History (from Stonehenge to Modern Britain)

Neolithic Prehistory (Stonehenge)

Celtic Britain

The Iron Age

• Romain Britain
• Celts and Romans lived peaceful along side each other

• Romans failed to conquer Scotland
• building of the Hadrian Wall

• Romans left to protect Rome
• left the Celts

• Anglo-Saxon Britain
• European tribes invaded England (Angles, Saxons, Jutes)
• expulsion of Celts and emergence of the Celtic Fringe (Wales, Scotland, Ireland)

Christianization of England

bloom of the Anglo-Saxon culture

• Viking age
• vikings invaded the north of England
• only the West-Saxons remained (allied with the vikings)

• The Norman Conquest
• used political weakness to conquer (battle of Hastings 1066)
• new system of governance, administrative and legal system
• only the king can make decisions

• French as national language
• later linking French and Old English became Middle English
• interdependence, increase of power of the nobility due to feudalism

• Magna Carta Libertatum
• the king John Lackland ackknowledged power and land rights of the English barons
• limited the king's power

Great Council mentioned as Parliament

development of the English Parliament (House of Lords, House of Commons)

The Hundred Years War (England against France)

showdown/ end of the Hundred Years War: the Wars of the Roses

The Tudors

• Henry Tudor from the house of Lancaster won against Richard III.
• ended the Wars of the Roses
• became King Henry VII.

• Henry VII. married Elizabeth of York to balance the differences in his country
• the majority of the nobility died in war, so he consolidated his power without any major opposition
• decreased the influence of the House of Lords, increased the influence of the House of Commons
• long-lasting support for the Tudors because they consequently respected the Parliament and supported the middle class

reign of King Henry VIII. (continued his father's politics)

• English Reformation
• religious indepedence and political autonomy
• Foundation of the Church of England

• First Act of Supremacy
• monarch as religious leader
• expansion of state treasury through sale of church property
• increased the monarch's wealth and power

• Act of Union
• admission of Wales into the English federalization

Henry VIII. declares himself King of Ireland

• reign of King Edward VI. (only surviving son of Henry VIII.)
• was only nine years old when crowned king
• the realm was governed by a regency council because Edward never reached maturity

• reign of Jane I.
• "the nine-days-queen"
• great-granddaughter of Henry VII.
• only proclaimed queen, lost her supporters to her cousin Mary

• reign of Queen Mary I.
• older illegitimate half-sister of Edward VI.

• reign of Elizabeth I.
• last Tudor monarch
• half sister to Mary I. and Edward VI.

• defeat of the SPanish armada
• religious, political independence
• "Elizabeth cult" (English Renaissance at its peak)

The Stuarts and the Civil War

• Elizabeth I. died without heir
• James VI. of Scotland became James I. of England
• Union of Crowns

Jacobean England (under James I.)

Shakespearean England

• The Civil War
• King Charles I. vs. the Parliament
• the parliament wins

• trial and execution of King Charles I.
• illegal taxes, acted without consent of the Parliament

• The Commonwealth
• supreme authority: representatives of the people in Parliament
• no king and House of Lords

Englands invasion in Ireland

• Restoration
• the monarch was restored
• new political settlement

reign of King Charles II.

reign of King James II. (younger brother of Charles II.)

• The Glorious Revolution
• coup of small groups of higs displaced King James II. Stuart in favour of his protestant daughter Mary

• Bill of Rights
• expectations of the Parliament towards the monarch

• The Industrial Revolution
• period of transition of human economy towards more efficient and stable manufacuring
• machine production, steam and water power, spinning machine, new methods, better organization)

• reign of Queen Victoria
• Victorian Age
• showcasing the achievements of the British empire

making the British Empire

• first English settlement in North America
• "the lost colony" on Roanoke Islands (NC)

foundation of Jamestown by the Virginia Company of London

first evidence of enslaved Africans in Jamestown

the Mayflower lands at Plymouth Bay (MA)

great transatlantic English migration

unsuccessful attempts to establish colonoies in the Carribean

• successful establishment of colonies in St. Kitts, Barbados, Nevis
• annexation of Jamaica
• colonization of the Bahamas
• adopting the model of sugar plantations based on slave labour

• King Charles II. issues charter for the Royal Adventures Trading to Africa
• systematic participation of Britain in the transatlantic slave trade
• "triangular trade"

Beginning of the American Revolutionary War

American Declaration of Independence

Peace of Paris

Slave Trade Act

Slavery Abolition Act

Dissolution of the East India Company

Queen Victoria became empress of India

Making the UK

Incorporation of Wales

Union of Crowns

• Union of Parliaments (Scotland)
• creation of Great Britain

• Union of Parliaments (Ireland)
• creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)

• Independence of the Republic of Ireland
• creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland