UK History
It is a people living in Europe in prehistoric and ancient times and today consisting of six nations. About four thousand years ago the Celts emigrated from their homeland Central Europe, mainly in the British Isles, Spain and Gaul. In the Iron Age, the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland were the Celts. Today we think of the Celts as one of the peoples of the Atlantic Ocean coast of Europe, but the Celts were once the most dispersed people of the continent. We come across the first known Celts in history in the writings of Greek historians of the 5th and 6th centuries BC. For those of the classical age, what unified these people was common tradition and belief, and above all, a common language. Because these people spoke a language that is now part of the large family of Indo-European languages, now called Celtic Languages. Contemporary representatives of these languages ​​are Welsh, Breton, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, although other Celtic languages ​​are known to be spoken in ancient and even more recent historical times. The ancient peoples who gave themselves Celtic names did not live in Britain and Ireland, nor did the continental Celts migrate to the islands on a large scale. In this case, although it was the question of removing the Celts from prehistoric Britain and Ireland, today's Celts have reacted strongly to this: What does it mean to be Celts if the historical communities you claim to come from are not Celts? There were even accusations of ethnic cleansing in this regard.
Enough information about their ancestors. So how did this empire called the United Kingdom come about?
The Anglo-Saxons established rival small kingdoms in the 6th and 7th centuries. In the 8th century, they converted to Christianity with the influence of the Roman Empire and Ireland. The Scandinavian invasion, which began in 795, was repeated several times until the early 11th century. The Danish Great Knud completely conquered the island of Great Britain. Edward (1042-1066) of the Anglo-Saxon dynasty ensured the independence of England. Not recognizing Harold, who was enthroned upon his death, Duke William I of Normandy claimed the throne and dominated the country after five years of war. The kings of Normandy, and especially the first Anjou rulers, owned vast and rich lands in France. The Kingdom of England lived for a time in Europe as an extension of a large estate stretching from the Somme Valley to the Pyrenees Mountains. An important result of the Norman occupation was the intermingling of Anglo-Saxon culture and Norman culture from France. The English language was also significantly influenced by this cultural mix. Relations with Europe dragged the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France into long wars. The first of these are the Hundred Years' Wars between 1337-1453-Century Wars, King of England III. It is a series of wars that began in 1337 with Edward's claim to the throne of France and ended only 116 years later in 1453 - Henry the Third supported the development of the frontal principalities in the country of Wales, and in 1170 the "Pale" colonies were established in Ireland. Edward the First conquered the country of Wales. He tried to impose his influence on Scotland. In 1215, the nobles who revolted against the King of England, John, forced this king to sign a document called Magna Carta and for the first time accepted that the king, who was accepted only to have authority over God, had powers over the people. This document is considered to be the first written treaty on human rights.1455-1487, between the supporters of the House of York and the House of Lancaster, the civil war, which was named after the emblem of the Yorkers '' white rose '' and the 'red rose' of the Lancasterers, affected. At the end of this war, the Lancaster people won and the Tudor dynasty captured the Kingdom of England. VII of the Tudor Dynasty . Henry and VIII . Henry (1458-1541), using the parliament, consolidated order and unity in the country, and ensured the acceptance of the royal authority by the people. VIII. Henry also reformed the church and established British naval power.
Elizabeth I accepted Anglicanism as England's official religion and broke Catholic resistance. Elizabeth I laid the foundations of the British Empire in 1588 by defeating the invincible Spanish Armada, the strongest navy in Europe. It annexed Ireland to British soil. During his reign, there were important developments in literature and art. I. During Elizabeth's long and successful reign, a difference in British influence began to be seen in Scotland. The marriages between the "House of Tudor" in England and the "House of Stuart" in Scotland brought the two traditional enemies closer together. The Kingdom of England, which got stronger in the century, established colonies in North America, starting with the Jamestown colony established in 1607. Many Britons settled in North America either to live a new life or as "Official Certified Servants."
In 1603, King of Scotland, James VI, became king of England under the name of James I and started the “Stuart Dynasty” for the Kingdom of England. From 1603 to 1707, the same person, who was both the King of Scotland and the King of England, ruled two separate states under international law.
During the reign of Charles I, son of James I, a war broke out between parliament and the royal supporters in 1642-1651, called the English Civil War. Parliamentary forces came to dominate the Kingdom supporters after a series of wars. First, a state under parliamentary rule (1649–1653) was established. In January 1649, former king Charles I was executed in London and England became a republic. Later, under Oliver Cromwell (1653–1659), a republic was founded, called the "Commonwealth" for a short time.
After the death of Cromwell, parliament took the king in exile in 1658 to avoid internal turmoil. He invited Charles to England to rebuild the kingdom. The period of the Stuart dynasty from 1658 to 1685 is called the "Restoration Period".
II of the Stuart dynasty. Charles's brother, who became King of England in 1685 in his place. Because of James' close attitude towards Catholics, his daughter II. Mary and her husband, Ruler of the Dutch Republic, III. William took over the Kingdom of England in a revolution called the "Great Revolution".
III. After William's reign in 1702, his daughter Anne was enthroned as both Queen of England and Queen of Scotland. She also held the title Queen of Ireland. In 1707, the parliaments of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland adopted laws called “1707 Union Laws” and united the two kingdoms. Queen Anne, who was the Queen of England and Scotland separately until this year, became the queen of the newly established Great Britain state. By law, the Queen Mother had the separate title of "Queen of Ireland". With the "1800 Union Law" enacted in 1800, the "Kingdom of Great Britain" and the "Kingdom of Ireland" were merged and the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland", that is, a single United Kingdom, was created legally. During the reign of Victoria I, who ruled between 1837 and 1901, the United Kingdom established the British Empire "above which the sun does not set". By 1921, this empire covered an area of ​​36.6 million square kilometers, including India, North America, the Middle East, Australia and Africa, ruling a population of 458 million. In terms of area and population, a quarter of the world lived under British rule. With the turn of the century, fears that the entire empire could not be preserved began to grow in Britain, continuing its policy of "magnificent loneliness". Germany was increasingly rising as a military and industrial power and was seen as Britain's most likely enemy in any possible war. Considering the possession of lands in the Pacific and the threat of the British Isles by the German Navy, Britain formed an alliance with Japan in 1902. This was followed by former enemies France and Russia. Britain's fears of a war with Germany came true in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War. Britain's declaration of war against Germany and its allies included colonies and dominions that provided immeasurable military, financial and material support. In addition to the participation of 2.5 million soldiers in the armies of the Dominions, thousands of volunteers from the royal colonies took part in the war. Most of Germany's overseas colonies in Africa were soon occupied, while in the Pacific Australia and New Zealand occupied German New Guinea and Samoa. The contributions of the troops from Australia, Newfoundland and New Zealand in the 1915 Battle of Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire had a significant impact on the national consciousness in these regions and marked an important turning point in the transition from colonialism to independence in Australia and New Zealand. In these two countries, this event is still commemorated on a special day called Anzac Day. Canadians approach the Battle of Vimy Ridge from a similar perspective. The Dominions' significant contribution to the war was confirmed by the government in 1917, when British Prime Minister David Lloyd George invited the Dominion Prime Ministers to the Imperial War Cabinet, which convened in 1917 to regulate imperial politics. The colonies of Germany and the Ottoman Empire were divided between the Entente States as mandates of the League of Nations. Britain took Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, parts of Cameroon, Togo and Tanganyika. The Dominions were also given their own mandates: the South African Union took South West Africa, Australia German New Guinea, and New Zealand West Samoa. Nauru was made joint mandate of two dominions in Britain and the Pacific.
Although Britain's declaration of war on Nazi Germany in September 1939 covered the royal colonies and India, it did not automatically engage the Dominions. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa soon declared war; but the Irish Free State chose to remain neutral throughout the war. After the German invasion of France in 1940, the United Kingdom remained alone against Nazi Germany until the Soviet Union entered the war in 1941. Winston Churchill successfully lobbied to persuade US President Franklin D. Roosevelt for US military aid; but Roosevelt was not yet ready to ask Congress for the country to go to war. In August 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill signed the Atlantic Declaration stating that all peoples have the right to choose their own form of government. Since it is unclear whether this expression refers to the European countries occupied by Germany or the regions colonized by European countries, it was later interpreted differently by Britain, the USA and nationalist movements.
In December 1941, Japan made immediate successive attacks on Britain's Malaya, the American naval base at Pearl Harbor and Hong Kong. As a result, Churchill interpreted the US entry into the war as Britain's victory was now inevitable and the future of the empire was assured; but Britain's quick surrender in the battles against Japan irreversibly damaged its reputation as an imperial power. The most damaging of these was the fall of Singapore, which in the past has been described as an impregnable fortress and Gibraltar of the east. The realization that Britain could not protect the entire empire forced Australia and New Zealand, which were threatened by the Japanese, to bring closer to the United States; After the war, this convergence resulted in the ANZUS Pact signed in 1951. Although Britain and the empire prevailed in the Second World War, the damage caused by the war was enormous both in Britain and in other regions of the empire. Much of Europe, which had dominated the world for centuries, was in ruins and was home to the armies of the US and the Soviet Union, from which global power had shifted. Britain survived bankruptcy in 1946 with $ 3.5 billion in debt from the United States. The repayment of this debt was completed in 2006.
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