LECTURE 2.

HISTORY OF BRITAIN

Prehistoric times
Look at the physical map of Britain. What parts of the country can be easily
conquered? Why? What parts are hard to reach and settle? Why? Where is the place
closest to Europe?
In prehistoric times, when Britain was joined to the rest of the continent, the first
human inhabitants came there over dry land.
Towards the end of the Ice Age the mighty prehistoric river, which joined the
present-day Thames with the Rhine, formed the English Channel. In the period
immediately after its formation the Channel was too stormy to cross it by the nearest
route from the continent. So the nomadic Stone Age hunters crossed the sea to Britain to
the west of the Channel and settled along the western shores.
These people are thought to have arrived in Britain from the region of the
Mediterranean and lived there between 3000 and 2000 BC. They are called the Iberians
or Megalithic men, because at that time the Iberians inhabited many parts of Europe and
today their descendants are still found in the north of Spain (the Iberian Peninsula). They
probably formed the basis of the present-day population in Western England, Wales,
North and Western Scotland and Ireland.
For people in Britain today, the chief significance of the prehistoric period is its
sense of mystery. This sense finds its focus most easily in the astonishing monumental
architecture of this period, the remains of which exist throughout the country. Wiltshire,
in southwestern England, has two spectacular examples: Silbury Hill, the largest burial
mound in Europe, and Stonehenge. Such places have a special importance for some
people with inclinations towards mysticism and esoteric religion. For example, we know
that Celtic society had a priestly caste called the Druids. Their name survives today in the
Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids.
The Roman period (43-410)
The Roman province of Britannia covered most of present-day England and Wales,
where the Romans imposed their own way of life and culture, making use of the existing
Celtic aristocracy to govern and encouraging them to adopt Roman dress and the Latin
language. They never went to Ireland and exerted an influence, without actually
governing there, over only the southern part of Scotland. It was during this time that a
Celtic tribe called the Scots migrated from Ireland to Scotland, where, along with another
tribe, the Piets, they became opponents of the Romans. This division of the Celts into
those who experienced Roman rule (the Britons in England and Wales) and those who

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did not (the Gaels in Ireland and Scotland) may help to explain the emergence of two
distinct branches of the Celtic group of languages.
The remarkable thing about the Romans is that, despite their long occupation of
Britain, they left very little behind. To many other parts of Europe they bequeathed a
system of law and administration which forms the basis of the modern system and a
language which developed into the modern Romance family of languages. In Britain,
they left neither. Moreover, most of their villas, baths and temples, their impressive
network of roads, and the cities they founded, including Londinium (London), were soon
destroyed or fell into disrepair. Almost the only lasting reminders of their presence are
place names like Chester, Lancaster and Gloucester, which include variants of the Latin
word castra (a military camp).

The Germanic invasions (410-1066)

Ponder over the process of any invasion. What are its stages?
The Roman occupation had been a matter of colonial control rather than large-scale
settlement. But during the fifth century, a number of tribes from the European mainland
invaded and settled in large numbers. Two of these tribes were the Angles and the
Saxons. These Anglo-Saxons soon had the south-east of the country in their grasp. In the
west, their advance was temporarily halted by an army of (Celtic) Britons under the
command of the legendary King Arthur (read more “Britain for leaners” p.17).
Nevertheless, by the end of the sixth century, they and their way of life predominated in
nearly all of present-day England. Celtic culture and language survived only in
present-day Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.
The Anglo-Saxons had little use for towns and cities. But they had a great effect on
the countryside, where they introduced new farming methods and founded the thousands
of self-sufficient villages which formed the basis of English society for the next thousand
or so years.

Christianity in the 6-7th centuries

When they came to Britain, the Anglo-Saxons were pagan. During the sixth and
seventh centuries, Christianity spread throughout Britain from two different directions.
The Anglo-Saxon kings and nobles accepted Christianity first – the religion satisfied the
king’s power. According to Roman Christianity the king was no longer a tribal chief – he
was a representative of God on earth and was entitled to have his murdered punished by
death penalty.

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 The religion, which taught poor people to be patient and obey then- masters,
justified the power of big landowners. In about a century the Anglo-Saxons were
compelled to accept the new faith.
By the middle of the 7th century, there were two forms of Christianity in Britain –
Celtic Christianity and new Roman Christianity, which had some slight differences. To
decide which should be accepted a synod of Whitby was called in 664. The decision was
made in favor of the new Roman form. It brought Britain into contact with the new
civilization of Europe and strengthened the influence of the Mediterranean. Later British
kings began the struggle with Rome for supremacy on their own lands.
Christianity brought important changes in the life of the Anglo-Saxon society. As
new churches and monasteries grew all over the country, the king granted much land to
them thus providing big landed estates. Christianity brought to Britain Roman culture and
the Latin and Greek languages. Monasteries became centres of learning where the first
libraries and schools were set up.
The new religion controlled the most important events of people’s life baptism,
marriage and burial. It brought greater humanity to the laws and people’s conduct. The
organization of the church into diocese and parishes was later taken as a model to
political organization of the country. How was Christianity brought to Britain? What was
the effect of Christianity on the Anglo-Saxon society?

King Alfred
Britain experienced another wave of Germanic invasions in the eighth century.
These invaders, known as Vikings, Norsemen or Danes, came from Scandinavia. In the
ninth century they conquered and settled the islands around Scotland and some coastal
regions of Ireland. Their conquest of England was halted when they were defeated by
King Alfred of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex. As a result, their settlement was confined
mostly to the north and east of the country.
During the reign of Alfred the Great (871 – 899) the laws were improved in the
interests of great landowners and the standards of culture rose among them. King Alfred
brought artisans, builders and scholars from the Continent to rebuilt school and
monasteries burnt by the Danes and to spread learning. Books on religion, history and
philosophy were translated from Latin into Anglo-Saxon. The translation of
“Ecclesiastical History of the English People”, which the Venerable Bede had written in
Latin was made by Alfred himself.
Alfred ordered to start writing the history of England. The learned monks from
several monasteries began to keep a record of the outstanding events of each year. This
written history called. “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” continued for 250 years after the
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death of Alfred. King Alfred also collected old customs and laws of the Anglo-Saxons in
Wessex and Mercia, added new laws and “A Code of English Law” was drawn up.
Everybody had to follow the laws of the kingdom.
However, the cultural differences between Anglo-Saxons and Danes were
comparatively small. They led roughly the same way of life and spoke different varieties
of the same Germanic tongue. Moreover, the Danes soon converted to Christianity. These
similarities made political unification easier, and by the end of the tenth century, England
was a united kingdom with a Germanic culture throughout. Most of Scotland was also
united by this time, at least in name, in a (Celtic) Gaelic kingdom. What was the impact
of Alfred the Great’s reign on the Anglo-Saxon society?

The medieval period (1066-1458)

The 9th century saw two parallel conquests — while one branch of the Northmen
was plundering England, another branch conquered the northern coast of France. They
got the name “Normans” — a variation of the word “Northmen”, the territory they settled
down on was later called Normandy.
Normans adopted the French language, manners, customs and the way of life. They
acknowledged the King of France as their overlord, but the Duke of Normandy was as
strong as the King himself and the domain of the Duke was even bigger. The Duchy of
Normandy coined its own money, made its own laws, had its own courts and castles.
There was the best-trained “cavalry” in Europe, which could wage wars against other
dukes and even against the King of France.
Unlike the Germanic invasions, the Norman invasion was small-scale. There was
no such thing as a Norman area of settlement. Instead, the Norman soldiers who had
invaded were given the ownership of land - and of the people living on it. A strict feudal
system was imposed. Great nobles, or barons, were responsible directly to the king; lesser
lords, each owning a village, were directly responsible to a baron. Under them were the
peasants, tied by a strict system of mutual duties and obligations to the local lord, and
forbidden to travel without his permission. The peasants were the English-speaking
Saxons. The lords and the barons were the French-speaking Normans. This was the start
of the English class system.
The system of strong government which the Normans introduced made the
Anglo-Norman kingdom the most powerful political force in Britain and Ireland. Not
surprisingly therefore, the authority of the English monarch gradually extended to other
parts of these islands in the next 250 years. By the end of the thirteenth century, a large
part of eastern Ireland was controlled by Anglo-Norman lords in the name of their king
and the whole of Wales was under his direct rule (at which time, the custom of naming
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the monarch's eldest son the 'Prince of Wales’ began). Scotland managed to remain
politically independent in the medieval period, but was obliged to fight occasional wars
to do so.

The system of languages at the period

The cultural story of this period is different. In the 250 years after the Norman
Conquest, it was a Germanic language, Middle English, and not the Norman (French)
language, which had become the dominant one in all classes of society in England.
Furthermore, it was the Anglo-Saxon concept of common law, and not Roman law, which
formed the basis of the legal system.
Despite English rule, northern and central Wales was never settled in great
numbers by Saxons or Normans. As a result, the (Celtic) Welsh language and culture
remained strong. Eisteddfods, national festivals of Welsh song and poetry, continued
throughout the medieval period and still continue today. The Anglo-Norman lords of
Ireland remained loyal to the English king but, despite laws to the contrary, mostly
adopted the Gaelic language and customs.
The political independence of Scotland did not prevent a gradual switch to English
language and customs in the lowland (southern) part of the country. Many Anglo-Saxon
aristocrats had fled there after the Norman conquest. In addition, the Celtic kings saw that
the adoption of an Anglo-Norman style of government would strengthen royal power. By
the end of this period, a cultural split had developed between the lowlands, where the
way of life and language was similar to that in England, and the highlands, where Gaelic
culture and language prevailed – and where, due to the mountainous terrain, the authority
of the Scottish king was hard to enforce.
It was in this period that Parliament began its gradual evolution into the democratic
body which it is today. The word ‘parliament’, which comes from the French word parler
(to speak), was first used in England in the thirteenth century to describe an assembly of
nobles called together by the king.

The sixteenth century

In its first outbreak in the middle of the fourteenth century, bubonic plague (known
in England as the Black Death) killed about a third of the population of Great Britain. It
periodically reappeared for another 300 years. The shortage of labour which it caused,
and the increasing importance of trade and towns, weakened the traditional ties between
lord and peasant. At a higher level of feudal structure, the power of the great barons was
greatly weakened by in-fighting (The Wars of the Roses).

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 Both these developments allowed English monarchs to increase their power. The
Tudor dynasty (1485-1603) established a system of government departments staffed by
professionals who depended for their position on the monarch. The feudal aristocracy
was no longer needed for implementing government policy. It was needed less for
making it too. Of the traditional two 'Houses’ of Parliament, the Lords and the Commons,
it was now more important for monarchs to get the agreement of the Commons for their
policies because that was where the newly powerful merchants and landowners were
represented.
Unlike in much of the rest of Europe, the immediate cause of the rise of
Protestantism in England was political and personal rather than doctrinal. The King (H e
n ry V III) wanted a divorce, which the Pope would not give him. Also, by making
himself head of the 'Church of England’, independent of Rome, all church lands came
under his control and gave him a large new source of income.
This rejection of the Roman Church also accorded with a new spirit of patriotic
confidence in England. The country had finally lost any realistic claim to lands in France,
thus becoming more consciously a distinct 'island nation’. At the same time, increasing
European exploration of the Americas meant that England was closer to the geographical
centre of western civilization instead of being, as previously, on the edge of it. It was in
the last quarter of this adventurous and optimistic century that Shakespeare began writing
his famous plays, giving voice to the modern form of English.
It was therefore patriotism as much as religious conviction that had caused
Protestantism to become the majority religion in England by the end of the century. It
took a form known as Anglicanism, not so very different from Catholicism in its
organization and ritual. But in the lowlands of Scotland, it took a more idealistic form.
Calvinism, with its strict insistence on simplicity and its dislike of ritual and celebration
became the dominant religion. It is from this date that the stereotype image of the dour,
thrifty Scottish developed. However, the highlands remained Catholic and so further
widened the gulf between the two parts of the nation. Ireland also remained Catholic.
There, Protestantism was identified with the English, who at that time were making
further attempts to control the whole of the country.
Henry VIII
Henry was eighteen years old when he became King. The nobles and ordinary
people hoped that Henry would lead the country to contentment and prosperity. In state
affairs young Henry was advised by Thomas Wolsey, the Archbishop of York, later
Cardinal and Chancellor. Wolsey stood in for the King in day-to-day administration. The
ambitions of the King and his Chancellor went far — they wanted to Restore English
prestige on the continent.
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 In 1511, the Pope, the Emperor and the King of Spain united in a Holy League to
drive the French from Italy. England made an alliance with Spain to start the war with
France, but got a great defeat in the struggle. Henry hoped to reconquer France, but the
war in general was unsuccessful despite some minor conquests.
In the 1520s, Spain completely dominated Europe and Cardinal Wolsey tried to
restore the balance of power by making alliance with France. The country soon expanded
into the war with France until in 1523 the Parliament resisted an application for war
expenses.
Twenty years of Henry’s reign were aimed at maintaining “the balance of power”
policy in Europe and at home. For a long period Henry supported Catholic Church, which
was threatened by various protestant movements. These movements criticized the power
of Catholic Church, its organization and corrupted, money-loving priests. Henry VIII
with the help of Sir Thomas More, a great thinker and scientist of that time, wrote the
book containing the explanation of the main doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and
attacking Martin Luther, the leader of German Protestants. For this book the Pope gave
Henry the title of the Defender of Faith, which still can be seen on the English money in
the letters FID DEF or F.D.

The Reign of Elizabeth I. England in the Middle of the 16th Century

Elizabeth inherited poor and weak England. Though country came out of Feudal
Age, new economy was only developing. It was developing in three main directions —
the growth of the cloth industry, the geographical discoveries and agricultural revolution.
Cloth industry was developing in East Anglia, Cotswold, Kendal and other regions.
England had already passed from being a producer of wool to being a manufacturer of
cloth. The wool capitalists-clothiers began to form a new class of merchants, which
ranked with the nobility in wealth and influence.
Geographical discoveries were a result of European quest for gold and silver
which was necessary for international and domestic trade. English sailors, who were
looking for profitable areas and routes, helped to establish trade relations with Russia,
Iceland and Baltic countries.
A great number of geographical discoveries in the 16th century opened vast new
territories for European exploitation.
English agriculture, weakened by enclosures, was slowly turning back to arable
farming necessary to produce bread, meat and dairy products for growing towns. It was a
new type of arable farming – arable farming on a large scale, the beginning of capitalist
farming.

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 Despite growing economy, there were many poor people. A number of laws in the
second part of the 16th century established a system of Poor Rate. According to these
laws each parish was responsible for its poor people and any person with low income
could be sent back to his place of birth or to workhouse.
Thus Elizabeth succeeded to establish a national English Church, so she let many
Protestants from the Continent to England.
______________________________________________________________
England at the Beginning of the 17th Century
The 17th century was a notable period in the English history — it was the century
of one of the first bourgeois revolutions in Europe, beginning of British science and
British Empire. At the beginning of this century England was no longer a wool producing
country, it had developed wool processing industry, shipbuilding, metallurgy and
coalmining. The new branches of industry included production of cotton prints, silk,
glass, soap etc. The trade companies monopolized foreign trade as they had trade
privileges – the Queen monopolies, patents and charters.
Monopolies, patents and charters gave the company an exclusive right to
manufacture or sell particular goods. It enriched the company and gave profit to the
Crown, but hampered the development of free trade.
In the country land became a source of profit – free land trade started. New
merchants and gentry allied, they were becoming more wealthy and powerful, and,
finally they wanted to get more power in political decisions.

Conflicts which led to the Civil War

In the seventeenth century, the link between religion and politics became intense.
At the start of the century, some people tried to kill the king because he wasn’t Catholic
enough. By the end of the century, another king had been killed, partly because he
seemed too Catholic, and yet another had been forced into exile for the same reason.
This was the context in which, during the century, Parliament established its
supremacy over the monarchy. Anger grew in the country at the way the Stuart monarchs
raised money without, as tradition prescribed, getting the agreement of the House of
Commons first. In addition, ideological Protestantism, especially Puritanism, had grown
in England. Puritans regarded the luxurious lifestyle of the king and his followers as
immoral. They were also anti-Catholic and suspicious of the apparent sympathy towards
Catholicism of the Stuart monarchs.

Civil Wars. Execution of the King

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 The first war between the Royalists and Roundheads began in 1642 and lasted till
1646. It was lost by King’s forces so the Queen and Prince Charles had to escape to
France. The King escaped to Scotland, but the Scots gave him to the English Parliament.
The war was announced over after King’s arrest in 1646.
In 1647, Charles escaped from arrest and signed an agreement with the Scots.
According to this agreement the Scots promised to invade England and restore Charles,
while Charles promised to establish in England Pres-byterianism and to suppress other
sects.
The leader of the parliamentary army, Oliver Cromwell, became ‘Lord Protector’
of a republic with a military government which, after he had brutally crushed resistance
in Ireland, effectively encompassed all of Britain and Ireland.
But by the time Cromwell died, he, his system of government, and the puritan
ethics that went with it (theatres and other forms of amusement had been banned) had
become so unpopular that the executed king’s son was asked to return and become King
Charles II.
However, the conflict between monarch and Parliament soon re-emerged in the
reign of Charles IIs brother, James II. Again, religion was its focus. James tried to give
full rights to Catholics, and to promote them in his government. The ‘Glorious
Revolution’ (‘glorious’ because it was bloodless) followed, in which Prince William of
Orange, ruler of the Netherlands, and his Stuart wife Mary accepted Parliament’s
invitation to become king and queen. Parliament immediately drew up a Bill of Rights,
which limited some of the monarch’s powers. It also allowed Dissenters (those
Protestants who did not agree with the practices of Anglicanism) to practice their religion
freely. This meant that the Presbyterian Church, to which the majority of the lowland
Scottish belonged, was guaranteed its legality. However, Dissenters were not allowed to
hold government posts or become Members of Parliament (MPs).

Britain at the Beginning of the 18th Century

The 18th century became a century of wealth and fame for Britain, but also it was
one of the most difficult centuries for British foreign policy because of numerous wars
and battles. It was a century of colonial expansion and formation of the colonial empire, a
century of great scientific discoveries, industrial innovations and industrial growth.
In foreign policy the 18th century became the time of another “Hundred Years
War” against France – the chief commercial and political rival of England at that period.
There were seven great wars with short intervals of peace, in different parts of the
world. These wars were carried by Britain with different allies, but against the same
enemy – France. The wars lasted all through the 18th century, and only in the 19th
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century the long struggle finished with the battle of Waterloo in 1815. The victory in
these wars was of primary importance for Britain, as it gave her new profitable markets
overseas.
The Whigs, the Protestant, the Tories
Within Parliament, the bitter divisions of the previous century were echoed in the
formation of two vaguely opposed, loose collections of allies. One group, the Whigs,
were the political ‘descendants’ of the parliamentarians. They supported the Protestant
values of hard work and thrift, were sympathetic to dissenters and believed in
government by monarch and aristocracy together. The other group, the Tories, had a
greater respect for the idea of the monarchy and the importance of the Anglican Church
(and sometimes even a little sympathy for Catholics and the Stuarts). This was the
beginning of the party system in Britain.
The only part of Britain to change radically as a result of political forces in this
century was the highlands of Scotland. This area twice supported failed attempts to put a
(Catholic) Stuart monarch back on the throne. After the second attempt, many inhabitants
of the highlands were killed or sent away from Britain and the wearing of highland dress
(the tartan kilt) was banned. The Celtic way of life was effectively destroyed.

The Industrial Revolution

At the beginning of George III’s reign in 1760 England was mainly an agricultural
country - the manufactures, which had appeared by that time, were often placed in small
towns and villages. The second part of the 18th century saw the change of England from
mainly agricultural to a great manufacturing country. .
There were some reasons for amazing economic and industrial growth that made
Britain the most developed country of the period:
1. Accumulation of tremendous wealth in the country as a result of colonial
warfare and expansion. The victories in the Seven Years War gave Britain huge profits;
only the profits of the East India Company were more than 21 million pounds.
2. The development of the Bank of England provided support for the people
who wanted to lend or borrow money for business purposes. Private banks were started
even in small towns. Now the manufactures had a means to support their business.
3. The enclosure movement in the country led to the impoverishment of
peasants, who had to leave their villages and migrate to the towns in search of new jobs.
They created necessary labour supply for the Industrial Revolution.
4. The transformation of agriculture increased the profits of landlords, who
invested their money into industry either through banks or directly through the stock
market.
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 5. The growth of wealth provided big investments into engineering science,
which led to the major inventions of the 18th and 19th centuries – spinning weaving
machines and the most important invention – a new type of steam engine by James Watt.
6. The growth of population and colonies provided a necessary market for
British goods, which were exported to different parts of the world.
The Industrial Revolution changed English life — the small manufacturing towns
developed into industrial centres, the transport system was improved and in the 19th
century the first railway was built. The Industrial Revolution changed all the English
society — political power moved from the landed to the manufacturing classes. The new
class appeared in society — the class of industrial workers or “operatives” as they were
called.

Cultural life in the 18th century was marked by revival of theatre and drama,
which began to develop after the revolution of the 17th century. The Augustan Age gave
birth to such well-known playwrights as Richard Sheridan, Oliver Goldsmith and David
Garrick. They showed the bad sides of contemporary society, giving the way to the
“human comedy” of a democratic theatre.
The 18th century was the age of classicism in art and architecture. The idea of the
“antique” was believed to be the sign of wealth and power. The principles of classicism
were applied in town planning and country house design. Antique art was widely studied
and paid great attention to.

The nineteenth century

British Empire
The second half of the 19th century saw the immense growth and rise of the British
Empire, which continued to the middle of the 20th century. The Empire began its
development from the Tudor times, when the great Queen Elizabeth 1 supported
merchant adventurers and new colonists, who settled overseas territories by migration.
The new colonies across the Atlantic Ocean became a source of real profit for
England – they supplied raw materials necessary for developing industry and got British
goods in exchange. The Tudor and Stuart monarchies kept a tight hold on the colonies,
regarding them as a direct source of wealth for the home country. Precious metals and
colonial products were imported to Britain, when the minimum of goods was sent in
exchange.
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 The Industrial Revolution changed the productivity of British factories. Now
Britain produced a great number of goods, which were sold at a high price. This price
was higher than money paid for raw materials brought to Britain from numerous colonies
all over the world. British machine industry products dominated the markets of every
country. This rapid development of British economy made her a leader of the world trade.
While the old colonies like Canada and Australia were starting to develop their
own economies to become the virtually independent Dominions, the new countries were
conquered and enslaved. India, the West Indies and the African colonies became
subordinate to Britain; they served as a source of cheap raw materials and as markets for
British goods. These goods ruined the native handicraft industries.
Britain became a supreme economic power due to the doctrines of laisser-faire
(minimum interference by government in economic and political affair) and free trade
(government does not discriminate against imports in favour of national products or
interfere with exports).
Colonial aggression changed the attitude of the British towards the empire builders.
If before colonies were regarded as places for settlement, beginning from the middle of
the 19th century, they became a matter of destiny. The British now governed the bigger
part of the world, their culture and civilization became a model.

Social structure at the period

Most people now lived in towns and cities. They no longer depended on country
landowners for their living but rather on the owners of industries. These owners and the
growing middle class of tradespeople and professionals held the real power in the country
Along with their power went a set of values which emphasized hard work, thrift,
religious observance, the family, an awareness of one’s duty, absolute honesty in public
life, and extreme respectability in sexual matters. This is the set of values which are now
called Victorian.
Middle-class religious conviction, together with a belief that reform was better than
revolution, allowed reforms in public life. These included not only political reforms, but
also reforms which recognized some human rights (as we now call them). Slavery and
the laws against people on the basis of religion were abolished, and laws were made to
protect workers from some of the worst excesses of the industrial mode of production.
Public services such as the post and the police were begun.
Despite reform, the nature of the new industrial society forced many people to live
and work in very unpleasant surroundings. Writers and intellectuals of this period either
protested against the horrors of this new style of life (for example, Dickens) or simply
ignored it. Many, especially the Romantic poets, praised the beauties of the countryside
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and the virtues of country life. This was a new development. In previous centuries, the
countryside wasn’t something to be discussed or admired. But from this time on, most
British people developed a sentimental attachment to the idea of the countryside.

The twentieth century

Around the beginning of the twentieth century, Britain ceased to be the world’s
richest country. Perhaps this caused a failure of the Victorian confidence in gradual
reform. Whatever the reason, the first 20 years of the century were a period of extremism
in Britain.
The Suffragettes, women demanding the right to vote, were prepared to damage
property and even die for their beliefs; some sections of the army appeared ready to
disobey the government over its policies concerning Ulster in Ireland; and the
government’s introduction of new taxation was opposed so absolutely by the House of
Lords that even Parliament, the foundation of the political system, seemed to have an
uncertain future. But by the 1920s, these issues had been resolved (although only
temporarily in the case of Ulster) and the rather un-British climate of extremism died out.

The British empire at its peak

The British empire reached its greatest extent in 1919. By this time, however, it
was already becoming less of an empire and more of a confederation. At the same
international conference at which Britain acquired new possessions under the Treaty of
Versailles, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa were all represented
separately from Britain. A couple of years later, Britain lost most of its oldest colony
(The creation of Northern Ireland).
The real dismantling of the empire took place in the 25 years following the Second
World War. In the same period, it gradually became clear that Britain was no longer a
‘superpower’ in the world and its forces were no longer able to act unilaterally. In 1956,
for instance, British and French military action to stop the Egyptian government taking
over the Suez canal failed because it did not receive American support. During the 1950s,
it had been generally understood that a conference of the world’s great powers involved
the USA, the Soviet Union and Britain. But in 1962, the Cuban missile crisis, one of the
greatest threats to global peace in the twentieth century, was resolved without reference
to Britain. And when, in 1974, the island of Cyprus, a former British colony, was invaded
by Turkey, British military activity was restricted to airlifting the personnel of its military
base there to safety – even though it was one of the guarantors of Cypriot independence.
At the end of the century, in 1997, Britain handed Hong Kong back to China, thus losing
its last imperial possession of any significant size.
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 Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth became Queen in 1952 after the death of George VI, She is married to
Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and has four children – Charles, the Prince of Wales, Anne
the Princess Royal, Andrew, the Duke of York and Edward, the Duke of Wessex.
Elizabeth and her family are the most popular celebrities in Britain; the Queen has done
much to the image of modem monarchy. The Queen signified the formalities of the
monarchy – the BBC was allowed to make a documentary film about the every day of the
Royal family. She regularly visits the Commonwealth countries and she also stated a
tradition of the “walkabout” – an informal feature of every formal visit, when she walks
among the public crowds and stops to talk to some people.
The life of the Royal family today is full of problems typical to any ordinary
family — many members of the family are divorced, they often have problems and
scandals which are widely discussed in Britain. At the same time the Crown is rather
popular among the British and still remains a potent symbol of British life.

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