The history of the United KingdomPrehistory to Germanic invasions

•The first known inhabitants of the British Isles were the Picts•The Celts who were coming from Europe from the 8th century BC intermingled with the original inhabitants and formed an Iron Celtic culture•Silbury Hill and Stonehenge in south- western England are most notable monuments from that period•The Roman period lasted between 43 and 410 AD and they ruled the whole of Britain except northern Scotland and they left trace in the English language (especially place names such as Chester, Lancaster, coming from Latin castra-military camp)•Latin was spoken mainly in towns, whereas Celtic speech was dominant n the country•In the 5th century Angles and Saxons from north – western Europe invaded and occupied England and southern Scotland•These Germanic tribes introduced new farming methods and established numerous villages•Christianity came in the 5th century in Ireland and Scotland and at the end of the 6th century in England

The medieval period

• The Danes(Vikings) from Scandinavia invaded Britain in the eighth century and settled in the north and east

• The Vikings left a trace in the standard language as we know it today, especially in the area of legal terminology

• The English were invaded by the Normans (who came from northern France) , led by Duke William Of Normandy in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and were defeated in that battle

• A feudal system was imposed , the nobles were Norman and the peasants were English-speaking Saxons

• The Normans occupied the whole of England,eastern Ireland and the whole of Wales

• The Welsh managed to preserve their Celtic language• Three languages were spoken parallelly:Latin by priests, Norman French by

aristocrates and Saxon by commoners(Saxon developed into Middle English)• The Parliament was established in the 13th century

The sixteenth century

• This period was marked by Bubonic Plague and the Wars of the Roses (wars between the houses of York and Lancaster for the English throne)

• The Parliament was divided into two ˝Houses˝(The House of Lords and the House of Commons)

• King Henry VIII split from the Roman Catholic church when he divorced his first wife Catherine of aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn who, he hoped, would give him a son

• Henry VIII established a new church, Anglican church or ˝Church of England˝

• In Scotland Calvinism, which insisted on simplicity and dislike of celebration, became the dominant religion

• Henry´s daughter Elizabeth I strengthened Protestantism and her reign marked the golden period in English history with dominance of England in politics , war operations, colonial expansion and culture

The seventeenth century

• James VI of Scotland became James I of England, English and Scottish thrones were united

• Parliament had established its supremacy over the monarchy, the Stuart royal family did not consult the House of Commons when it concerned finances, which enraged Puritans who regarded many practices of the Church of England immoral as well as the King´s lifestyle

• This led to the Civil War and the establishment of republic with Oliver Cromwell as the ˝Lord Protector˝,Charles I executed

- After Cromwell´s death The Anglican church and the monarchy were restored

- James II gave full rights to Catholics, but was overthrown by Prince William of Orange(the ruler of the Netherlands) and his Stewart wife Mary who were invited to rule by the Parliament

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

• The Scottish Parliament joined the English and the Welsh Parliaments in 1707• Britain expanded its empire in the Americas, the increased trade led to the

Industrial Revolution, there were many technical innovations in the areas of manufacturing and transport

• Areas of common land, which had been available for use by everybody in a village for the grazing of animals were incorporated into bigger and more efficient farms, which led to the migration of hundreds of people from the village to towns

• London had a population around one million at the end of the seventeenth century• Britain lost its American colonies in 1777, in Ireland many people died of hunger

because of failed potato crop• Another parts of the Empire were Canada, Australia and New Zealand with their

internal self-government,they recognized the authority of the British government• The British Empire also included India, large parts of Africa, the Carribean• Britain became the world´s foremost economic power, the British came to see

themselves as having a duty to spread culture and civilization around the world

The twentieth century

• In the nineteenth century many people lived in very unpleasant conditions, writers and intellectuals of this period protested against it

• In 1922 The Irish Free state is born• Britain was no longer the world´ s richest country• The Suffragettes achieved the right to vote• The urban working force was united into trade unions; the

main political parties became the Conservative Party and the Labour Party

• In 1971 decimal currency is introduced• In 1978 Britain joins the European Economic Community• In 1994 Channel tunnel opens

•The History of the USA

• Early encounters with Native Americans• The original inhabitants of North America were Indian tribes, most numerous were Cherokee,

Apache, Sioux, Comanche

• The Native Indians believed that there is soul in every living thing like trees, animals; they also thought that land belonged to everybody and there was no private property

• first European explorers and settlers encountered Native Americans in the late 1400s and 1500s

•Native Americans contracted many diseases from Europeans and their population shrankfrom 10 million to 2-3 million

• The exchange of plants and animals included horses, donkeys,sheep, pigs and cows which were alien to Native Indians and potatoes, maize,pumpkins and tobaco , which were discoveries to Europeans

• Native Americans were Pantheists, they believed that the divine was in all things and that humans were no more important that any other part of the world

The founders• First immigrants in North America are considered founders rather than

immigrants because they created customs, laws and institutions to which later arrivals had to adjust

• No direct rule over the colonies by the British crown was established, joint stock companies were responsible for colonization, the settlers were sent to America to make profit

• The English established their first permanent settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, their main goal was to find gold and a passage to Asian markets

• They eventually became tobacco plantation owners and exported tobacco, they all demanded to own land, the workers on plantations were black people brought from Africa, who became slaves of those white plantation owners

• Other colonies included Maryland, settled by Catholics , they concentrated on rice and indigo

• Massachussets was settled by Pilgrims,a small group of separatists from the Church of England; The Puritans settled in Bay Colony, Mass.and later extended toMaine and Connecticut

The first wave of immigration(1680-1776)

• The Middle Colonies were founded by the Dutch with towns of New Jersey and New Amsterdam as fur trade posts

• The Germans moved to Pennsylvania and believed theh had to maintain using their language and preserve their culture, they did not try to adapt to new life, they were hard-working people who used advanced farming methods

• A large group of Scotch Irish ethnic groups fled economic, political and religious discrimination by the English, a stereotype of them being frontier folk developed

• A small French enclave persisted in South Carolina, Florida had been settled by the Spanish

• By 1776 the English were a bare majority (52 %), the black population was a majority in some parts of Southern colonies, although the cultural, political and economic dominance of Anglo- Americans was clear

• In 1777 the colonies achieved their independence after American War for Independence from the British crown, the war started because of taxes with the event known in history as the Boston Tea Party

The second wave of immigration(1820-1890)

• A range of factors pushed Europeans from their homelands(eg. religious persecution pushed German Jews to emigrate)but economy reasons made people from northern and Western Europe(commonly called the˝old immigrants˝) move to America(improved farming machinery and the move from the country to the city made left people jobless)

• The largest immigrant groups were Germans, Irish, Britons and Scandinavians, followed by a large number of French Canadians, Chinese, Swiss and Dutch.The people were mainly motivated by land, which America had plenty of

• Other employment opportunities included exploiting mineral nad forest resources,railroad companies, building transportation networks skilled crafts, etc .

• Although ethnically mixed there was anti- foreign agitation which culminated when the American Party proposed tripling the length of time for foreign-born population to get US citizenship, this movement was stopped by the Civil War in the 1860s

• It continued after the War and that resulted in Chinese Exclusion Act, which effectively ended Chinese immigration in 1882

The third wave of immigrants(1890-1930)• In this period rose the arrivals from southern and eastern parts of Europe, the largest groups were

Italians, Jews, Poles, Hungarians, folowed by Mexicans, Russian, Czechs, Croats, Greeks, Portuguese, Syrians, Japanese and Filipinos

• The languages , traditions, manners and customs of the Slavic people seemed exotic while Eastern European Orthodox Jews, the Mediterranean nationalities and Asians also appeared to belong to other races

• Cheap train and steamship tickets , usually pre-paid by their relatives, made their decision to emigrate easier. Most immigrants went where the jobs were, to the industries in the Northeast and Midwest

• Settlement houses and inner-city charities were built for these immigrants, these buffer zones were often important to immigrants because they could use their mother tongue and follow old- country traditions

• In 1909 Israel Zangwill´s play˝ The Melting Pot˝popularized the idea that all population groups in the US would eventually fuse through intermarriage and become an entirely new people

• In 1920s racist immigration laws were introduced and there were lists of undesirables• In 1921 Congress passed the first general limitation of imigration(it minimised immigration from

eastern and south Europe) and in 1924 the Oriental Exclusion Act was passed

1930 to today

• The Great Depression put a stop to voluntary mass immmigration• Half million Mexican Americans were deported and about 250 000 immigrants from Europe who

fled Nazi and Fascist regimes were allowed to settle in the USA• During the Second World war contract labourers from Mexico worked in the USA because of

shortage of farm labour• After the 2nd world war familes were reunited• Between 1948 and 1959 Cold War refugees from Communist countires, especially Hungary nad

Cuba immigrated• In 1965 national origins system was replaced by hemispheric limits (170 000 for the Eastern

Hemisphere and 120 000 for the Western hemisphere)• The act of 1965 encouraged ˝brain drain˝ reserving 20% of visas for people who possessed skills

needed in the US• A major event in the space race was Apollo 11 landing on the moon, which marked the supremacy of

the USA in this area• The Immigration Act of 1990 allowed spouses and children of illegal immigrants who were given

amnesty in 198o to join their families• Recently arriving immigrant groups replaced established ethnic groups in urban areas, from where

they left into better paid jobs and moved to the suburbs(˝white flight˝)