GEOGRAPHY
Britain, a large island, is separated from mainland Europe by the English Channel, the Strait of Dover, and the North Sea. To the west, separating it from Ireland, are St. George’s Channel, the Irish Sea, and the North Channel. In the north and west (Scotland, Wales, and parts of England) high hills and mountains make up the highland zone. In the south and east, rolling plains make up the lowland zone. Important rivers are the Thames and the Severn in England, and the Clyde and the Forth, now joined by a canal, in Scotland.
Numerous smaller islands are also considered part of the United Kingdom. Off the south coast is the Isle of Wight. Off the northwest coast of Wales is Anglesey. In the English Channel lie the Isles of Scilly. To the west of Scotland is the Hebrides archipelago, including the Inner and Outer Hebrides. To the northeast of Scotland are the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands. The Isle of Man in the Irish Sea and the Channel Islands in the English Channel are dependencies of the United Kingdom, with their own systems of government.
The term British is derived from the term Britain (or Great Britain), which is sometimes used interchangeably with United Kingdom, but more accurately describes the specific island of Britain, part of the archipelago known as the British Isles, as distinct from the island of Ireland. The United Kingdom consists of three administrative divisions on the island of Britain—England in the south, Scotland in the north, Wales in the west—and Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland (see English; Scots; Welsh; Irish).
INCEPTION AS A NATION
Celtic Britain, the homeland of BRITONS, became a Roman province in the first century C. E. and was divided into the provinces of Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. Germanic tribes such as Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and FRISIANS invaded the isles in the beginning of the fifth century (later becoming grouped as Anglo-Saxons). Vikings seized the lands in the eighth century; Wessex became a centralized kingdom later that century. In the 11th century the Normans conquered and expanded the feudal state; Henry II annexed Ireland in 1169-71, and Wales was made a principality in 1284. In the 16th century the English monarch became head of the Church of England, and Wales officially united with England. Scotland united with England and Wales in 1707, forming Great Britain. England formed a legislative union with Ireland in 1801 that officially established the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
CULTURAL IDENTITY
British cultural identity, rather than arising out of a traditional ethnic culture, developed out of the birth of a modern nation and the evolution of a governmental system of parliamentary democracy aimed at promoting individual freedom. For the different ethnic groups of the British Isles—Scots, Welsh, and Irish—as they were absorbed into the political entity of Great Britain, mostly by force, the process of becoming British was one of shedding particular ethnicities and languages for an identity based on elements of modern economic and national life. These included being participants in democracy, in the burgeoning capitalistic economy, and in empire building. The older ethnicities were partly subsumed into identification with one’s city or economic region (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, the Midlands, Welsh mining districts, Highland versus Lowland Scotland, etc.) and into religious affinities. This pattern left little room for a group cultural identity based on a long and ancient tradition—folk art and customs, traditional dress, food. Folk elements that still existed were steadily eroded from
BRITISH: NATIONALITY nation:
United Kingdom (U. K.); United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Derivation of name:
From Britons, meaning "painted"; possibly from the Celtic goddess Brigid
Government:
Constitutional monarchy
Capital:
London
Language:
Principally English is spoken; Welsh and Scottish Gaelic
Religion:
About 45 percent of the population are Anglican, about 12 percent are nonreligious, and about 10 percent are Catholic; other religious minorities include Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and Sikhs.
Earlier inhabitants:
Britons; Welsh; Scots; Irish; Picts; Cornish; Manx; Romans; Angles; Saxons; Jutes; Frisians; Anglo-Saxons; Vikings; Normans
Demographics:
About 94 percent are British of varying Germanic and Celtic ancestry; ethnic minorities include Asian Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Chinese, Caribbeans, and Africans.
About the 16th century, a process greatly accelerated by the Protestant Reformation, and also by increasing urbanization. The British pioneered modernity, becoming the first fully modern nation in which people left old folkways behind as the products of antique superstition and unreason for which society had no more use. (The history of the British version of Christmas is a noteworthy case in point; it was banned by Puritans after the Civil War as fostering social disorder and popery, then, after reinstatement, fell into disuse during the 18th century as much of the population moved into cities, breaking ties with old customs more typical of rural life. Then in the 19th century as part of the romantic wish to regress to the pre-Enlightenment past the traditional Christmas with its good cheer and generosity to the poor was used by the writer Charles Dickens and others as a means of decrying the heartless utilitarianism of modern British society and held up as a symbol of much that had been lost.)
The British did not leave behind their highly stratified class system, likewise based on tradition rather than reason, until the 20th century, and the British monarchy, with its pageantry, pomp, and circumstance, still serves as a point of cultural unity for the country. The sovereign is a symbol of more than a millennium of history and tradition and of the Anglican faith.
With the growth of empire Britons became internationalists, and part of what it meant to be British was to be involved in a world enterprise aimed at spreading British civilization to all peoples.
Today, as first the non-Ulster Irish and then the Welsh and Scots have gained political independence (in the case of the latter two a process called devolution), a great revival of the traditions of those peoples is taking place. Many among the English, who once formed the cultural center of gravity of the British, with the diffidence that is a typical English characteristic, find it awkward and difficult to assert their own cultural identity—even to know what it is. Waving of flags at international football matches has been one means of such assertion—Scots, for example, wave their flags with St. Andrew’s Cross. Many English have followed their lead by waving flags with St. George’s Cross; others feel that this sort of sentimental patriotism is beneath them. The devolution of Great Britain has left the English in what many feel is an anomalous situation, expected to take the lead in carrying on the business of the British state after their former compatriots have left. (The Welsh and Scots are still part of Great Britain in the sense of maintaining allegiance to the monarchy, and the policies of the British government still have important consequences for all people living on the British Isles.) Although most English are justly proud of the achievements of the English people and simultaneously willing to see themselves as British, they do so with a certain sense that the term British has outlived its usefulness—or at least has shifted considerably in meaning. Plans by the British government in recent years to devolve England itself further into regions with autonomous parliaments have provoked calls to insist on the preservation of English nationhood alongside Scottish and Welsh nationhood.
A modern phenomenon that has had a profound effect on what it means to be British is the influx to Britain of people from former British colonies seeking economic opportunities, whose populations—West Indians, Indians, Pakistanis, and Africans—were granted British citizenship. London may now be the most cosmopolitan city in the world. Three hundred different languages are spoken there; there are some 50 communities with populations of 10,000 or more who were born elsewhere. Almost a third of London’s residents were born outside England (2.2 million) and many tens of thousands more are second - or third-generation immigrants. But ethnic minorities are not restricted to London. More than half live elsewhere in the country. A great many of these, and particularly those born in Britain, consider themselves British without, however, abandoning their non-British ethnic identity Asian and African British have evolved their own subcultures, with their own food, music, and English slang. Moreover, lifestyle groups, subcultures based on shared enthusi-asms—music, football, horseback riding, bird watching—have in many ways substituted for notions of Britishness.
Englishness itself, in part through the development of the English language from Anglo-Saxon and Norman French, arose out of an amalgam of different cultural identities, as did Britishness, with its blend of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish cultures. It remains to be seen how the current meeting of cultures from around the world under the umbrella of British cultural identity—this time not accomplished by force—will fare.
1798 Economist Thomas Robert Malthus writes An Essay on the Principle of Population; his ideas, especially that populations have no inherent means of checking their growth, gave Charles Robert Darwin his starting point in developing his theory of natural selection by survival of fittest.
1801 Great Britain and Ireland are formally united.
1804 William Blake in his poem "Jerusalem" depicts "dark Satanic mills" of industrialization blighting "England's green and pleasant land."
1808 Chemist and physicist John Dalton publishes A New System of Chemical Philosophy in which substances (called elements) are classified according to weights of their atoms relative to weight of hydrogen atom; his system forms basis of periodic table of elements.
1811 16 Luddites resist mechanization of their industry.
1812 First two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, poem by Lord Byron, is published, whose main character introduces embodiment of English romantic sensibility.
1814 Walter Scott, in part because of poetic rivalry with Byron, transfers his focus from poetry to write his first novel, Waverly; he goes on to create genre of historical novel.
1815 William Smith publishes his Geological Map of England and Wales, with Part of Scotland, first such survey.
1816 Poet John Keats, 20 years old, passes difficult examinations to become apothecary and composes his first masterpiece, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer."
1821 Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley writes "Adonais," elegy for John Keats.
1824 National Gallery is founded in London
12-year-old Charles Dickens, because of his father's indebtedness, is taken from school to work in shoe polish factory, experience that forms basis of his novel David Copperfield.
John Constable's painting The Hay Wain is exhibited in Paris; its style and its painter's practice of painting outdoors would influence artists for decades, including French impressionists of latter 19th century.
1825 Royal Philharmonic Society performs German composer Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, commissioned by Society, one of its first foreign performances.
1830 Royal Geographical Society is founded in London.
1831-36 Naturalist Charles Darwin accompanies world voyage of Beagle.
1840 Artist Joseph Mallord William (J. M. W. Turner) paints Slavers Throwing Overboard the Deda and Dying—Typhon [sic] Coming On (The Slave Ship).
1840s Physicist James Prescott Joule experiments with weights falling through water to arrive at his calculation of mechanical equivalent of heat.
1842 Poet Alfred Tennyson, at end of 10-year self-imposed hiatus from publishing after death of his close friend Arthur Hallam, reveals Poems, which contains "Morte D'Arthur," based on Arthurian romance, "Lockesley Hall," and other classics.
1847 Three novels by sisters, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights are published.
1848 Young Ireland movement rebels on behalf of Irish home rule.
1854-56 In Crimean War United Kingdom is ally of Ottoman Turks.
1856 National Portrait Galley is founded in London.
1871-72 Middlemarch, novel by Mary Ann Evans (pseudonym, George Eliot), is published.
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Further Reading
Jeremy Black. A History of the British Isles (New York: St. Martin’s, 1996).
John Cannon, ed. The Oxford Companion to British History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
S. J. Connolly. Kingdoms United? Great Britain and Ireland since 1500 (Dublin: Four Courts, 1999).
Norman Davies. The Isles: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
1950 Philosopher Bertrand Russell wins Nobel Prize in literature.
1953 Poet Dylan Thomas gives his first public performance of Under Milkwood in Cambridge,
Massachusetts; his readings all over United States until his death in 1954 raise him to a legendary status among American public.
Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke writes short story "The Sentinel," which will form basis of 1968 film by American director Stanley Kubrick, 2001 A Space Odyssey.
1957 David Lean wins Academy Awards for best picture and best director with The Bridge on the River Kwai; in 1962 he wins same awards for Lawrence of Arabia.
1960 United Kingdom is founding member of European Free Trade Association.
Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey discovers 1,750,000-year-old skull of hominid in Kenya, first demonstration of great age of human ancestors there, raising possibility that humans evolved in Africa.
1961 Trinidad-born Anglo-Indian novelist V. S. Naipaul writes A House for Mr. Biswas about Anglicized Indian living in Creole world of Trinidad.
1963 Royal National Theatre opens in London with production of Hamlet.
1965 Queen Elizabeth II gives members of Beatles rock group MBE orders (signifying membership in Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) at Buckingham Palace; in 1996 Paul McCartney is knighted by queen.
1967 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, satirical look at Shakespeare's Hamlet from point of view of two minor characters in play by Czech-born British playwright Tom Stoppard, is performed at Old Vic Theatre, London, by National Theatre Company.
1972 British Library Act combines library departments of British Museum (including National Reference Library of Science and Invention), National Central Library, and National Lending Library for Science and Technology into national library for United Kingdom known as British Library; in 1974 British National Bibliography and Office for Scientific and Technical Information joins British Library.
1973 United Kingdom joins European Economic Community (EC).
Benjamin Britten composes his last opera, Death in Venice, based on novella by German novelist Thomas Mann.
1983 Novelist William Golding wins Nobel Prize in literature.
1985 By terms of National Heritage (Scotland) Act, National Museums of Scotland brings together two institutions: National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, founded in 1780 as Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and Royal Scottish Museum, founded in 1854 as Industrial Museum of Scotland, both in Edinburgh.
1993 United Kingdom becomes one of original 12 members of European Union (EU).
1994 Channel Tunnel between United Kingdom and France is officially opened.
1997 People of Wales and Scotland vote to establish independent legislative bodies under British Crown.
1998 Belfast Agreement (Good Friday Agreement) is negotiated by British and Irish governments.
1999 British government formally transfers power to new provincial government in Northern Ireland.
Juliet Gardiner and Neil Wenborn, eds. The Columbia Companion to British History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).
Kenneth O. Morgan. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Simon Schama. A History of Britain. Vol. 1, At the Edge of the World? 3500 B. C.-1603 a. d. (New York: Miramax, 2000).
-. A History of Britain. Vol. 2, The Wars of the
British, 1603—1776 (New York: Miramax, 2001).
BRITONS
Location:
British Isles; Brittany in France
Time period:
Fourth century b. c.e. to sixth century c. e.
Ancestry:
Celtic
Language:
Brythonic (a branch of insular Celtic)
-. A History of Britain. Vol. 3, The Fate of
Empire 1776-2002 (New York: Miramax, 2001.)
K. B. Smellie. Great Britain since 1688: A Modern History (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1962).
Terry Thomas, ed. The British (London: Routledge, 1988).
World History
