[英国简史总结]英国简史(英文).docx

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1、英国简史总结英国简史(英文)historyuntil 1707, this section deals primarily with english history. england and wales were formally united in 1536. in 1707, when great britain was created by the act of union between scotland and england, english history became part of british history. for the early history of scotl

2、and and wales, see separate articles. see also ireland; ireland, northern; and the tables entitled rulers of england and great britain and prime ministers of great britain.early period to the norman conquestlittle is known about the earliest inhabitants of britain, but the remains of their dolmens a

3、nd barrows and the great stone circles at stonehenge and avebury are evidence of the developed culture of the prehistoric britons. they had developed a bronze age culture by the time the first celtic invaders (early 5th cent. b.c.) brought their energetic iron age culture to britain. it is believed

4、that julius caesar's successful military campaign in britain in 54 b.c. was aimed at preventing incursions into gaul from the island.in a.d. 43 the emperor claudius began the roman conquest of britain, establishing bases at present-day london and colchester. by a.d. 85, rome controlled britain s

5、outh of the clyde river. there were a number of revolts in the early years of the conquest, the most famous being that of boadicea. in the 2d cent. a.d., hadrian's wall was constructed as a northern defense line. under the roman occupation towns developed, and roads were built to ensure the succ

6、ess of the military occupation. these roads were the most lasting roman achievement in britain (see watling street), long serving as the basic arteries of overland transportation in england. colchester, lincoln, and gloucester were founded by the romans as colonia, settlements of ex-legionaries.trad

7、e contributed to town prosperity; wine, olive oil, plate, and furnishings were imported, and lead, tin, iron, wheat, and wool were exported. this trade declined with the economic dislocation of the late roman empire and the withdrawal of roman troops to meet barbarian threats elsewhere. the garrison

8、s had been consumers of the products of local artisans as well as of imports; as they were disbanded, the towns decayed. barbarian incursions became frequent. in 410 an appeal to rome for military aid was refused, and roman officials subsequently were withdrawn.as rome withdrew its legions from brit

9、ain, germanic peoplesthe anglo-saxons and the jutesbegan raids that turned into great waves of invasion and settlement in the later 5th cent. the celts fell back into wales and cornwall and across the english channel to brittany, and the loosely knit tribes of the newcomers gradually coalesced into

10、a heptarchy of kingdoms (see kent, sussex, essex, wessex, east anglia, mercia, and northumbria).late in the 8th cent., and with increasing severity until the middle of the 9th cent., raiding vikings (known in english history as danes) harassed coastal england and finally, in 865, launched a full-sca

11、le invasion. they were first effectively checked by king alfred of wessex and were with great difficulty confined to the danelaw, where their leaders divided land among the soldiers for settlement. alfred's successors conquered the danelaw to form a united england, but new danish invasions late

12、in the 10th cent. overcame ineffective resistance (see ?thelred, 965?1016). the dane canute ruled all england by 1016. at the expiration of the scandinavian line in 1042, the wessex dynasty (see edward the confessor) regained the throne. the conquest of england in 1066 by william, duke of normandy (

13、william i of england), ended the anglo-saxon period.the freeman (ceorl) of the early germanic invaders had been responsible to the king and superior to the serf. subsequent centuries of war and subsistence farming, however, had forced the majority of freemen into serfdom, or dependence on the aristo

14、cracy of lords and thanes, who came to enjoy a large measure of autonomous control over manors granted them by the king (see manorial system). the central government evolved from tribal chieftainships to become a monarchy in which executive and judicial powers were usually vested in the king. the ar

15、istocracy made up his witan, or council of advisers (see witenagemot). the king set up shires as units of local government ruled by earldormen. in some instances these earldormen became powerful hereditary earls, ruling several shires. subdivisions of shires were called hundreds. there were shire an

16、d hundred courts, the former headed by sheriffs, the latter by reeves. agriculture was the principal industry, but the danes were aggressive traders, and towns increased in importance starting in the 9th cent.the anglo-saxons had been christianized by missionaries from rome and from ireland, and the

17、 influence of christianity became strongly manifest in all phases of culture (see anglo-saxon literature). differences between irish and continental religious customs were decided in favor of the roman forms at the synod of whitby (663). monastic communities, outstanding in the later 7th and in the

18、8th cent. and strongly revived in the 10th, developed great proficiency in manuscript illumination. church scholars, such as bede, alcuin, and aelfricas well as king alfred himselfpreserved and advanced learning.medieval englanda new era in english history began with the norman conquest. william i i

19、ntroduced norman-style political and military feudalism. he used the feudal system to collect taxes, employed the bureaucracy of the church to strengthen the central government, and made the administration of royal justice more efficient.after the death of william's second son, henry i, the coun

20、try was subjected to a period of civil war that ended one year before the accession of henry ii in 1154. henry ii's reign was marked by the sharp conflict between king and church that led to the murder of thomas 角 becket. henry carried out great judicial reforms that increased the power and scop

21、e of the royal courts. during his reign, in 1171, began the english conquest of ireland. as part of his inheritance he brought to the throne anjou, normandy, and aquitaine. the defense and enlargement of these french territories engaged the energies of successive english kings. in their need for mon

22、ey the kings stimulated the growth of english towns by selling them charters of liberties.conflict between kings and nobles, which had begun under richard i, came to a head under john, who made unprecedented financial demands and whose foreign and church policies were unsuccessful. a temporary victo

23、ry of the nobles bore fruit in the most noted of all english constitutional documents, the magna carta (1215). the recurring baronial wars of the 13th cent. (see barons' war; montfort, simon de, earl of leicester) were roughly contemporaneous with the first steps in the development of parliament

24、.edward i began the conquest of wales and scotland. he also carried out an elaborate reform and expansion of the central courts and of other aspects of the legal system. the hundred years war with france began (1337) in the reign of edward iii. the black death (see plague) first arrived in 1348 and

25、had a tremendous effect on economic life, hastening the breakdown (long since under way) of the manorial and feudal systems, including the institution of serfdom. at the same time the fast-growing towns and trades gave new prominence to the burgess and artisan classes.in the 14th cent. the english b

26、egan exporting their wool, rather than depending on foreign traders of english wool. later in the century, trade in woolen cloth began to gain on the raw wool trade. the confusion resulting from such rapid social and economic change fostered radical thought, typified in the teachings of john wyclif

27、(or wycliffe; see also lollardry, and the revolt led by wat tyler. dynastic wars (see roses, wars of the), which weakened both the nobility and the monarchy in the 15th cent., ended with the accession of the tudor family in 1485.tudor englandthe reign of the tudors (14851603) is one of the most fasc

28、inating periods in english history. henry vii restored political order and the financial solvency of the crown, bequeathing his son, henry viii, a full exchequer. in 1536, henry viii brought about the political union of england and wales. henry and his minister thomas cromwell greatly expanded the c

29、entral administration. during henry's reign commerce flourished and the new learning of the renaissance came to england. several factorsthe revival of lollardry, anticlericalism, the influence of humanism, and burgeoning nationalismclimaxed by the pope's refusal to grant henry a divorce from

30、 katharine of arag车n so that he could remarry and have a male heirled the king to break with roman catholicism and establish the church of england.as part of the english reformation (152939), henry suppressed the orders of monks and friars and secularized their property. although these actions arous

31、ed some popular opposition (see pilgrimage of grace), henry's judicious use of parliament helped secure support for his policies and set important precedents for the future of parliament. england moved farther toward protestantism under edward vi; after a generally hated roman catholic revival u

32、nder mary i, the roman tie was again cut under elizabeth i, who attempted without complete success to moderate the religious differences among her people.the elizabethan age was one of great artistic and intellectual achievement, its most notable figure being william shakespeare. national pride bask

33、ed in the exploits of sir francis drake, sir john hawkins, and the other sea dogs.§ overseas trading companies were formed and colonization attempts in the new world were made by sir humphrey gilbert and sir walter raleigh. a long conflict with spain, growing partly out of commercial and mariti

34、me rivalry and partly out of religious differences, culminated in the defeat of the spanish armada (1588), although the war continued another 15 years.inflated prices (caused, in part, by an influx of precious metals from the new world) and the reservation of land by the process of inclosure for she

35、ep pasture (stimulated by the expansion of the wool trade) caused great changes in the social and economic structure of england. the enclosures displaced many tenant farmers from their lands and produced a class of wandering, unemployed sturdy beggars.§ the elizabethan poor laws were an attempt

36、 to deal with this problem. rising prices affected the monarchy as well, by reducing the value of its fixed customary and hereditary revenues. the country gentry were enriched by the inclosures and by their purchase of former monastic lands, which were also used for grazing. the gentry became leader

37、s in what, toward the end of elizabeth's reign, was an increasingly assertive parliament.the stuartsthe accession in 1603 of the stuart james i, who was also james vi of scotland, united the thrones of england and scotland. the chronic need for money of both james and his son, charles i, which t

38、hey attempted to meet by unusual and extralegal means; their espousal of the divine right of kings; their determination to enforce their high anglican preferences in religion; and their use of royal courts such as star chamber, which were not bound by the common law, to persecute opponents, together

39、 produced a bitter conflict with parliament that culminated (1642) in the english civil war.in the war the parliamentarians, effectively led at the end by oliver cromwell, defeated the royalists. the king was tried for treason and beheaded (1649). the monarchy was abolished, and the country was gove

40、rned by the rump parliament, the remainder of the last parliament (the long parliament) charles had called (1640), until 1653, when cromwell dissolved it and established the protectorate. cromwell brutally subjugated ireland, made a single commonwealth of scotland and england, and strengthened engla

41、nd's naval power and position in international trade. when he died (1658), his son, richard, succeeded as lord protector but governed ineffectively.the threat of anarchy led to an invitation by a newly elected parliament (the convention parliament) to charles, son of charles i, to become king, u

42、shering in the restoration (1660). it was significant that parliament had summoned the king, rather than the reverse; it was now clear that to be successful the king had to cooperate with parliament. the whig and tory parties developed in the restoration period. although charles ii was personally po

43、pular, the old issues of religion, money, and the royal prerogative came to the fore again. parliament revived official anglicanism (see clarendon code), but charles's private sympathies lay with catholicism. he attempted to bypass parliament in the matter of revenue by receiving subsidies from

44、louis xiv of france.charles's brother and successor, james ii, was an avowed catholic. james tried to strengthen his position in parliament by tampering with the methods of selecting members; he put catholics in high university positions, maintained a standing army (which later deserted him), an

45、d claimed the right to suspend laws. the birth (1688) of a male heir, who, it was assumed, would be raised as a catholic, precipitated a crisis.in the glorious revolution, whig and tory leaders offered the throne to william of orange (william iii), whose protestant wife, mary, was james's daught

46、er. william and mary were proclaimed king and queen by parliament in 1689. the bill of rights confirmed that sovereignty resided in parliament. the act of toleration (1689) extended religious liberty to all protestant sects; in subsequent years, religious passions slowly subsided.by the act of settl

47、ement (1701) the succession to the english throne was determined. since 1603, with the exception of the 165460 portion of the interregnum, scotland and england had remained two kingdoms united only in the person of the monarch. when it appeared that william's successor, queen anne, mary's pr

48、otestant sister, would not have an heir, the scottish succession became of concern, since the scottish parliament had not passed legislation corresponding to the act of settlement. england feared that under a separate monarch scotland might ally itself with france, or worse still, permit a restorati

49、on of the catholic heirs of james iialthough a non-protestant succession had been barred by the scottish parliament. on its part, scotland wished to achieve economic equality with england. the result was the act of union (1707), by which the two kingdoms became one. scotland obtained representation in (what then became) the british parliament at westminster, and the scottish parliament was abolished.the growth of empire and eighteenth-century political developmentsthe beginnings of britain's national debt (1692) and