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PAST EVENTS - MODERN LEGACIES ROMAN RULE
Roman rule was very influential in Britain's evolution, not least in the founding of towns and cities so many of which are familiar to the people today. For example, London and Lincoln largely preserve their Roman names - Londinium and Lindum Colonia respectively - while others, such as Chester, Gloucester and Colchester, betray their origins by the '-Chester' or '-cester1 ending. This name, derived from the Latin castra, was given to the Roman sites by the Anglo-Saxons.
SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY
Christianity - which had been introduced to Britain under the Romans - was reintroduced to pagan England in the sixth and seventh centuries. The Catholic Church sent St Augustine to preach and establish bishoprics in 597. Since that time, Christianity has remained the predominant faith among people in Britain.
REIGN OF ALFRED THE GREAT
From the fifth century onwards a number of small kingdoms emerged in England. These gradually evolved into fewer, larger groupings - particularly Northumbria in the north, Mercia in the midlands and Wessex in the south. During the ninth century Vikings from Scandinavia overran all these kingdoms except Wessrx, where Alfred the Great, who reigned from M71 to 899, successfully resisted the invaders, hi the tenth century the Wessex dynasty came to rule the whole of England. The present Royal Family is partly descended from the royal line of Wessex.
NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND
The last successful foreign invasion of England took place in 1066, when Duke William of Normandy defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings. The
Norman Conquest led to closer links with the mainland of Europe. Normans and others from France came to settle, and French became the language of the nobility and the law courts for the next three centuries,
MAGNA CARTA AND THE BEGINNINGS OF PARLIAMENT
hi 1215 King John signed Magna Carta (Great Charier) in the face of demands by barons. It secured feudal rights and established areas over which the King had no jurisdiction, and has been interpreted throughout English history as guaranteeing certain political and civil liberties. The rest of the 13th century saw the development of Parliament as a gathering of feudal barons and representatives of counties and towns summoned by the King. By the end of the century, it had adopted its basic makeup of Lords and Commons, and it had established the right to approve taxation. It also soon acquired the right to approve new laws.
THE ENGLISH REFORMATION
Between 1534 and 1540 King Henry VIII of the Tudor dynasty broke with the Papacy in Rome, heralding the English Reformation and the establishment of the Church of England. Despite the suppression of the monasteries, the Church remained largely unaffected until the reign of his son Edward VI (1547-53), when Protestantism became the official religion of England.
Popular hostility to the Papacy remained widespread for centuries, hi Ireland, differences between the religious traditions remain very marked to this day.
UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES
The subjugation of Wales by the English had been completed in the late 13th century by Edward I, who gave his infant son, later Edward II, the title of Prince of Wales - still carried today by the monarch's eldest son. Between 1536 and 1542 Acts of Union integrated England and Wales administratively and legally and gave Wales representation in Parliament.
CIVIL WAR AND THE EXECUTION OF CHARLES I
Hostility between Parliament and the Crown led to the outbreak of civil war in 1642. The eventual victory of the Parliamentary army heralded the execution of Charles I in 1649, the temporary abolition of the monarchy (until 1660), and the rule of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector.
THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS
In 1685 James II, a Roman Catholic, became king (succeeding his brother, Charles II). However, as he lost popularity for his autocratic rule and pro-Catholic policies, his Protestant Dutch son-in-law, William of Orange, was invited by leading politicians to intervene. The result was the bloodless or 'Glorious Revolution* in which James found himself practically without support and was overthrown. The crown was offered jointly to William and his wife Mary. The following year the Bill of Rights was passed, establishing the political supremacy of Parliament.
UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND
Scotland remained a separate kingdom throughout the Middle Ages, often at war with England. Realising the benefits of closer political and economic union, England and Scotland agreed in 1707 on a single Parliament for Great Britain. Scotland retained its own system of law and church settlement. The Union became strained in the first half of the 18th century, when two Jacobite uprisings attempted to restore the Catholic Stuart dynasty to the throne.
THE GROWTH OF THE EMPIRE
The 17th and 18th centuries saw considerable overseas expansion by Britain. The foundation of the colonies in North America was followed by other major acquisitions, in competition with the French and other European powers. Despite the North American colonies winning the War of Independence between 1775 and 1783, Britain continued to extend its rule through the 19th century over a large part of the world - a process from which the modern Commonwealth eventually emerged.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The Industrial Revolution, which was a key development in shaping the face of modern Britain, took place between about 1760 and 1830. Britain was the first country in the world to industrialise, pioneering many technologies and large-scale production processes. In pursuit of work in the new mills and factories, people concentrated in the industrial centres which developed in particular areas of the country. The cities which rose to prominence as manufacturing and commercial centres, such as Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield, remain among the principal centres of population today. Transport was revolutionised in this period, with the construction of a wide network of canals in the late 18th century, many of which are still in use today. These were followed in the early 19th century by the advent of the railways, the world's first passenger railway opening between Stockton and Darlington in 1825. Although slums developed in many of the emerging industrial towns, some of the more philanthropic mill and factory owners sought to provide better facilities for their employees. One of these model settlements for industrial workers was Saltaire near Bradford, built by Titus Salt in the late 19th century. As well as the mill and the workers' houses, Salt also built civic facilities such as the church and a school.
THE CENSUS
In 1801 the first census of population in England and Wales was held. There has been a census in Britain every ten years since that date, except in 1941 when war intervened. Census information is used by central and local government to help make financial allocations and plan services.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Freedom of conscience in religious matters was achieved gradually from the 17th century onwards. Laws discriminating against minority religious groups were administered less harshly and then finally repealed. Catholic emancipation in 1829 relieved Catholics in Britain of the legal and civil restrictions accumulated since the time of the English Reformation. Religious freedom for all people in Britain has since become an accepted right.
THE REFORM ACTS
Today people in Britain take for granted the right to vote in national and local elections (see p. 15). However, at one time the vote was confined to a very narrow group of men. The widening of the franchise started with the Reform Acts of 1832 and 1867, continued in 1884, 1918 and 1928, and was completed in 1969 when the minimum voting age was reduced to 18. The Ballot Act of 1872 gave voters the means to keep their vote secret - an arrangement that has stood the test of time so well that even the official specification for the design of the ballot box is virtually identical to that of the late 19th century.
PARTITION OF IRELAND
The formal connection between Great Britain and Ireland dates from the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. In the late 1550s and early 1600s English and Scottish Protestants migrated to the northern province of Ulster, their religion setting them apart from the other, indigenous Roman Catholic inhabitants of Ireland. In 1801 Ireland was unified with Great Britain, but Irish Nationalists continued to campaign in the 19th and early 20th centuries for some measure of independence. At the same time, the Protestant Unionist majority in the north resisted any moves towards Irish home rale. In 1921 the Anglo-Irish Treaty established the Irish Free State as a self-governing dominion, but Northern Ireland exercised its right to opt out and remain part of the United Kingdom.
Between 1922 and 1972 Northern Ireland was governed by a Parliament responsible for a range of local affairs but, following the upsurge in intercommunal violence in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it has been ruled directly by Westminster since 1972. Successive British Governments have tried to find the basis for returning greater power to Northern Ireland's locally elected representatives, but agreement has proved elusive.
In December 1993 the British and Irish Governments made a declaration stating that any settlement would be based on the principles of democracy and consent, and could only be reached by agreement between parties with a commitment to exclusively peaceful methods. This was 'followed by both the nationalist and loyalist paramilitaries announcing ceasefires in August and October 1994. The British Government has since continued to work to create the right conditions for all-party talks, with the aim of achieving an overall settlement. This has included the publication of the Frameworks for the Future document in February 1995.
EDUCATION AND SOCIAL WELFARE
The 1940s saw educational and social welfare developments, the broad principles of which are maintained today, hi 1944 a new Education Act for England and Wales allowed for a great expansion of education provided by the State (see p. 31). A new Ministry of Education was empowered to develop a national education policy. Also, the school system was divided into two levels, primary and secondary, making secondary education to the age of 15 compulsory.
Hi 1942 the government-sponsored TrJeveridge report' proposed a comprehensive scheme of social insurance covering the whole community, forming the basis of much of the present social security system. Legislation in 1946 provided for the establishment of Britain's National Health Service (NHS), the most comprehensive medical care scheme of its time. The NHS has since provided a full range of mainly free medical services, available to all British residents regardless of their income.
THE END OF EMPIRE
At the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 the British Empire had expanded to almost one-fifth of the world land mass and one-quarter of the world population. However, from that time it decentralised. Self-governing dominions, such as Canada and Australia, were described in 1926 as autonomous members of the oBritish Commonwealth of Nations'. Most other colonies, beginning with India and Pakistan, were granted independence by Britain after 1945, and most of them joined the Commonwealth.
Immigration from former territories in the Caribbean and the South Asian sub-continent was substantial in the 1950s and 1960s, forming the basis of the ethnic minority population in Britain today.
BRITAIN IN EUROPE
At the end of the Second World War in 1945 the economies of most European countries were in ruins. In addition, the then Soviet Union's Communist influence was expanding. In the face of these challenges, the countries of
Western Europe sought to co-operate in their reconstruction and to organise themselves in such a way that wars between them would not recur.
Out of the consequent negotiations emerged what is now termed the European Union - an association of sovereign nations, initially comprising six member states in the 1950s but expanding progressively over the years to the current membership of 15. Britain joined in 1973 and its links with its European Union partners have since become ever more closely integrated, influencing the lives of all its citizens.
DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS
Britain has a population of about 58 million people, the 17th largest in the world. The great majority, 48.7 million, live in England; Scotland has just over 5 million people, Wales 2.9 million and Northern Ireland about 1.6 million. The population density is well above the
European Union average. England is the most densely populated, with 373 people per sq km, and Scotland the least, with 67 people per sq km. The great majority of people are concentrated in towns and cities, although there has been a trend, especially in the capital London for people to move away from congested urban centres into the suburbs.
In 1994 there were 751,000 live births in Britain, compared with 626,000 deaths. The birth rate is relatively low at 12.9 live births per 1,000 population. This is in part due to a trend towards later marriage and towards postponing births.
The average age of women having children has risen to over 28 years in England and Wales. There is also a greater preference for smaller families than in the past, which has led to a significant decline in the proportion of families with four or more children. In addition, more widespread and effective contraception has made it easier to plan families.
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