There have been human activities in the British Isles for a long time. Around the 3rd century BC/Kloc-0, Iberians came from the European continent to settle in the southeast of the British Isles. After about 700 BC, Celts living in western Europe moved into the British Isles, and one of them was called bretons, from which the name Britain probably came. It is well known that the Celts used iron, and the technology of plows is constantly improving. They have already used money. The development of productive forces has promoted the gradual differentiation of Carte society.
Roman period
In 55 BC and 54 BC, Caesar led the Roman legions to invade Britain twice, and both were repelled by the British. In 43 AD, the Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus led an army to invade Britain. After conquering Britain, it became a province of the Roman Empire. By 409, all Roman troops were forced to leave Britain, and Roman rule over Britain ended.
Middle Ages
After the Romans left, Germanic tribes such as Anglo-Saxons and Jutes living near the mouth of the Elbe River and southern Denmark, by the beginning of the 7th century, the invaders had successively established seven powerful countries: this period was called the "Seven Kingdoms Period". When the Anglo-Saxons invaded, it was a clan and tribal organization. During the invasion, the original clan organization collapsed. With the development of productive forces, land has gradually become private property, and nobles, big landlords, dependent farmers and slaves have emerged. Village community has become a form of transition from clan commune land ownership to feudal land ownership, which is generally considered to be the beginning of feudal process in British society. At the end of the 6th century, Christianity was introduced to Britain.
Since the end of the 8th century, Scandinavians, mainly Danes, have invaded Britain many times. In 879, King Alfred signed a treaty with the Danes, which placed the northeast of England under the jurisdiction of Denmark and called it the "Danish area". /kloc-At the beginning of the 0 th century, the successors of King Alfred gradually recovered Denmark. 165438+ At the beginning of the 20th century, the Danes made a comeback. During the Danish occupation, the process of feudalism in Britain was accelerated.
King Edward died childless, and William, Duke of Normandy, invaded in 1066. In the same year, he entered London in 10, and was crowned King William I of England (1066- 1087 reigned), known as "William the Conqueror" in history.
The powerful kingship established after William's conquest played a positive role in consolidating the feudal order. John quilt
Magna Carta
12 15 June was forced to accept the magna carta and compromise with the feudal lords. Magna Carta is essentially a feudal document, which protects the interests of feudal lords. But it is also as progressive as protecting citizens' freedom of trade. But John quickly denied the charter, and the civil war between the monarch and the minister continued.
1380, King Richard II (reigned at 1377- 1399) increased poll tax to collect the war expenses of the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France, which led to the uprising of 138 1 May. The leader was wat tyler, a bricklayer, who was called "wat tyler Uprising" in history. Although the uprising failed, it impacted the feudal serfdom in Britain. /kloc-At the end of 0/4, serfdom in Britain actually disintegrated. In the 65438+5th century, most serfs redeemed their personal freedom and became yeomen. Their legal status is divided into free farmers and public book farmers. Monetary land rent has become the main form of land rent, and the feudal main classes have also changed. New noble came into being from wealthy peasants, businessmen occupying land and small and medium-sized aristocrats, who adopted the capitalist mode of operation. The old aristocratic rule was in crisis, and the feudal knight system gradually disintegrated. After 1455- 1485 in wars of the roses, the power of the old aristocracy was greatly weakened, which created favorable conditions for the development of capitalist relations. Henry vii acceded to the throne with the support of new noble and the bourgeoisie (1485- 1509 reigned) and began the rule of Tudor dynasty.
Enclosure movement is one of the important means in primitive accumulation of capital, England. 1536 merger of England and Wales. From 15 to 16 century, the wool industry became the "national industry" in Britain, and the demand for wool became.
Britain defeated the Spanish Armada.
Double increase. The landlord turned the farm into a pasture, and also concentrated small pieces of real estate into large pieces by enclosure or occupation of public land. As a result, a large number of yeomen lost their land, went bankrupt and became vagrants. The king promulgated a series of bloody legislation from 65438 to 0530, forcing vagrants to be employed by new noble and capitalists. Overseas plunder and trade are also important ways of primitive accumulation. /kloc-After the 6th century, Britain organized many trading companies, which were looted by pirates. Dock officials, customs officials, naval officers and soldiers, and even local senior officials all colluded with pirates. Pirate J Hawkins sold blacks to get rich, and F Drake plundered Spanish American colonies under the sponsorship of Elizabeth I and sailed the world from 1577- 1580, which shocked Europe. 1588, Britain defeated the Spanish Armada and took the first step to win the world maritime hegemony.
1603, Queen Elizabeth died childless, and King James VI of Scotland succeeded to the British throne, called James I (1603- 1625 reigned), and began the rule of the Stuart dynasty (1603- 1649,/. From the second half of16th century to the first half of17th century, the capitalist economy developed rapidly, and the increasingly powerful bourgeoisie and new noble could not stand the autocratic rule of feudal monarchies. However, James I and Charles I ignored these changes and insisted on the "divine right of monarchy", which aggravated the contradiction. 164 1 year 1 1 month, the parliament protested to the king; The following year, in June+10, 5438, the king tried to arrest the leader of the parliamentary opposition and fled the capital. In August, he declared war on Parliament in Nottingham.
Cromwell's cavalry was mainly composed of Puritan yeomen and craftsmen. The new model army defeated the royalist army in the battle of Nasby in June 1645. The following year, the king was captured. /kloc-at the end of 0/647, King Charles fled. 1February 648, royalists took the opportunity to start a civil war. Under the joint attack of independents and equals, the royalists were defeated again and the second civil war ended. 1648 February, Cromwell cleared Parliament. 1649 65438+1On October 30th, Charles I was beheaded. 1in April 653, Cromwell dissolved the remaining parliament.1in February, a government was established to defend the country and implement military dictatorship.
The convening of the British Parliament-the establishment of modern political system
1February 660, the Stuart dynasty was restored. 1688- 1689 "glorious revolution" broke out. Its bill of rights limited the royal power, expanded the parliamentary power and laid the foundation of British constitutional monarchy. Since then, the British parliamentary monarchy has gradually formed and developed. [2] 1707 merged with Scotland.
the Industrial Revolution
Industrial revolution, also known as industrial revolution, refers to the early course of capitalist industrialization, that is, capitalist production has completed the transition from workshop handicraft industry to machine industry. It is manual labor that is gradually replaced by machine production, manual production of individual workshops is replaced by large-scale factory production, and then it is extended to the production of other industries and the scientific and technological revolution.
colonial expansion
British colonies expanded violently in the19th century. Ireland merged in 180 1, and the official name of Britain became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The aggression against Asia continues to expand. /kloc-In the middle of the 9th century, he launched two Opium Wars to invade China and participated in suppressing the Taiping Revolution in China. Suppress the Indian national uprising from 1857 to 1859 and strengthen India's rule. 1876, the conservative cabinet b disraeli crowned queen Victoria, making her the queen of India. Since then, Britain has also been called the British Empire (or British Empire). In addition, it also expanded its aggression in Iran, Myanmar, South Africa, Egypt, East Africa, New Zealand and Australia, and gradually penetrated into South America, becoming the largest investor there. 1867, Canada became a dominion of Britain.
World War
After 1970s, Britain gradually lost its industrial monopoly position. Rising America
Churchill at the Yalta conference
Gradually catching up with Britain led to unprecedented intensification of contradictions. At the beginning of the 20th century, Germany became a competitor of Britain. Faced with the grim situation, the British government actively expanded its armaments, especially its navy. In order to deal with Germany, Britain gave up the foreign policy of "glorious isolation" pursued by19th century. After 1907, the "three-country agreement" between Britain, France and Russia has actually taken shape. 1965438+In August 2004, World War I broke out. 19 17, Britain finally defeated Germany's "unrestricted submarine warfare" and maintained its sea power. In the war, the total number of Chinese and British imperial fighters killed exceeded 500 thousand. The war ended in the failure of Germany and other allies, which was also a great victory for the United States.
1939 September, Germany attacked Poland, World War II broke out, and Britain declared war on Germany. 1940 in April, Churchill formed wartime coalition cabinet. After Churchill came to power, he immediately organized Dunkirk to retreat, brought the national economy into wartime orbit, and rapidly expanded its armaments. 1940 In the "British air war" launched by Germany from July to September, the British Air Force effectively attacked the enemy. 1In June 1944, British and American troops landed in Normandy, France.1On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered. After the war, the colonies of the British Empire became independent one after another and were later replaced by the Commonwealth.
contemporary era
After the war, Britain participated in the formulation and acceptance of the 1947 Marshall Plan, received a lot of assistance from the United States, and the economy gradually recovered. At the same time, the Labor government has also implemented some measures to improve the situation of working people: after the Second World War, the Labor Party and the Conservative Party took turns to govern in Britain. Economic development is slow.
Margaret Thatcher
1973 65438+ 10 joined the European body in October. [2] 1979 After the general election, the Conservative Party came to power, and Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister in British history. Re-elected in 1982 and 1987. The Thatcher government adopted the privatization policy of state-owned enterprises and made great achievements in revitalizing the economy. We began to promote the privatization of some enterprises to revitalize the British economy.