Chapter 1: History.

A. British history.

1. Prehistory.

Two thousand years ago there was an Iron celtic culture throughout the British Culture. The Celts were people came from Europe Mainland. They worshiped forces of nature like trees, animals and storms.

For people in Britain today, the chief significance of the prehistoric period is its sense of mystery. In south-western England, there are two spectacular left by the Celts: Stonehenge and Sillbury Hill.

            2. The Roman Period (43-410)

In year 43 A.D, the Roman invaded Britain. They imposed their own way of life and culture, but they didn’t actually govern the in England, only made influence. They encouraged Celtic rulers to adopt Latin language, Roman dress and Roman culture.

The remarkable thing about the Roman is that, despite their long occupation of Britain, they left very little behind. The Roman destroyed everything such as their villas, baths or temples when they left. The evidence of their invasion lies in name of some places like Chester, Lancaster and Gloucester ….

            3. The Germanic Invasion (410-1066)

One reason why Roman Britannia disappeared so quickly is probably that its influence was largely confined to the towns. In the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons invaded England. A Celtic leader stood up and fought the Anglo-Saxons, slowing their invasion. He is legendary King Authur. By the end of the sixth century, they and their way of life predominated in nearly all of England and in parts of southern Scotland.

The Anglo-Saxons had little use for towns and cities but a great effect on the countryside, where they introduced new farming methods and founded the thousands of self-sufficient villages.

In 597, a priest brought Christianity to Britain. He was Saint Augustine from Rome. Christianity in England was divided into two branches: Roman Christianity for most of British Isles and Celtic Christianity for Ireland and Scotland.

Britain experienced another wave of Germanic invasions in the eighth century. These invaders, known as Vikings, Norsemen or Danes, came from Scandinavia and were defeated by King Alfred of Wessex.

            4. The medieval period (1066-1485).

The successful Norman invasion of England in 1066  brought Britain into the mainstream of western European culture. The Normans came from Scandinavia. Throughout this period the English Kings also ruled over areas of land on the continent and were often at war with the French Kings in disputes over ownership.

The Norman invasion was small scale. After their invasion was successful in 1066, the Normans imposed a strict feudal system of class and language in England.

            Class: Peasants were governed under of lesser lords, lesser lords under great nobles and great nobles are directly ruled by the King.

            Language: Peasants were the English-speaking Saxon, the lords and nobles were French speaking Normans.

The strong system of government which the Normans introduced meant that the Anglo-Norman Kingdom was easily the most powerful political force in the British Isles. By the end of 13th century, a large part of eatern Ireland was controlled by Anglo-Norman lords in the name of English Kings. The authority of the English monarch gradually extended to other parts of British Isles. Scotland managed to remain politically independent in the medieval, but was obliged to fight occasional wars to do so.

The cultural story of this peiod is different. 250 years after the Norman Conquest, it was a Germanic language (Middle English) which became the dominant one in England. And it was the Anglo-Saxon concept of common law which formed the basis of legal system.

The Celtic (Welsh) language and culture remained strong. The Anglo-Norman Lords of eastern Ireland remained loyal to the English Kings but, despite laws to the contrary, mostly adopted the Gaelic languae and customs.

The political independence of Scotland couldn’t prevent Celtic culture from influencing English language and system. The Celtic Kings saw that the adoption of an Anglo-Norman Style of government would strengthen royal power.

Cutural split: In the lowlands, the way of life and language was similar to that in England while in the highlands, Celtic culture and language prevailed and teh authority of the King was hard to enforce.

The Parliament was first used in England in the 13th century to describe an assembly of nobles called together by King. It set the model for the future by including elected representatives from urban and rural areas.

            5. The sixteenth century.

In the 16th century, the power of the English kings increased because of 2 reasons:

The strength of the great barons had been greatly weakened by the Wars of the Roses;

The disease called Black Death killed a lot of people.

The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic wars between supporters of two rival branches of the royal houses: the houses of  Lancaster and York, red rose symbolized Lancaster and Whiterose for York. Final victory was for Lancaster.

The Tudor Dynasty (1485-1603) established a system of government departments, staffed by professionals who depended for the position on the mornarch. Parliament was traditionally split into two houses: The House of Lords consisted of the feudal noble men and leaders of the Church, The House of Common consisted of representatives from the towns and landowners in rural areas.

By the end of the 16th century, the major religion in England was Protestantism (Đạo Tin lành) in the form of Anglicanism (Giáo phái Anh).

Calvinism was the religion of Scottish lowlands, while Scottish highlands and Irish remained Catholicism.

            6. The 17th century.

James I became the first English King of the Stuart dynasty. He was already King of Scotland, so the crowns of these two countries were united. Although their parliaments and administrative and judicial systems continued to be separate, their linguistic differences were lessend in this century.

In the 16th century, religion and politics became inextricably linked. This link became even more intense in the 17th century.

This was the context in which Parliament established its supremacy over the mornachy in Britain. The Stuart mornachs did not get agreement of the House of Common to raise money, this was against the tradition. There were controversy about Catholicism of the Stuart Mornach and so on.

The conflict led to the Civil War, which ended with complete victory of the Parliament forces, under the leadership of King Charles I and the leader of the Parliament army, Oliver Cromwell.

But when Cromwell died, he, his system of government, and the puritan ethics had become unpopular. The Anglican Church was restored. The conflict between mornach and the Parliament soon re-emerged.

The Glorious followed, in which Prince William of Orange, ruler of the Netherlands, and his Stuart wife Mary, accepted Perliament’s invitation to become king and queen. This established a mornach taht could rule only with the support of parliament. Parliament immediately drew up a Bill of Rights which limited some of the power of the mornach (notably, the power to dismiss judges).

            7. The 18th century.

Politically, this century was stable. Mornach and Parliament got on quite well together.

Within Parliament there were two divisions: the Whigs – which supported the Protestant values of hard work and thrif, and the Tories – which respect the idea of the mornachy and the importance of Anglican Church,

The mordern system of an annual budget drawn up by the mornach’s Treasury officials for the approval of parliament was established during this century.

At the beginning of the century, the Scottish Parliament joined with the English and Welsh parliament. Scotland retained its own system of law.

The only part of Britain to change radically was the highlands of Scotland. Many inhabitants of the highlands were killed or sent away from Britain and the wearing of highland dress was banned. The Celtic way of life was effectively destroyed. This was cultural change that was most marked in this century.

The increased trade was one factor which led to the Industrial Revolution. Other important factors are technical innovations in the areas of manufacturing and transport.

In England, the growth of the industrial mode of productionand advances in agriculture caused the greatest upheaval in the pattern of everyday life since the Anglo-Saxon invasions. Areas of common land disappeared as landowners incorporated them into their increasingly large and more efficient farms. Hundreds of thousands of people moved to from rural areas into new towns and cities. The north became the industrial heartland of the country.

In the south of England, London came to dominate as a business and trading centre.

            8. The 19th century.

Not long before this century began, Britain had lost its most important American colonies in a war of independence. Soon after the end of the century, Britain controlled the biggest empire the world had ever seen.

During this century, the British culture and way and way of life came to predominated in Ireland – part of thw UK.

Another part of the empire was made up of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where settlers from the Bristish Isles formed the maiority of the population.

As well as these areas (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Africa), the empire included numerous smaller areas and islands.

There was change in attitude in Britain towards colonization. Colonization had been seen as a matter of settlement of commerce or of military strategy. The aim was simply to possess territory. By the end of the century, colonization was seen as matter of destiny.

The British came to themselves as having a duty to spread this cultural and civilization around the world, Being the rulers of an empire was therefore a matter of moral obligation.

There were great changes in social structure. Most people lived in towns and cities. They no longer depended on country landowners for living but rather on the owners of industry. As they established their power, they also established a set of values which emphasized hard work, thrif, religious observance...

Britain was gradually turning into something resembling a modern state. There was not only political reforms, but also reforms which recognized some human rights. Public services such as the police force were set up. However, the nature of the new industrial society forced many people to live and work in very unpleasant conditions.

            9. The 20th century.

By the beginning of this century, Britain was no longer the world’s richest country. But there were two problems: the problem of Ulster in the north of Ireland led to disobey the Government and the government’s introduction of new types and levels of taxation was opposed. But by the end of the World war I, these issues had been resolved.

It was from the beginning of this century that the urban working class finally began to make its voice heard.