Prehistoric Britain BC

• 500,000 BC people migrate to Britain from Europe

• 6,500 BC Britain becomes an island due to sea level rise
• 4,000 BC first farming and domesticated animals
• 2,000 BC Stonehenge is built
• 750 BC the population of the island is around 150,000
• 500 BC the Celts arrive from central Europe- Celtic groups:
Gauls, Britons and Gaels (farmers and warriors)
Stonehenge (before)
Stonehenge (today)
Celtic houses, clothing and weapons
 Romans
• 43 BC the Romans arrive and Britain becomes part of the roman
empire for almost 400 years- the Romans leave at around 410 AD

• 50 AD London is founded- the legend says that London was founded

by Brutus the Trojan, great-grandson of Aeneas, survivor of the Trojan
war (Iliad, Homer)
London in the past
London today
 Saxons
• When Romans leave, there is no army to defend the island and the
Angle, Saxon and Jute tribes invade the island in 450 AD.

• They come from Germany, Holland and Denmark in wooden boats.

• They divide Britain in 6 kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex,

Essex, Sussex and Kent.

• 597 AD Christianity is brought to Britain by St Augustine

Anglo- Saxon house
Anglo- Saxon warrior
 Anglo-Saxon “Beowulf”

• Beowulf is an epic poem

consisting of 3182 long lines,
one of the most important works
of Anglo-Saxon literature due to
the fact that it is the oldest
surviving epic poem of Old
English and also the earliest in
English literature.
 Vikings
• 793 AD first invasion of Vikings from Sweden, Norway and Denmark
 Normans
• 1066 AD Normans invade Britain in the Battle of Hastings

• 1078 work starts on the Tower of London

• 1167 Oxford university is founded

• 1215 civil war starts between kingdoms

• 1337-1453 hundred years war with France

• 1348-1349 black death kills nearly half the population on the island

• About 1450 starts the great vowel shift (change in English pronunciation resulting in spelling peculiarities)

• 1455 civil war again

Battle of Hastings
The Tower of London
 Tudors
• English family that rules Britain from 1485 to 1603
• 1485 Henry VII becomes king
• 1509-1547 Henry VIII becomes king
• 1534 Henry VIII forms the “church of England”
• 1536 act of union joins England and Wales
• 1558 Elizabeth I reigns for 45 years
• 1591 first performance of a play by William Shakespeare
Henry VIII – Anne Boleyn
Elizabeth I
William Shakespeare
 Stuarts
• 1603 James VI of Scotland unites England and Scotland
• 1605 Guy Fawkes is arrested and executed for trying to blow up the
parliament
• 1606 the National Flag
• 1620 the pilgrims go to New England, Plymouth, Massachusetts, US
• 1664-1665 the black death kills again: 100,000 deceased in London
alone
• 1666 the great fire of London
James VI
Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot
conspirators
 Georgian
• 1714 George of Hanover becomes king

• 1776 the US declare independence from Britain

• 1800 act of union with Ireland

• 1807 abolition of slave trade

George of Hanover
 Victorians
• 1837 Queen Victoria is the first to make the Buckingham palace the
official royal residency

• 1841 Britain acquires Hong Kong

• 1842 child labor is abolished

• 1863 London underground opens- foundation of football association

Queen Victoria
Buckingham palace
The Royal Engineers- first football team to
win the FA Cup