British History

The British Isles have a rich history going back thousands of years. Unfortunately few of us in Britain really know much about our history. Retrospectively I think there must have been something radically flawed with history as it is taught in out schools as our history is fascinating.

For this history guide, we shall divide the period of British history into four main chunks, and each of these four main chunks then subdivided into bite sized chapters that try to explain the way that things happened

History is an interweaving of events and people, and its not just about kings and queens, its about ordinary people and how events influenced them, and on occasions how they influenced events.

Also one has to realise that Britain is not one nation, but a hodge podge of different peoples who tend to remain distinct in spite of a millenium or more of intermarriage. I have therefore put in separate chapters on Ireland, Scotland and Wales, each with its own history

• 4000 BC to 1066, the Dawn of Civilisation to the Norman Conquest

  	4000 to 1500 BC		stone age man, the first farmers, Stonehenge
  	1500 BC to 43 AD		the age of hill forts and the Celts
  	43 AD to 410 AD		Roman Britain, they came, they saw, they conquered
  	410 to 1066		the Romans leave, the Anglo Saxons arrive, the Normans conquer

• 1066 to 1660, the Norman Conquest to Cromwell

  	1066 to 1154		the Normans consolidate their conquest
  	1154 to 1485		the Middle Ages, who wants to be king?
  	1485 to 1603		Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and the Tudors
  	1603 to 1660		the divine right of kings to rule, then chop off their heads

• 1660 to 1918, Cromwell to the end of World War I

  	1660 to 1715		Restoration and Revolution, the beginning of Empire
  	1715 to 1815		The German Georges rule Britain
  	1600 to 1783		Britain in North America - we would rather forget
  	1815 to 1914		Peace and prosperity, the growth of Empire

• Britain in the 20th Century

  	1914 to 1918		The First World War, carnage without a cause
  	1918 to 1939		the after effects of World War I, the General Strike
  	1939 to 1945		Hitler's War
  	1945 to 2000		Post War Britain - loses an Empire, looks for a role

• Scotland through the ages
• Wales through the ages
• Ireland through the ages