo heidelbergensis. Shorter, stockier Neanderthals visited Britain between 300,000
and 35,000 years ago, followed by the direct ancestors of modern humans.Ice Age humans
created the earliest known cave art in England at Creswell Crags in Derbyshire about 13,000
years ago.

Continuous human occupation of Britain began as the climate improved at the end of the last Ice
Age. People in Britain at this time were still hunters and gatherers who made use of wild plants
and animals. Although most of these people were probably nomadic, recent discoveries of
buildings suggest that some had settled lifestyles.

By about 6500 BC, rising seas had inundated the land bridge with Europe, making Britain an
island.
Perhaps the most important development in human history, farming was first introduced to
Britain around 4000 BC. The people who brought the techniques to the island must have
travelled from Europe by boat.
Although they farmed pulses, barley and wheat, people still relied on wild food and resources.
And rather than settle in one place, they still moved around within territories. These territories
were focused on great communal monuments. Some were gathering places like the causewayed
enclosure at Windmill Hill, Wiltshire (built about 3650 BC). Others were burial sites with
impressive long barrows. Many had stone chambered tombs, such as Belas Knap,
Gloucestershire, West Kennet Long Barrow, Wiltshire (both about 3650 BC), and Wayland's
Smithy, Oxfordshire (about 3400 BC).
In the early and middle Iron Age people built bigger and more elaborate hillforts like Maiden
Castle in Dorset and Old Oswestry in Shropshire. They also began to make weapons and tools
out of iron. Evidence of ritual offerings of military equipment and fine metalwork suggest the
dominance of a warrior aristocracy and the emergence of tribal territories.
The late Iron Age saw the first coinage and the emergence of tribal centres such as Lexden
Earthworks, Essex, and Stanwick Iron Age Fortifications, North Yorkshire. And it’s during this
period that Britain came into contact with the Roman world, as at Silchester, Hampshire.
And with this contact came the first written records of life on the island, from Greeks and
Romans. The most famous notes were made by Julius Caesar, who raided Britain in 55–54 BC.
Accounts from the period mention chariot warfare and religious leaders called Druids, who
supposedly worshipped in oak groves and performed sacrifices.
Nearly a hundred years after Caesar’s raids, the emperor Claudius ordered a full scale invasion –
and this time the Romans intended to stay.

Roman historical accounts of the invasion are few, brief and not entirely reliable. None is
contemporary. The longest was written in Greek by the historian Cassius Dio, around AD 200.
What we know of the invasion must therefore be pieced together from these sketchy written
sources and the chance survival of archaeological evidence.
There is evidence of Claudian military occupation at both places, but the extreme difficulties of
sailing a large fleet in the Channel probably favour Richborough, because the crossing was much
shorter, and the prevailing wind and tide conditions were easier to negotiate. The Roman
fortification of Claudian date known from archaeological work at Richborough, located on what
was in AD 43 a small island adjacent to a large natural harbour, may have served to protect the
soldiers and supplies during disembarkation. Cassius Dio records two major battles. In Britain,
however, the fighting continued. The Romans, already in control of the south-central and south-
eastern part of the island, had secured East Anglia as a friendly client kingdom, without violence,
and began to consolidate their gains with roads and forts. The army advanced north into the
Midlands and west into what are now Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset and Gloucester. While
the military campaign continued, the process of creating a Roman province was already
beginning. Colchester, initially at least, became the capital of Britannia and Aulus Plautius was
its first governor, remaining so until AD 47. His replacement, Publius Ostorius Scapula, was to
take the conquest further, with both victories and setbacks – but that is another story, part of a
40-year period of military campaigning. It was not until around AD 85 that Rome had mastered
much – though not all – of Britain.
The 5th and 6th centuries are certainly wrapped in obscurity. Records are few, difficult to
interpret, propagandist, or written long after the events they describe.What is certain is that the
Romans didn’t suddenly leave Britain. After 350 years of Roman rule – as long a period as
separates the present day from Charles II – all Britons were, in a sense, Romans.

In independent kingdoms across the north and west, the British also resisted the repeated
onslaughts of the peoples who were later called ‘English’. But by the 650s, almost all the
lowlands were under English control.
Sporadic Viking raids began in the 790s, Lindisfarne Priory in Northumbria was an early victim.
Then in 865 an invading ‘Great Army’ began plundering from kingdom to kingdom, extorting
protection money. Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia all fell, leaving only Wessex to fight on.
The Danish leader Cnut (r.1016–35), later also King of Denmark and Norway, was popularly
recognised as Æthelred’s successor and made England part of a Scandinavian empire.
The old West Saxon (Wessex) dynasty was revived with the accession of Edward the Confessor
in 1042. But when he died without heirs in 1066, Harold Godwinson seized the throne.
England was immediately threatened both by Cnut’s heir, Harald Hardrada of Norway, and
Edward’s choice of successor, Duke William of Normandy. Hardrada invaded first and was
beaten at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire, on 25 September 1066.Harold marched his weakened
army south to face William at the Battle of Hastings, the outcome of which would open up an
entirely new chapter in the story of England.

William and his knights, and the castles they built, transformed England and helped impose
Norman rule. William’s survey of England, Domesday Book (1086), recorded a land governed
by feudal ties. Every level of society was under an obligation of service to the class above.
Punitive forest laws protected the royal hunting preserves, and reinforced the new regime
CHAPTER 2.WELLKNOWN DYNASTIES

TUDORS (1485–1603)

Henry VII’s victory against Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth ended the turbulent Wars of the
Roses and began the Tudor dynasty – possibly the most famous royal family in English history.
The country underwent huge changes during the reigns of three generations of Tudor monarchs.
Henry VIII ushered in a new state religion, and the increasing confidence of the state coincided
with the growth of a distinctively English culture.
From the mid-1520s Henry’s reign was overshadowed by his need for a legitimate male heir. His
first wife, Katherine of Aragon, gave birth to a daughter, but no son. Desperate for a boy, Henry
sought to marry Anne Boleyn, but long negotiations to obtain papal consent to a divorce failed.
Henry made the decision to break with Rome. In 1533 he declared that he, not the Pope, was the
head of the Church in England.
His decision initiated the Reformation of English religion, the most crucial event of the Tudor
period. It shaped English history for centuries to come.
Elizabeth I (r.1558–1603) was among the most astute and successful of all English monarchs.
She resisted demands to marry and she assiduously cultivated her image as Gloriana, a Virgin
Queen wedded not to a man, but to an increasingly prosperous England.
For most people the quality of daily life improved steadily throughout the 16th century. But not
for all, and late in Elizabeth’s reign a series of Poor Laws addressed the long-standing problem
of beggary.
STUARTS (1603–1714)

The Stuart era began when James I, who was also James VI of Scotland, succeded Elizabeth I.
She had died childless in 1603. James's ascention to the throne brought together the the two long-
warring nations of England and Scotland.

The Stuart period witnessed intense religious and political conflicts, which shifted power from
the monarchy to parliament. Meanwhile, discoveries and innovations transformed science,
architecture and everyday life.

GEORGIANS (1714–1837)
When Queen Anne died in 1714 with no surviving children, the German Hanoverians were
brought in to succeed her. This began the Georgian age – named after the first four Hanovarian
kings, all called George.
This period saw Britain establish itself as an international power at the centre of an expanding
empire, and accelerating change from the 1770s onwards made it the world’s first industrialised
nation.
The lives of many more, especially in the north and midlands, were transformed by the rapid
progress after 1770 of the Industrial Revolution. England was turned into the ‘workshop of the
world’ by new technologies like steam power, improved transport networks and enterprising
men.
Key to the success of many industries were the new manufactories – or factories – operated by
hordes of ill-paid workers, including many women and children.
VICTORIANS (1837–1901)

Queen Victoria came to the throne when she was just 18 years old. She would rule Britain for
over 60 years. During this long reign, the country acquired unprecedented power and wealth.
Britain’s reach extended across the globe because of its empire, political stability, and
revolutionary developments in transport and communication.
Many of the intellectual and cultural achievements of this period are still with us today.
The idea that Britain’s foreign policy during the period was one of isolation is often
misunderstood or overestimated. As the empire expanded, British soldiers in fact fought wars in
almost every year of Victoria’s reign.
The empire over which the sun never set consisted not only of the colonies of conquest and
settlement – with India the jewel in the imperial crown – but also of a vast informal empire of
free trade, within which British investors and traders dominated foreign markets.
By the 1880s, when Britain responded to international competition by scrambling for new
colonies in Africa alongside its European rivals, imperialism had become a matter of national
policy. In 1901 the British Empire extended over about one-fifth of the earth’s land surface.
At the same time, empire had become a source of pride for most British people, and its influence
was felt in daily life in numerous ways: the increasing range of raw materials and foods
available; the prevalence of members of the armed forces and colonial service in Victorian
society; and the great many people who went to sea, emigrated, or had relations who did.
CHAPTER 3. MODERN UK AND THE QUEEN ELISABETH THE
SECOND

The Britain of the year 2000 was unimaginable at the end of the Victorian era in 1901.
The 20th century saw two world wars catalyse enormous social change across the country,
including dramatic enhancements in health and education. The motor car stormed through town
and country, transforming both, and Britain no longer ruled a third of the planet.
The wartime state extended its control over peoples’ lives in an unprecedented way,
with conscription, increased taxation and censorship. Over 1.6 million women replaced
conscripted men in the workplace. Country houses such as Wrest Park, Bedfordshire,
and Osborne on the Isle of Wight were used as hospitals and convalescent homes for wounded
soldiers.
While the old order was changing and monarchies toppled throughout Europe, George V
(r.1910–36) proved remarkably adept, bolstering the royal family’s popularity in war and
peacetime
War ended on the Continent but broke out in Ireland, with the Anglo-Irish Wars (1919–21).
Recession followed a brief post-war economic recovery.
In the post-war territorial carve-up Britain gained mandates over a number of former German
and Ottoman territories. British control now extended over more of the globe than ever before –
but closer to home, Ireland was partitioned and the Irish Free State became independent in 1922.
Long torn between decadence and duty, Edward VIII (r.1936) relinquished the throne for a
divorcee, provoking a constitutional crisis and propelling his younger brother to the throne, as
George VI.
In 1939, Britain found itself at war with Germany for the second time in a generation. After the
defeat-turned-propaganda-triumph ‘miracle of Dunkirk’ (planned in Dover Castle's Secret
Wartime Tunnels) in 1940 Britain stood alone, unified behind Churchill. Victory in the Battle of
Britain greatly raised morale, and subsequent blitz air raids on London, Coventry and many other
towns failed to significantly lower it.
By 1943, Britain had become a junior partner in an alliance dominated by the USA and the
Soviet Union. Allied bombing from British bases and the 1944 D-Day landings hastened
Germany’s drawn-out defeat. The bombing of Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the
war in the Far East, and ushered in the atomic age.

The 1945 election saw an unexpected Labour bringing with it nationalisation and Welfare State
legislation which included the creation of the National Health Service.
Meanwhile the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (r.1952–2022), the first to be televised,
prompted talk of a new Elizabethan age.
During the later 1950s and the 1960s, cars, washing machines, fridges, telephones and holidays
all became increasingly affordable elements of everyday life. In 1957 Harold Macmillan could
proclaim ‘prosperity such as we have never had … in the history of this country’.
Queen Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, was the sovereign monarch of the United
Kingdom and 14 other commonwealth countries, including Northern Ireland. She was the
longest-reigning monarch in British history and the second longest-reigning monarch in the
history of the world, behind French King Louis XIV. She died at age 96 on September 8, 2022.
She was married to Philip Mountbatten from 1947 until his death in April 2021. The marriage of
73 years produced four children, including Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, and
Anne, Princess Royal. As a young woman, Elizabeth served in the British Auxiliary Territorial
Service.

Her reign as a constitutional monarch has overseen many political reforms and developments in
the United Kingdom, such as the end of British imperialism and control over Africa, uprisings in
Northern Ireland, the Cold war, and the U.K.'s withdrawal from the European Union. She visited
and hosted many heads of state and religious leaders from all over the world, including five
popes. She celebrated her Platinum Jubilee in 2022. Outside of traditional ceremonial duties,
Queen Elizabeth was known to take an active interest in the affairs of the British government and
meet regularly with the country's prime minister.
CONCLUSION

The history of Britain’s population is all about arriving, staying and settling, or
leaving, moving and settling elsewhere. People from continental Europe began to
settle in different parts of Britain after the last Ice Age, around 12,000 years ago.
Ever since, these islands have been continuously occupied as new arrivals mixed
with existing residents.

Until recently we had only tantalising postcards from the past, in the form of
archaeological finds and much later written accounts, to tell the stories of the early
arrivals. Our family journeys are written in our genes, and now genetic analysis
can provide new clues to our diverse origins. Geneticists are working side by side
with geographers and archaeologists to piece together the evidence of Britain’s
earliest occupants.

The story continues in modern Britain, as people come from every corner of the
globe to settle in their turn.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom#History

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/

https://www.studycountry.com/guide/GB-history.htm