Download 2000 years ago

1. The Peoples of the United Kingdom
The history of conquest, settlement and immigration in Britain. Contemporary race
relations.
The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is the realm or kingdom that covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland and which for over one hundred years included Ireland. The Act of Union 1800 united the
kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In
1922, the constantly evolving state saw the Irish Free State leave, with just Northern Ireland
remaining, hence since 1927 the United Kingdom's modern title, the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland. At its nucleus was a system of government created for the Kingdom of England
and which in phases incorporated the Principality of Wales, the Kingdom of Scotland and the
Kingdom of Ireland.
History of Britain till the conquest
200,000 YEARS AGO
The oldest fossil remains of “humans” in Britain.
35,000 YEARS AGO
The modern human arrives in Europe and reaches Britain where he meets another type of earlier
human called Neanderthal man.
25,000 YEARS AGO
The beginning of the last major ice age. During this period very few humans would have lived in
Britain. Only large animals would have remained like Mammoths and Sabre Toothed Tigers. Both
these animals are of course now extinct.
10,000 YEARS AGO
The end of the last major ice age which had seen Britain totally covered in ice as far south as Oxford.
With so much water frozen as ice at the poles the sea was not so deep and people and animals could
walk from Europe to Britain and across to Ireland. As the ice melted and the land got warmer trees
grew and Britain was soon almost totally forest. Mammoths became extinct.
4000 YEARS AGO
The Bronze age and the age of the BEAKER people
Around 2500 BC the Beaker people arrived in Britain from Europe, so called as they brought with
them the skill of making cups and larger containers from copper and clay (pottery) By experimenting
with heating copper and tin together, both easily found in Britain, the Beaker people first made Bronze
and later iron from iron ores. They also could spin and weave initially using mainly sheep’s wool. So
this time also saw the change from people wearing animal skins to wearing woollen clothes fairly
similar to the clothes we wear today. The Beaker people also were probably the first peoples in Britain
to start riding horses rather than hunting them for meat.
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3000 YEARS AGO
The late bronze age, the early iron age and the Celts.
3000 years ago, before the iron age, bronze was the only metal that that man could use for
manufacturing tools and containers.
Bronze is made from tin and copper heated together. 1300 years ago the established civilisations of
the warm Mediterranean and middle eastern areas were running out of tin and this caused people to
travel far and wide to look for this vital metal.
Tin was found to be plentiful in Britain and this caused the Celts who lived in eastern Europe, north of
the centres of civilisation in Mesopotamia (Iraq) to move westward and settle in Britain
A few hundred years later the same Celts brought the technology of iron smelting to Britain and once
again Britain was found to have plenty of the right stuff (Iron Ore)
Iron revolutionised life as it made both stronger ploughs and hence more food could be grown, much
better axes for chopping down trees for more farm land and of course much better weapons (spears,
swords and arrow tips) for killing the enemy!
Celts were generally of darkish complexion with black straight hair. They loved fighting often doing
so naked with painted bodies. They would yell and scream to generally frighten the enemy.
British Celts lived in family groups or larger family tribes in hilltop camps which they defended to
their death as the Romans were later to discover.
British Celts developed a profitable trade with nearby Europe down as far as Spain. Main products
were copper, tin silver and gold as well as animal skins and wool for clothes. In return they received
bronze “table ware”, tools and ornaments made from bronze and Amber (an attractively coloured
resin from fir trees which dries rock hard.
2000 YEARS AGO
Roman Britain
Greek/Roman culture, education, technology and the Christian faith comes to England
2000 years ago before the Romans invaded Britain there was already trade between the Celtish tribes
in Britain and the Romans who were ruling France (then called Gaul). About 100 BC.
Notably woollen clothes and rugs made in Britain were easily sold the Romans in Gaul in exchange
for wine.
It was also obvious to the Romans that the British Celts had Gold Silver and Bronze so 2000 years ago
Romans decided to have a closer look at England
The one and only Julius Caesar led the first army which arrived in Kent. However the one and only
Julius Caesar was beaten back by the local (Kent) Celtish King Cunobelinus.
Caesar came back with a fleet of 800 ships and beat our Celtish hero and made a peace deal with him
but Caesar had more important things to do in Rome and Roman action in Kent was quiet.
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The Romans under Emperor Claudius reappeared (AD 43) with a massive army of 40,000 troops,
defeated the local Kentish hero Caratacus and marched north and took Colchester in Essex.
At this time the Romans were perhaps 1500 years ahead of the world in military power, technology
and law and order.
The Romans divided England into four areas centred at the following towns London, Cirencester,
York and Lincoln.
The largest uprising against the Romans was by a woman ruler, the now famous Boadicea (Latin name
Boudicca). She ruled the Iceni tribe in East Anglia. Before defeat she lost 80,000 warriors.
For those who behaved themselves life improved under the Romans who improved law and order,
personal hygiene (regular washing), sewage systems, good roads and introduced and grew many new
crops including: roses, apples and wine. Up to this time local women either dressed in dresses made of
wool in the winter or linen from local flax in the summer. The Romans introduced silk obtained from
Asia and cotton grown in Egypt. But these were only for the rich.
Around 200 AD the Romans started building houses out of stone rather than wood which were much
more substantial.
By 300 AD life in Britain was almost on a par with Rome, a visitor from there writing “Britain is a
most wealthy island”
100 years later it was all finished as the Roman legions withdrew to defend Rome which was under
attack from Germanic north of the Rhine. Britain was left defenceless against attack from similar
peoples, the Anglo Saxons.
1500 YEARS AGO
The birth of ENGLAND
500 years of culture and religion destroyed or nearly so.
Invasion, Invasion, Invasion.
Prior to this time the land we call England was called Britain by the Romans. It was only after the
Romans left and the barbaric Angles from northern Germany arrived that the word England was
coined out of Angleland or as the French now say Angleterre.
The start of the so called DARK AGES.
Just before the beginning of this period the Roman Empire was still ruling lands from their Western
Atlantic out posts in England, France and Portugal to their furthest Eastern base in present day Middle
East. To the south the Romans ruled across the whole of Mediterranean coast of North Africa with
their biggest bases in Alexandria (Egypt) and in present day Tunisia in the town of Carthage. Their
northern boarders were the problem. The Romans had never held much land north of the Rhine river
in Germany (or the Danube in Eastern Europe).
Then one by one these apparently brutal and warlike peoples living in all of the present day countries
north of the Rhine attacked and eventually destroyed the Roman Empire. The rulers had become
decadent and their armies were largely manned by mercenaries. (Non Romans)
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A Germanic tribe (the Vandals) attacked and destroyed the mighty Roman empire. In England the
Romans who had ruled for 400 years had to leave in a hurry to defend Rome. Alas, perhaps, in vain.
England was left defenceless against every warmongering tribe in Northern Europe and Scandinavia.
Invasion: Anglo-Saxons
Saxons were the first to arrive in England. The Saxons came from the coastal areas of present day
Germany in the fertile land between the rivers Rhine and Elbe. (AD 440- 650). Saxons settled across
the south of England
The Angles came from the present day boarders of Germany and Denmark north of the river Elbe.
The Angles settled in present day East “Anglia” and northward across the Pennines towards
Manchester. (West Anglia)
Jutes from present day Denmark (Jutland peninsular) settled in Kent. These fighters from the north of
the Rhine had never been ruled by the educated Romans who in turn had taken much from Greek
culture and the new Christian faith of Jesus. Books and public records were burnt as being no use to
people who can’t read. Amongst all this chaos one Romanised Britain stands out and rescues much of
the Roman classical learning (which included the Roman official religion Christianity) available to
him. This is Patricus, or as he is now better known St Patrick. Patrick who loved the Irish fortunately
set up home there and preached Christianity and Roman culture to the Irish through a network of
monasteries set up for the purpose.
Some 100 years after St Patrick his followers sailed to the west coast of Scotland and continued to
expand these teaching missions.
The inhabitants of what we now call Scotland at this time were the tough barbaric Picts that the
Romans had kept out of England with the help of Hadrian’s Wall. These new Irish settlers were
called Scoties, (another word for Ireland) hence Scotland.
In spite of the new barbaric occupants of England from northern Germany, the St Patrick movement
moved south into northern England where in Jarrow St Bede (or the Venerable Bede as he is better
known) has provided the best written evidence of the time in his “Ecclesiastical History of the English
people” (He wrote in Latin, King Alfred translated into English)
Invasion: Vikings
Then 1200 years ago, (that is about 800 AD) the “infamous” Viking invasions commenced. The
reason for this particular time in history is perhaps because the Scandinavian territories were under
threat from the successful Frankish territorial expansion, economic and cultural advances. A Frankish
King of note at this time was of course Charlemagne headquartered in modern day Aachen in
Belgium.
The Vikings retaliated with a viciousness perhaps exaggerated by story tellers of that time into both
France and England. The Franks eventually solved the problem by giving modern day Normandy to
the Vikings from the north. (Normandy for “Northmen”)
Viking ships were good enough to reach North America via Iceland and Greenland so they had no
trouble in also reaching the west coast of France and round Spain and into the Mediterranean.
Norwegian Vikings landed and colonised Jarrow in the north east of England and Dublin and Sligo in
the west of Ireland. From Dublin they sailed and settled into modern day Liverpool.
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Danish Vikings settled into many areas of England from London to York. During the latter part of this
period the Vikings had brought the whole of England under Viking rule. King Canute (Cnut) ruled
England, Norway and Denmark at the same time.
1000 YEARS AGO
The end of the so called Dark Ages and the commencement of the Medieval period or Middle Ages.
(1066 to 1485)
All the Kings are speaking French and are ruling simultaneously in England, parts of France (and
Ireland)
1000 years ago saw an end of rule by Saxon and Viking Kings and the commencement of rule by
Normans. Normans came from Normandy in France and spoke French, not English but in essence
they were also Vikings who had settled there two hundred years previously, that is at the same time as
they started settling in England.
William the Conqueror invaded in 1066 a date known to every pupil at school.
William ruled through a network of friends (Barons) that he enticed into England from France. Each
was recommended to build a castle in a strategic location for his own area and had the vital task of
collecting taxes. William himself also built a castle in London now called the Tower of London.
English kings were resident in this fortress/palace for almost 500 years. (Until Henry 7th.)
William should also be remembered for the Domesday Book. William being new to England wanted
an audit (a count) of the assets he now owned so that he could calculate how much he could raise in
taxes from his new subjects. The Domesday book which still exists showed England as 65% farmland
and about 15% woodland and listed 13,000 human settlements.
William can be remembered for encouraging the financially astute Jews to settle in England from
France to help boost the economy. Jews at that time were well ahead with schooling, science and
mathematics and most importantly were not forbidden by their religion to lend money to finance a
new trade.
There followed a succession of Norman Kings none of them speaking English and all of them also
ruling in France. Not all of France as we know today but for example in the reign of Henry 2 nd (1154
to 1189) his territory stretched from the southern borders of Cumbria in the north of England down to
Tours some 1/3 of the way down modern France
By 1172 with the help of his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine who came from the Bordeaux area and
one of his Baron henchmen Strongbow in Ireland, Henry 2nd was ruling land stretching from the
borders of Spain in the south all the way up through the fertile west coast of France across to the fertile
east coast of Ireland in the west.
In Ireland this involved ousting the Vikings whose largest overseas colony Dublin was still in their
hands.
England ruled Ireland (generally brutally) for the next 850 years (until 1922)
During Henry’s time he did not conquer and rule Wales or Cumbria in the north of England and had
no chance at all in subduing those superb fighting men in Scotland.
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The quality of life improved in England during this period through increased trade and as Henry also
reconstructed and enforced a new and fairer legal system.
The Bronze Age
In around 2,500 BC a new culture arrived in Britain, often referred to as the Beaker culture. Believed
to be of Iberian origin (modern day Spain and Portugal), Beaker techniques brought to Britain the skill
of refining metal. At first they made things from copper, but from around 2,150 BC, smiths had
discovered how to make bronze (which was much harder than copper) by mixing copper with a small
amount of tin. And thus the bronze age arrived in Britain. Over the next thousand years, bronze
gradually replaced stone as the main material for tool and weapon making.
Britain had large reserves of tin in the areas of Cornwall and Devon in what is now southwest
England, and thus tin mining began. By around 1,600 BC, the southwest of Britain was experiencing a
trade boom, as British tin was exported across Europe.
The Beaker people were also skilled at making ornaments from gold, and examples of these have been
found in graves of the wealthy Wessex culture of southern Britain.
Early Bronze Age Britons buried their dead beneath earth mounds known as barrows, often with a
beaker alongside the body. Later in the period, cremation was adopted as a burial practice with
cemeteries of urns containing cremated individuals appearing in the archaeological record. People of
this period were also largely responsible for building many famous prehistoric sites such as the later
phases of Stonehenge along with Seahenge
There is some debate amongst archaeologists as to whether the 'Beaker people' were a race of people
who migrated to Britain en masse from the continent, or whether a prestigious Beaker cultural
"package" of goods and behaviours (which eventually spread across most of western Europe) diffused
to Britain's existing inhabitants through trade across tribal boundaries. Modern thinking tends towards
the latter view. Alternatively, a ruling class of Beaker individuals may have made the migration and
come to control the native population at some level.
There is evidence of a relatively large scale disruption of cultural patterns which some scholars think
may indicate an invasion (or at least a migration) into southern Great Britain circa the 12th century
BC. This disruption was felt far beyond Britain, even beyond Europe, as most of the great Near
Eastern empires collapsed (or experienced severe difficulties) and the Sea Peoples harried the entire
Mediterranean basin around this time.
The Iron Age
In around 750 BC ironworking techniques reached Britain from southern Europe. Iron was stronger
and more plentiful than bronze, and its introduction marks the beginning of the Iron Age. Ironworking
revolutionised many aspects of life, most importantly agriculture. Iron tipped ploughs could churn up
land far more quickly and deeply than older wooden or bronze ones, and iron axes could clear forest
land far more efficiently for agriculture.
About 900 BC, British society changed again. Broadly termed the Celtic culture, it had by 500 BC
covered most of the British Isles. The Celts were highly skilled craftspeople and produced intricately
patterned gold jewellery and weapons in bronze and iron.
Iron Age Britons lived in organised tribal groups, ruled by a chieftain.
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As people became more numerous, fights broke out between opposing tribes. This led to the building
of hill forts. Although the first had been built about 1,500 BC, hillfort building peaked during the later
Iron Age. Large farmsteads produced food in industrial quantities and Roman sources note that Britain
exported hunting dogs, animal skins and slaves.
Late pre-Roman Iron Age (LPRIA)
The last centuries before the Roman invasion saw an influx of refugees from Gaul (modern day France
and Belgium) known as the Belgae, who were displaced as the Roman Empire expanded.
From around 175 BC they settled in the areas of Kent, Hertfordshire and Essex and brought with them
pottery making skills far more advanced than anything produced previously. The Belgae were partially
Romanised and were responsible for creating the first settlements large enough to be called towns.
The last centuries before the Roman invasion saw increasing sophistication in British life. About 100
BC, iron bars began to be used as currency, while internal trade and trade with continental Europe
flourished, largely due to Britain's extensive mineral reserves. Coinage was developed, based on
continental types but bearing the names of local chieftains.
As the Roman Empire expanded northwards, Rome began to take interest in Britain. This may have
been caused by an influx of refugees from Roman occupied Europe, or Britain's large mineral
reserves. See Roman Britain for the history of this subsequent period.
The Norman Conquest was the conquest of the Kingdom of England by William the Conqueror
(Duke of Normandy), secured in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and the subsequent Norman control of
England. It is an important watershed in English history for a number of reasons. It tied England more
closely with Continental Europe and away from Scandinavian influence, created one of the most
powerful monarchies in Europe, created the most sophisticated governmental system in Europe,
changed the English language and culture, and set the stage for a long future of English-French
conflict. It remains the last successful military invasion of England.
King Harald of Norway invaded northern England in September 1066 which left Harold of England
little time to gather an army. They fought at the Battle of Hastings on October 14. It was a close
Norman victory but in the final hours Harold was killed and the Saxon army fled. With no living
contender for the throne of England to oppose William, this was the defining moment of what is now
known as the Norman Conquest.
The changes that took place as a result of Norman conquest were significant for both English and
European development. One of the most obvious changes was the introduction of the Anglo-Norman
language as the language of the ruling classes in England, displacing the Anglo-Saxon language.
Anglo-Norman retained the status of a prestige language for nearly 300 years and has had a significant
influence on modern English.
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Population
Population of England increase from 1.1M in 1066 to over 49M in 2001.
Notes: 1. Norman invasion 2. Magna Carta 3. Black Death 4. End of Tudor period 5. First census 6.
Regular censuses 7. Second World War
Migration
Recent History
Until the 1950s there had been no major immigration into Britain, other than from Ireland, since the
Norman invasion nearly 1000 years ago. About 100,000 Huguenots arrived from France in the 17th
century and a similar number of Jews in the late 19th century. Approximately 70,000 refugees from
Nazi Germany were admitted in the 1930s. New Commonwealth immigration began in the 1950s. In
the 1960s acceptances for settlement were at the rate of about 75,000 a year. Racial tension led to
successively tighter restrictions on immigration. By 1971 it was believed that primary immigration had
been brought to an end. There has since been little public discussion of the subject. However, in
practice, there was only a modest reduction in Commonwealth immigration. The average number of
New Commonwealth acceptances for settlement in the 1970s was 72,000 per year, in the 1980s and
early 1990s it was about 54,000 per year. Since 1996 the overall settlement figure has doubled from
62,000 to 125,000 in 2000, 108,000 in 2001, 118,000 in 2002 and 143,000 in 2003. The total since
1963 is nearly 2.5 million (some of whom, of course, will no longer be living in Britain). The ethnic
minority population (largely New Commonwealth immigrants and their descendants) now accounts
for 4 million (7%) of the population of England and Wales.
Contemporary race relations
At the April 2001 census, the United Kingdom's population was 58,789,194-- the third-largest in the
European Union (behind Germany and metropolitan France) and the 21st-largest in the world. Its
overall population density is one of the highest in the world. Almost one-third of the population lives
in England's prosperous and fertile southeast and is predominantly urban and suburban--with about 7.2
million in the capital of London.
A group of islands close to continental Europe, the British Isles have been subject to many invasions
and migrations, especially from Scandinavia and the continent, including Roman occupation for
several centuries. Contemporary Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic stocks that
settled there before the 11th century. The pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse
influences were blended in Britain under the Normans, Scandinavian Vikings who had lived in
Northern France. Although Celtic languages persist in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, the
predominant language is English, which is primarily a blend of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French.
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Population: 59,553,800 (1st July 2003 estimates by UK National Statistics)
Population growth rate: 0.25% (2000 est.)
Birth rate: 11.74 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Death rate: 10.33 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Net migration rate: 2.58 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Ethnic groups I:
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English 81.5% (48.54 million people)
Scottish 9.6% (5.72 million people)
Irish 2.4% (1.43 million people)
Welsh 1.9% (1.13 million people)
Ulster 1.8% (1.07 million people)
West Indian, Indian, Pakistani, and other 2.8% (1.67 million people)
Ethnic groups II:
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White 92.1%
Asian or Asian British 4% (2.38 million people)
Black or Black British 2%
Mixed 1.2%
Chinese 0.4%
Other 0.3%
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