CHAPTER 2: HISTORY

Instructor: Đỗ Thảo Nhi

 01 02 03
Prehistory Roman Period & Medieval Period
Germanic "Invasions"

04 05 06
16th and 17th 18th and 19th 20th and 21st
centuries centuries centuries
 01
Prehistory
• 2000 years ago: Iron Age Celtic culture
spread throughout the north-west
European islands

• Sense of mystery and mysticism

• Astonishing monumental architecture
 02
The Roman Period &
The Germanic Invasions
• Roman province Britannia covered most of
present-day England and Wales

• Following Julius Ceasar’s invasions of Britain in 55

BC, the Romans came to stay in Britannia in 43 AD

• The Romans imposed their way of life and culture

on Britons
• Roman dress and the Latin language
• The Scots and The Picts >< the Romans
→ Developments of different languages
• Despite the long occupation, the Romans left very

little behind in Britain

• In other parts of Europe, the Romans built

• system of law and administration

• impressive architectural works

• network of roads
• 5th century: some European tribes including the
Angles and the Saxons started settling in Britain

• Great effect on the countryside

• New farming methods

• Self-sufficient villages

• The Anglo-Saxons were pagan

• 6th and 7th centuries: Christianity spread
throughout Britain
• 8th century: invasions by Vikings, Norsemen, and
Danes
• Their conquest was finally halted by King Alfred

•The difference in culture between Anglo-Saxons

and Danes was small
→ Danes converted to Christianity
→ Political unification in England in the 10th century
 03
The Medieval Period
(1066 – 1458)
• The Norman invasion brought Britain into the
mainstream of Western European culture

• English kings owned land in continental Europe

and were often at war with France

• Norman soldiers were given ownership of land

and the people living on it
• A strict feudal system was imposed
• Barons and lords (Normans)

• Peasants (Saxons)

→ English class system

• By the end of the 13th century, the Anglo-Norman

kingdom expanded to Wales and Ireland

• The concept of parliament started evolving

 04
16th and 17th
centuries
• Mid-14th century: Black Death
• killed 1/3 of Great Britain’s population

• shortage of labour

• changes in ties between lords and peasants

• English monarchs tried to increase their power

• changes in the power of two Houses of

Parliament
King Henry VIII established himself
as head of the Church of England
• rise of Protestantism and the
rise of the English language
• patriotic confidence in England
• new source of income from
church lands

Britain gradually became an island

nation
King Henry VIII used Parliament to
pass laws instead of consulting the
Roman Church of England

Protestantism became the

majority religion in England
• Anglicanism & Calvinism

William Shakespeare began

writing plays
Queen Elizabeth I
• Last monarch of Tudor dynasty
• known for skilful diplomacy
• establishment of the English
Protestant Church

She never married and the state of

Virginia in the US was named after
her
• Political and religious unification of England and
Scotland
• The link between religion and politics became
intense
• The rise of Puritanism

• The Civil War (1642- 1649)

• The Bill of Rights (1689)

→ basis of the UK becoming a constitutional

monarchy and parliamentary democracy
 05
18th and 19th
centuries
• 1707: the Act of Union was passed
• The United Kingdom of Great Britain was

formed
• Politically, the monarch and Parliament got on
well together
• The Whigs & the Tories

→ The party system in Britain

• Colonialism and Industrial Revolution

• London became a business and trading centre
• The UK lost important colonies (North America)
but the power of the British Empire remained in
various parts of the world
• British culture predominated over Ireland

• Britain became the world’s foremost economic

power → The White Man’s Burden

• Most people lived in towns and cities and were

owners of industries
• Reform of public life
• Victorian values

• Abolishment of slavery and

religious discrimination
• Public services

• Horror of industrial society

& sentiments of arcadia

 06
20th and 21st
centuries
• Britain ceased to be the world’s richest country
• gradually lost colonies

• the creation of Northern Ireland (1922)

• The first 20 years were a period of extremism

• demand for women’s rights

• opposition to taxation
• After World War II, Britain lost power in global
politics
• The role of “the world’s policeman” was

handed to the US
• Urban working class started raising voices
• The Labour Party replaced the Liberals
• 1973: Britain joined the EU
Christopher P. David, British
Culture: An Introduction, 3rd ed,
Routledge, 2015
Thank you!