Презентация, доклад Historical facts about Great Britain

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Form 6a
School number 20 Podolsk
The teacher : Irina Miller

the Project:

GB.
To represent facts of work in the form of presentation.

In size it is twice smaller than Spain or France. Its total area is about 245,000 square kilometers but the population is over 60 million people. It has a very interesting history. Everyone who leans English tries to run in the past of the country and learn its history.

from the north of Spain(the Iberian Peninsula)to many parts of Europe including the British Isles.
So those people who lived on the territory of Great Britain in the earliest times were of the Iberian origin. The Iberians used stone weapons and tools.
One of the mysterious monuments of prehistoric Britain is Stonehenge. It was constructed before 2000BC and is the trace of the ancestors of the British people. Stonehenge is a circle of huge stone slabs. It`s situated in the southern part of England.

BC the Iberians faced a great problem because the British Isles were invaded by the Celts. Celtic people lived in tribes. Each tribe was ruled by its own queen or king who represented a warrior class. The priests called druids were very important members of Celtic tribes. Celtic tribes were: the Picts, the Scots and the Britons. The Picts settled in the mountains in the North. Now it`s called Scotland.
The Britons were the most powerful of all the Celtic tribes and they occupied most of the country. They chose land along the rivers or near the coasts of the sea. What they did was fishing, growing wheat and breeding sheep in the meadows.
The Iberians were weak compared to the Celts. They couldn`t fight back because the Celts were well- armed with spears, swords and axes.
Hardly anything is left of the Celtic languages except for the names of some rivers- The Thames, the Mersey, the Seven, and the Avon and two large cities –London and Leeds.

strong in the 1st century BC. This Empire was the last and greatest civilization of the ancient world.
Romans first attacked Britain in 55-54 BC under Julius Caesar. But they really conquered Britain in the 1st century AD, in 43 AD when the Roman Emperor Claudius decided to make Britain part of the Roman Empire. And Britain became one of its provinces. They forced the population to pay tribute.
The Romans kept their armies in Britain. They had the country under control. They drove their barbaric enemies, the Scots to the mountains of Ireland and the Picts to the mountains of the far north. To protect themselves the attacks of the Picts, the Romans built the wall known as Hadrian`s Wall -120km long and 4m high was built by Emperor Hadrian and is well-known all over the world.

name Boadicea or Boudicca. There is a monument to this fearless queen in London opposite Big Ben. It depicts herself driving a war chariot with two daughters lying dead at her feet.
An interesting historical fact…
Many Britons obeyed the Romans. And it became clear that nothing could stop the Romans, but some of them revolted and in 61 AD the Iceni tribe (which is now East Anglia) led by their queen. Boadicea, revolted. She destroyed their capital Londinium (London now) before the Romans defeated her. Boadicea thought that death would be better than captivity and, as it is written in the history books, first she gave poison to her daughters and, then took it herself. When the Roman soldiers found her she was already dead.
To this time perhaps belongs the origin of London as a city. London attain its importance under the Roman rule.

when the Roman armies left Britain, but it didn`t last long. In the 4th century Britain was raided by the Germanic tribes- the Angles, the Saxons and Jutes. The tribes of Angles & Saxons came from the territory of modern Germany and Denmark.
Of all three tribes, the Angles became the strongest. Later two tribes of the Angles and Saxons united and were called Anglo-Saxons who are the ancestors of the English. They called their speech English and their country – England, that is “the Land of Angles”. The British Celts (Britons) fought the raiders. So the Britons had to go to the mountains in the far West and settle there. The Saxons called that place “Weallas”, or ”Wales” meaning “the land of foreigners”. This part of Britain is called Wales now,
Anglo-Saxons founded 10 separate kingdoms, the most powerful of which were Wessex, Sussex, Essex, Kent, East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria. These seven are known as heptarchy & they are now the countries of Great Britain.

of the 8th century the Danes did the same what the Anglo- Saxons did 4 centuries earlier. The Danes began to attack Britain, coming in 3 or 4 ships. English kingdom couldn`t protect themselves because they did not have either a regular army or fleet. The area that the Danes conquered was called “Danelaw”, and ransom(money)that they paid to them was called “Danegeld”.
During the 8th and 9th centuries there were also Scandinavian invaders who wanted to conquer Britain. They were the Vikings. They came from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and were called Norseman.
They made York the capital of their kingdom. The Vikings brought their language, traditions, art and built towns in England. The English got rid of the Vikings only in the 10 century.

conqueror

The Norman conquest in the 11th century was the fifth and the last invasion of Britain. On October 14th, 1066, King William (Duke of Normandy) defeated the army of the English King Harold in the battle of Hastings.
A great number of important changes are connected with the Normans. They brought with them Latin and French civilizations, the laws & the organization of the land. Many Latin & French words penetrated into the old English language.
Commerce and trade grew very quickly, but the population grew even faster.
London became a busy, rich and crowded city. The Normans did their best to make it look beautiful. At that time the Tower of London was built on the Thames and it stands there still unchanged.
Westminster Abby was finished and William was the first king to be crowned there. Since then all English kings were crowned in Westminster Abby

Hood. He was strong, tall, handsome man. The legend says that once the Normans killed his father and burnt his house down, but Robin`s life was saved, because he ran away to the forest of Sherwood. Many Saxons who couldn`t stand the pressure of the Normans joined Robin and made him their leader. Robin and his men were called the Merry Men by the poor people. He was called “Hood” because he and his men wore green hoods.

and freedom of his land.

centuries after the Normans Conquest foreign kings ruled over England. The barons were forced to pay tribute. The King also took great sum of money for the wars of Europe. In 1215 the barons revolted. They wrote a document which was called Magna Carta or the Great Charter. King John had to sign it. In this document the rights of the Englishmen were written down and the power of the King was limited.
In 1265 a council of 25 barons was chosen to take control over the King .
That was the beginning of The English Parliament.
The word “parliament” is of French origin meaning “a meeting for the discussion”. Later in 1350 the Parliament was divided into two houses.

numerous wars outside and within the country.
The 14th century was a century of social unrest because in the 1330`s England began a long struggle against the French throne. This war with France lasted for hundred years but is known as the Hundred Years` War(it began in 1337and came to an end in 1453). The French won and forced the English to leave France. People of England were tired of the war with France.

of the Roses. This war was because of the dynastic crisis between two Houses ( the Lancasters and the Yorks). This crisis led to the civil war(1455-1485)when they were struggling for the English throne. Finally, the Tudors won and came to the throne.

Britain

broke out in London. It was known as “The Black Death”. This short period from June to December turned out a real tragedy for Londoners.

1666 a great tragedy happened again. The great fire broke out in September. The fire began late at night not far from London Bridge.

after the fire.

so he dismissed it in 1629.Only in 1640the Parliament assembled again. And the Civil war began between the Parliament and the King. It lasted for 12 years and the Parliament won the victory. Oliver Cromwell was at the head of the Parliament at that time.

periods in the British history that got their names from different monarchs. For example, the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries were called the Georgian period, because all the kings who ruled during that times were named George.
The Victorian period got its name after Queen Victoria who ruled the country for 64 years (1837-1901). These two periods were glorious for Britain because it got a lot of colonies inn India, Australia, America and Africa.
At those times Britain ruled over one quarter of the Earth.
In the19th century the United States and Germany were growing in power and Britain lose its position. In 1947 Britain lost its first colony -India and Pakistan.
In 1949 the former members of the British Empire were united in an association called the Commonwealth of Nations. It includes Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and others.

of the Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II is also the Queen of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

of Great Britain started, met four different peoples who invaded England, learnt a document Magna Carta where the rights of the Englishmen were written. We have also read a piece of information about the Plague and the Great Fire in London, Oliver Cromwell, several periods in the British history, the rise and fall of the British Empire, the Commonwealth of Nations.
I was very interested in the facts of British history and hope to continue looking for another information.
The UK is full of other mysterious facts. I am ready to learn all of them.