The Viking invasion of Britain

For thousands of years, Britain has been invaded by stronger nations. One of the most famous being the Roman invasion of
Britain until AD 401. When the Romans left, the Anglo Saxons settled in Britain and ruled until the Vikings from Scandanavia
made their way across the sea to invade and settle in Britain. They were a stronger nation than England were at that time and
were able to establish themselves within England and other parts of Britain.

The First Britons

The Anglo Saxons in Britain

 From around AD400 onwards, Anglo-Saxons settled in villages next to their farmland. They set up a number of different
kingdoms, led by lords and chieftains. The most powerful lords acted like local kings and fought one another to gain more
land.
 The strongest Anglo-Saxon tribal chiefs were known as Bretwalda or ‘Ruler of Britain’. By AD800, most Anglo-Saxons had
converted to Christianity, and merchants traded goods all over the country and into Europe, making some Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms very wealthy.

The Vikings in Britain

 In the mid-700s, the people of Scandinavia (Norway, Denmark and
Sweden) began to explore, raid and eventually invade the countries
around them. They sailed to Britain, Ireland, France, Spain and Italy.
Others travelled by land, going as far as Israel, Greenland and
probably America. They were known as Vikings, or Northmen, and
began their raids on Britain around the AD790S.
 The Vikings attacked Britain because they had traded goods with the
Anglo- Saxons for many years, and knew of their wealth.
 The first recorded attack was on the monastery at Lindisfarne in
Northumbria in AD793, and two years later they attacked the Isle of
Iona in Scotland. To begin with, they attacked in the summer when
the seas were calmer for their small ships. They raided villages and
monasteries near the coast, and then sailed back with stolen gold
and silver, cattle and even slaves. Later, they sailed up rivers and
attacked further inland, and they sometimes stayed for long periods
of time and built camps.

The Danelaw
 The part of England under Viking control changed considerably in this time and
was known as the Danelaw.
 The Viking brought their own distinct laws, place names, customs,
measurements, skilled crafts and farming techniques to the Danelaw.
 Many Viking influences are still around today e.g.
• Thursday (named after Thor) and Friday (named after Freya).
• Settlement suffixes of –by (like Grimsby) and –thorpe.
• British surnames like Adamson, Holt and Thorn.
• Words such as egg, bread, sister, happy, ill and muck.
 Wessex and King Alfred the Great
The Viking invasion of Wessex
 After conquering Northumbria, East Anglia and most of Mercia (known informally as the
Danelaw), the Vikings now turned their attention to Wessex.
 King Æthelred of Wessex supported by his younger brother Alfred managed to hold back
the Viking invasion, led by Ivar the Boneless, for a time.
 By 22 January 871, the Saxons were defeated at the Battle of Basing. They were defeated
again on 22 March at the Battle of Merton. Æthelred died shortly afterwards on 23 April.
 It would be up to Alfred to hold the Vikings from Wessex.
 In 876 the Vikings began a series of attacks. After some early successes, King Alfred’s army
was driven back and forced to hide on the Isle of Athelney in the Somerset marshes.

The success of the Anglo Saxons

 After several desperate months, Alfred managed to gather
enough support and train an army to attack the Vikings once
more. In May 878, King Alfred beat the Vikings at the Battle
of Edington, and the two sides sat down to agree peace
terms.
 Alfred insisted the Viking leader, Guthrum, had to become a
Christian, like Alfred himself, and agree not at attack Wessex
again.
 The two leaders settled a border between their lands. The
Vikings would stick to Danelaw in the East and North.

The Vikings in Britain and life in

the Danelaw
 The part of England under Viking control changed considerably at this time.
The Vikings brought their own distinct laws, place names, customs,
measurements, skilled crafts and farming techniques to the Danelaw.
 During Alfred’s reign, there were still Viking raids on Anglo- Saxon territory.
For the most part, however, the Vikings in the Danelaw settled down as
farmers and lived fairly peacefully side-by-side with the Anglo-Saxons.
 People travelled and traded between Wessex and the Danelaw, and there
was intermarriage between Vikings and Anglo-Saxons.
 There were three main areas where Vikings lived - Northumbria (which
included modern-day Yorkshire), East Anglia, and the Five Boroughs. A
borough was a town and the five towns were Leicester, Nottingham,
Derby, Stamford and Lincoln.
 Viking families came to settle on these lands. The most important city in
the Danelaw was the city of York, or ‘Jorvik’ (pronounced 'your-vick'), as
the Vikings knew it. Over 10,000 people lived there and it was an important
place to trade goods
 The Norse people had their own laws and government. The community
would gather together at a meeting called a ‘Thing’. Here they would settle
problems and make decisions.
 People could vote on what should happen. For example, the Thing might
decide who owned a piece of land or how to punish a criminal. All this was
overseen by a chieftain or a judge known as a ‘law-speaker’.
 Viking laws were not written down, so laws were passed from person to
person by word of mouth. People who broke the law became 'outlaws'.
They were forced to live in the wilderness and anyone was allowed to hunt
them down and kill them.
 Vikings could also settle arguments with a fight. They held a type of duel,
known as a ‘Holmgang’. Whoever wonthe duel was seen as being favoured
by the gods.
 King Cnut and the North Sea Empire
In the tenth century the English re-conquered much of the land held by the Vikings. Under King Edgar the Peaceful, the
country became both calm and stable; but when he died in 975, things began to unravel. Within 50 years, England had a
Viking king once more, and the country became part of the Danish Empire.

Edward then Aethelred

 When King Edgar the Peaceful died, he left two sons by different mothers: Edward
(aged 12) and Aethelred (aged 9). As the oldest son, Edward became King of England,
but his reign only lasted three years.
 In 928, he was murdered by supporters of his younger brother Aethelred, who then
took over as king.
 Aethelred’s reign was a difficult one. Fie was only a young boy when he became king,
and was not a good judge of character. The advisers that helped him were often
corrupt and looked to make as much money and acquire as much land as they could
from the king.
 Many people were also outraged by the murder of his elder brother, Edward. There is
little evidence that the young Aethelred had anything at all to do with his brother’s
death, but one story claims that his mother, Aelthfryth, stabbed Edward (her stepson)
so that her own son could become king!

The Vikings return

 During Aethelred’s reign, new waves of Vikings searching for fame and fortune begin to invade England.
 In 991, a huge Viking army, led by the Dane, Sven Forkbeard and the Norwegian, Olaf Tryggvason, arrived at Folkestone
in a fleet of over 90 ships. Their army defeated the English at the Battle of Maldon in August.
 Aethelred paid the Vikings to leave. This payment was called Danegeld (money forthe Danish).
 Not all of the Vikings left; some remained as mercenaries to protect the English and others continued to terrorise the
English on the south coast for the next three years.
 After 997, fresh raiding parties of Vikings attacked parts of southern England. They demanded (and received) Danegeld.

Aethelred and Emma of Normandy

 The Danegeld that Aethelred was paying the Vikings to stay away from
England was costing a fortune. After the Battle of Maldon, the king had
given the Vikings around 3300 kilogrammes of silver (about £900,000 in
today’s money), and the English hated the taxes that were needed to pay
it. As a result, Aethelred looked for another way to keep the Vikings away.
 The Vikings had been sheltering in Normandy, France, after raiding
England. The Normans were descendants of Vikings who had settled in
France around 100 years before. So, Aethelred made a deal with the Duke
of Normandy that said that they agreed to support each other against
their enemies. Aethelred hoped that this would reduce the number of
raids because the Vikings would not be able to use Normandy as a base.
 Aethelred sealed the agreement by marrying the Duke’s sister, Emma.
However, in November 1002 Aethelred used the popular fear and hatred
of the Vikings to carry out a mass killing of all Viking men, women and
children that he could find south of the Danelaw. This became known as
the St Brice’s Day Massacre and caused the anger of King Sven Forkbeard,
whose sister Gunhilda was murdered.

Forkbeard attacks
 The King of Denmark, Sven Forkbeard, invaded England with a powerful Viking army. He wanted revenge - and some of the
great wealth of England for himself. If he achieved this it would strengthen his position against rival Viking leaders. In 1000 at
the Battle of Svold,
 Sven killed Olaf Tryggvason, his former raiding partner who had become King of Norway. Sven also wanted to teach Thorkell the
Tall a lesson. Thorkell was a Viking warrior who switched sides to work for Aethelred in 1012. In 1013, Sven summoned a large
army and swiftly conquered England.
 Some of the Vikings who sailed to France in the AD900S settled near Paris. They were called the Northmen - or Normans. They
soon became rulers of this part of France and the area was named Normandy. William the Conqueror came from this part of
France (he was Duke of Normandy) and he was descended from these Viking invaders.
 King Cnut and the North Sea Empire
Aethelred and Cnut
 With Aethelred out of the country and Forkbeard on the throne, it looked as if the
fighting between Anglo-Saxons and Vikings was over for a while. But the peace didn’t
last.
 Just over a year after becoming king, Forkbeard died. His young son, Cnut [pronounced
Canute) became England’s new Viking king, but Anglo-Saxon nobles wanted the Anglo-
Saxon Aethelred to return to power.
 Aethelred came back over to England in 1014 and forced Cnut back to Denmark.
Aethelred was now back on the throne.

Edmund and Cnut

 Aethelred’s return did not last long. Cnut’s supporters in England rebelled against
Aethelred, and the next few years involved much bloodshed and fighting. At one point,
even Aethelred’s own son rebelled against him. In April 1016, Aethelred died and his son
Edmund, became king.
 Fie was successful in fighting off Vikings, and earned himself the nickname ‘Edmund
Ironside’. Flowever, in October 1016, Cnut finally got the better of King Edmund and beat
him at the Battle of Assandun in Essex.
 The two men agreed that Edmund would run Wessex, while Cnut would run the rest of the
country; and when one of them died, the other would inherit their land. About a month
later, Edmund died.
 Historians believe he was either murdered or died from wounds received at the Battle of
Assandun. Now Cnut became king of all England.

How did Britain change under Cnut’s rule?

 Britain was important to Cnut as it was his richest kingdom: he viewed Britain as his main domain, rather than as a
Danish colony.
 To begin with, King Cnut was tough with those Anglo-Saxons he thought might rebel against him. Early in his reign, he
ordered the execution of a number of powerful Anglo-Saxons.
 Britain was a rich area with a flourishing trade system compared to Scandinavia, and Cnut wanted to have reliable and
strong leaders to help him control Britain. Strong control meant he could transfer the riches back to Denmark to
support the Danes. Loyal Danish nobles were given British lands, but some trustworthy English nobles were also left to
rule their own areas. Cnut wanted good local leadership - no matter which side of the North Sea they were from.
 Despite a brutal takeover of the throne and start to his reign, Cnut’s reign was one of peace and freedom from Viking
raids. He even sent most of his great battle fleets home. He also worked hard to win over the people of his new
kingdom.
 He was a religious man who established a good relationship with Church leaders, and he brought back many of the
popular and fair laws of Edgar the Peaceful. Soon, he inherited the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway from his elder
brother, and ruled parts of Sweden too. All this became known as Cnut’s North Sea Empire.

Cnut and Emma of Normandy

 To bring even greater stability to England, and an improved relationship with the Normans in France,
Cnut married Emma of Normandy, widow of Aethelred. They had a son, Harthacnut.
 During Cnut’s 20-year reign, England was at peace. But his two sons who followed him as king - firstly
Harold (Cnut’s son by his first wife) and then Harthacnut (his son with Emma) - were hated. Their
reigns didn’t last long.
 In 1042, Harthacnut died and the throne passed to his surviving half- brother, Prince Edward. Edward
was the son of Emma and Aethlered, and had originally left with his mother and father when
Forkbeard invaded many years before.
 He had been living in Normandy for a large part of his life. King Edward was quickly accepted by
ordinary people, but the Anglo-Saxons nobles found that he seemed to prefer his Norman friends to
them.
 He was also a deeply religious man and soon earned himself the nickname ‘the Confessor’: a name
given to a person who lives a very holy life.
 A Norman Kingdom
When Edward became King of England in 1042, he had been living in Normandy, France for many years. He spoke French
better than he spoke English, and behaved like a Norman. One of his closest friends was a Norman, too. His name was
William, the Duke (ruler) of Normandy, and King Edward spent lots of time in Normandy with him. But Edward had not
married a Norman as people expected, and instead married the sister of a powerful Anglo-Saxon called Harold Godwinson.
They had no children, and when Edward died in early 1066, the throne of England was up for grabs. With its wealth and land,
England was worth fighting for.

The Race for the crown

 King Edward died on 6 January 1066. The three main contenders for the English throne were:
 William, Duke of Normandy: As a close friend of Edward, he claimed that he been promised the throne. He also
claimed that Harold Godwinson had agreed to support his claim after being rescued from a shipwreck off the
coast of Normandy.
 Harald Hardrada: The Viking ruler of Norway; he also said he was King of Denmark. As Vikings had conquered
and controlled England for many years, he claimed he should be England’s new king.
 Harold Godwinson: By now, Harold was the most powerful man in England; and he was English, unlike the other
two. He was a good soldier and the council of the country’s most important, powerful nobles (known as the
Witan) wanted him as king.
 The day after Edward’s death, the Witan elected Harold as king. He was crowned immediately: but when the other two
rivals found out, they planned their invasions. Hardrada the Viking was the first to invade, but was defeated by King
Harold at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, near York, in September 1066.
 A few days later, King Harold heard the news that William of Normandy had landed on the south coast of England.
Harold rushed south from Yorkshire to fight him, but was defeated at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066.
 Over the next few weeks, William faced fierce resistance from the English as they moved from Hastings towards London,
but William soon crushed any resistance on his way there, and was crowned as the first Norman King of England on
Christmas Day, 1066.

William completes the conquest

 Even though he had been crowned King of England, William couldn’t relax. The early years of his reign saw major
rebellions up and down the country. These were put down fiercely.
 The king rewarded his most loyal Norman followers by giving them important jobs in the Church, and by seizing land from
the English and giving it to Normans. Soon, England was divided up between Norman barons and lords, each with his own
knights and soldiers to keep the peace. This meant that William would have people loyal to him to control the country
during the times when he returned to Normandy.
 These barons and knights built castles to keep them safe from any English rebels who might want to attack them.
 Soon England had over 500 Norman castles.

A Norman Kingdom
 William was a French prince who had acquired the English kingdom, but he spent more than half his time in France,
where he felt at home.
 It was very important for William to be seen in France because powerful French rivals might take advantage of any
absences to seize control of Normandy. But William spared no time in stamping his mark on England too. The Normans
became a brand-new ruling class in England.
 They spoke French and introduced French customs. They built hundreds of new churches, cathedrals and monasteries,
and French replaced English as the main language used by the people in power. Hundreds of French words such as
soldier, parliament, royal, city, minister and army were soon absorbed into the English language.
 The English were once again ruled by a foreign power: the land they once owned was taken from them and the taxes
they paid went to the Normans. The Anglo-Saxon English became second-class citizens.
 Like the Vikings, the Normans focused their efforts on England, but they did have an impact on people from Scotland and
Wales.
 King Malcolm of Scotland raided England in 1070. William’s response was violent. He invaded Scotland in 1072 and
Malcolm recognised William’s power and made peace. William did not attempt to conquer all of Wales, but instructed
several Norman barons to seize land there.
 The Angevin Empire
In 1087 William the Conqueror died and his Norman kingdom was divided up between his two eldest sons. Robert (the
eldest) became Duke of Normandy, and William’s middle son (William) became William II of England. The youngest son,
Henry, got nothing. But in 1100, William II died and Henry took over as King of England. He then went on to defeat his older
brother too, and became Duke of Normandy in 1106. So once again the Norman Kingdom was united under one man: Henry
I of England and Duke of Normandy.

Henry and Matilda

 King Henry ruled peacefully for 20 years. He wanted his daughter, Matilda, to rule England after him when he died. He
married her to a powerful French lord Geoffrey of Anjou.
 But when Henry died, a powerful noble named Stephen seized the throne. Stephen was Henry’s nephew and a grandson
of William the Conqueror, so many people thought he had a right to the throne. Matilda decided to fight back, however,
and for the next 19 years there was a series of battles between the two. Finally, in 1153, an agreement was reached that
Matilda’s son, Henry, would become England’s next king, after Stephen’s death.
 When Stephen died in October 1154, Matilda’s son became King Henry II of England.

Henry II: not just England’s King

 Henry II was not just King of England: he inherited Normandy from his mother, Matilda, as well other land in France from
his father, Geoffrey of Anjou.
 As a result, Henry II was King of England, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou and Count of Maine. In 1152, he married a
French duchess, Eleanor of Aquitaine, which meant that he also gained the largest region in his domain: the territories of
Aquitaine stretched all the way to Spain. He even bought some areas of France, bullied his way into controlling others,
and married his son off to a French duchess so he could acquire Brittany - another powerful, large area of northern
France.
 In fact, Henry II was arguably one of the most powerful rulers in Europe, with land stretching from the Scottish borders to
the south of France. He would soon also count Ireland in his empire too.

Invasion of Ireland
 Some of the early Norman kings (such as William the Conqueror and Henry I) showed little interest in conquering another
Irish king and wanted Henry’s assistance. An army of English knights and barons led by the Earl of Pembroke - nicknamed
‘Strongbow’ - crossed over to Ireland and helped the Irish leader. However, the knights and barons took the opportunity
to seize land in Ireland for themselves when Dermot died in 1171 and, within a few years, controlled more land than the
Irish.
 Henry II himself visited Ireland in 1171 and was recognised as the ‘overlord’ by all the English settlers and the Irish
leaders. In fact, this ‘deal’ became the basis of English sovereignty over the Irish for hundreds of years, up to the 1940s.
 Henry’s work in Ireland continued as he strengthened existing fortifications there and built new castles, as well as getting
investors to develop Dublin as a centre of trade and commerce.

A well travelled King

 At this time, France was not a united country, as it is today. It was divided into
areas, each ruled by powerful lords and dukes. France itself was one of these
areas, ruled by a king, but other areas included Anjou, Aquitaine, Normandy, and
Brittany.
 Henry II of England ruled over half of these areas, but not France, which was a
large, powerful area ruled by King Louis VII.
 However, Henry II ruled more French land than Louis. With so much land to
defend, Henry II spent much of his reign crossing between England and France. I
 t has been estimated that Henry crossed the English Channel up to 30 times in his
35-year reign, prompting Louis VII to remark that Henry ‘must fly rather than
travel by horse or ship’. There was conflict between Henry II and Louis VII during
their reigns too.
 There was a war in Normandy in 1167, for example, and Louis joined in when
Henry’s own sons rebelled against him in 1173.
 Why did the Angevin Empire collapse under King John?
When Henry II died in 1189, he was replaced as king by his son, Richard I. Richard spent long periods of his reign in his French
lands, or on crusades to the Holy Land. As a result, the ‘Angevin’ Empire became hard to govern. Richard had to return to
England to stop rebellions, but he couldn’t prevent the French King Philip II from taking large areas of his land in France,
including part of Normandy. Richard I died in 1199. His younger brother, John, became the new king, but things got gradually
worse.

King John’s opponents

 King John had an opponent waiting to take control of some of his French lands. Powerful lords in Brittany and Anjou
wanted John’s young nephew, Arthur, as king, and John was drawn into a series of battles against him to defend his land.
Arthur also had the support of John’s rival, the French King Philip II. But in 1203, Arthur died in mysterious circumstances:
many suspected that John stabbed him and threw his body in the River Seine.
 King Philip II of France continued his campaign against John, and invaded Anjou and Normandy. In 1204, John’s army was
defeated in Brittany and began to retreat. Over the next few years, John lost Normandy, Anjou, Maine and other key
areas. His military reputation reached such a low point that he was given a new nickname: ‘John Softsword’. Soon, John
had hardly any land left in France any land left in France.

More losses of territories under King John

 After the defeats in France, John went back to England.
 He attempted to raise an army to invade France and take back the land. But this meant raising taxes to pay for it,
which made him very unpopular.
 After another defeat in France in 1214, the English barons decided to take action against their king. Taxes were
higher than ever and French lands such as Normandy, Brittany, Anjou and Maine were no longer under John’s
control. By now, his land in France consisted of just one area - Gascony.
 So the barons rebelled by putting together their own army and marching towards London, to take over.
 They gave John a choice: change the way he was running the country, or fight the army that was heading towards
London. King John gave in and asked the barons what they wanted.
 John eventually agreed to their demands, set out in a document called Magna Carta (Great Charter). He promised,
among other things, to respect the rights of the Church and the barons, to stop unfair taxes, and to ensure that
trials would be held quickly and fairly.
 The Hundred Year War
William the Conqueror was both King of England and Duke of Normandy. He spent most of his time up to 1072 in England,
and then spent the majority of his time in Normandy. In fact, the early Norman kings of England (who were often based in
Normandy) just regarded England as part of an empire they ruled. These kings also brought much of Wales and Scotland
under their control and influence. Some kings of England, such as Henry II, were successful in gaining more land from the
French. However, most of this land was eventually won back by the French during the reign of King John (1199-1216). By the
time Edward III became King of England in 1327, only Gascony and a small part of northern France remained under the King
of England’s control

Background
 From 1337 to 1483 the English and French fought a series of wars, called the
Hundred Years’ War. The main reason for these wars was to decide who should
rule France: the King of England or the King of France? Ever since William the
Conqueror had successfully invaded England, the Kings of England had owned
various parts of France.
 At various stages in the early twelfth century the English crown owned a
considerable empire in France known as the Angevin Empire – including
Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, Gascony and Aquitaine.
 By the fourteenth century some of this land had been lost to the King of France,
but successive English kings believed they were the legitimate rulers of France.
 The Hundred Years War was not one long war, but a series of battles. There were many
years of little or no fighting, when both sides made peace deals, and times when there were
major, aggressive campaigns by one side or another.
 One of the most notable battles in the later phase of the war occurred on 25 October 1415
near Agincourt, France. It was fought between the heavily outnumbered army of King
Henry V of England and that of King Charles VI of France.

The Battle of Agincourt

 Henry lost half his men to disease and battle injuries, so decided to march his army north to
Calais, where he would meet a fleet of English ships and return to England. But the French had no
intention of letting Henry get away.
 The archers that fought for Henry used longbows. They could fire around 12 arrows a minute and
could kill from nearly 200 metres away. The French tended to use crossbows, which were very
powerful and accurate, but took longer to load.
 The French tried to charge at the English, but a combination of thick mud, heavy armour, and
wooden spikes that the English had set up in front of themselves, slowed them down.
 The French continued to charge, but they were bogged down in the mud and unable to advance.
The English archers continued their attack from above and slaughtered the French. The battle was
a disaster for the French.
 The Impact of the Hundred Year War
Soon after the Battle of Agincourt a treaty was created which made Henry V heir to the French throne; but he never lived to
be king of a united England and France. In 1422, aged just 35, Henry died suddenly of dysentery.
Soon after, French fortunes began to turn. Inspired by a French peasant girl called Joan of Arc, who claimed that voices of
the saints had called on her to free France from the English, the French gradually began to drive the English out.

The cost of war

Impact on France and England at the time The high cost of weapons, food, armour and horses
meant that wars were very expensive. As a result,
Some areas of France (for example, Normandy) were both the French and English had to pay higher
devastated during the fighting. Armies on both sides seized taxes, more frequently, to pay for the war. By the
crops and animals, and stole whatever riches they could find. If end of the war, England had lost wealthy French
an army was retreating, they might burn all the buildings they regions like Normandy and Aquitaine, so could no
left behind so their advancing enemy couldn’t use them. Lots longer make money from these areas. However,
of ordinary men fought (and died) on both sides too, although some Englishmen got very rich from the stolen
there were fewer battle casualties on the English side. Many goods taken from France. Bodiam Castle in Sussex,
English deaths were from dysentery, rather than destruction for example, was built from the proceeds made
on the battlefield. from the war.
The birth of English identity

England and France had been

The Impact of the connected since the days when
Hundred Year War William, Duke of Normandy
defeated Harold to become the
King of England. The Hundred
Years War caused the two
countries to forge their own
identities. Duringthe course of
the war, England stopped using
French unity French as its official court
language, because it was seen as
France had long been a the ‘enemy language’.
collection of separate After losing its territory in France,
territories - Normandy, England became less involved in
Aquitaine, Brittany and relations with the rest of Europe.
The military impact
Gascony, for example. But England began to see itself as
a great number of the ‘apart’ from Europe, rather than
The war changed the way battles were
powerful, important a part of it. A much more unified
fought. Before the Hundred Years War,
French nobles who country developed against the
the knight on horseback, fighting as part
controlled these areas French, Scots and everyone else;
of the cavalry, was the most effective,
were killed during the war. and Crecy, Agincourt and other
powerful and feared part of an army.
As a result, the King of major battles gave the English a
However, it was the archers, firing
France emerged more sense of pride and a unique
thousands of arrows, that led to the
powerful than ever. He identity. With a common
great French defeats at Crecy, Poitiers
was the one central leader language and homeland, a sense
and Agincourt. This spelled the end of
of the country, and the of what it meant to be ‘English’
the dominance of the knight on
French people rallied quickly developed. Kings started
horseback. From then on, the power of
behind him. The Hundred to use the English language, and
missile fire, first from the longbow and
Year War led to a surge in people started speaking of
later from the handgun, was the most
nationalist feelings among themselves as ‘English’ - not just
effective battle technique. Soon, the
the French: a love of their from a region of England.
ordinary foot soldiers were the key
country and a love of their England’s outlook and aims
element to an army, rather than the
king! Also, the high cost of changed too: it was now a
cavalry. The war also saw the increased
paying for the war led the country looking to conquer lands
use of gunpowder, cannons and
French to set up a better outside Europe, a country that
handguns. And as soon as gunpowder
system of taxing the would soon look to develop an
was used regularly, castles proved to be
whole country: this was so empire in newly found lands.
of little use in battles, so they began a
successful that they were
long decline.
able to pay for the first
full-time army in Europe.
Sir John Hawkins (1532-95)
John Hawkins was the second son of William
Hawkins, who sailed in trading expeditions to
West Africa in the 1530s. In his youth, John
Hawkins’ first voyages were to the Spanish
Canary Islands in the Atlantic. He became a
respected English naval commander,
merchant, privateer and pirate, and was
responsible for building up the Elizabethan
Royal Navy. He was the cousin of another
famous explorer, Sir Francis Drake. Hawkins
narrowly escaped with his life in a battle with
the Spanish at San Juan de Ulua in 1568. He
and Drake were surprised by an attack from
the Spanish after they thought they had
negotiated a truce. Drake and Hawkins swore
vengeance for the treachery and the men
they lost. He was also known as the ‘Father
of the Slave Trade’.

Piracy and plunder

As Britain failed to find any of its own
gold, it used other methods: one of the
ways in which countries obtained wealth
and riches at this time was simply by
taking it from another country’s ships or
territory. Any sailor with permission from
the king or queen - known as a privateer
- could attack foreign ships and steal Describe the circumstances in which Columbus
from them. This permission was granted found the Americas.
as long as the privateers shared anything
they stole with the monarch. Any sailors What is the difference between a privateer and a
who didn’t have permission, and kept pirate?
any treasure for themselves, were
known as pirates. An estimated 10 to 15 Why did British invest in privateering and piracy
per cent of all Spanish treasure ships against the Spanish Empire in the Tudor and Stuart
were successfully captured by rival eras?
countries. Some successful British
privateers also took part in piracy -
keeping the plunder for themselves
rather than sharing it with the monarch.
 Why was piracy replaced by plantations?

Explorers like Drake, Hawkins and Morgan made

lots of money for Britain as privateers, by
stealing fortunes from Spanish and Portuguese Global trading*
ships. However, by the late 1500s, it became British investors were also keen on developing
clear that there were other ways to make trade in the Americas, because it would help
money out of the New World of the Americas. to pay for the growth of the British Empire
Britain set up colonies there, and by the 1600s, elsewhere, in India. They realised that they
developed huge farms called plantations, where could export crops such as cotton from the
crops like sugar and cotton were grown. Where New World to Britain, while they could import
were the plantations set up, and who would do and sell other goods to the colonies, such as
the hard work of farming the crops? Why g*o wheat, rice, and coffee. Also, the cotton from
the the Americas? American plantations helped supply British
There were a number of reasons (or factors] fabric factories, who in return would sell the
why people chose to leave Britain for a new life fabric to British colonies for further profit.
in the New World.
Religious factors
In Britain, there were religious conflicts. Some
religious groups such as Puritans and Catholics
felt that they were not permitted to worship as
they wished in Britain, so they left to settle in a
place where they would have greater religious
freedom. Economic
Factors
Followingthe establishment of the first
successful British colony in America in 1602
(during the Stuart King James I’s reign], more
Britons were willing to move to the New World
to farm and to make money. Flomes were built
and there was plenty of land to grow new ‘cash
crops’ such as cotton, tobacco, sugar and
potatoes. These were grown on farms known as
plantations, which can grow specific crops in
large quantities. The crops were then exported
back to Britain for great profit. This was often
the only thing that made the hardship of setting
up colonies - with harsh weather, hunger and
conflicts with Native Americans or indigenous
people - worthwhile.
Into the Caribbean
It wasn’t just North America where new
colonies were set up. British businessmen (or
traders] also set up plantations in the West
Indies on islands such as Bardados (1625] and
the Cayman Islands (1620],
 The move to slavery
Many settlers soon found that
conditions were hard on
Why was piracy replaced by plantations? plantations: there were new
diseases, the weather was too hot,
and when crops failed, there were
not always enough food for
everyone. Not many people were
Barbados was an island that the British
willing to work the farms in these
acquired from the Spanish in 1625. The Stuart
conditions, so the British began
King Charles I then allowed the island to be
using indentured servants for
established for tobacco plantations. To begin
labour. Indentured servants were
with, it couldn’t compete with the older
servants who paid for their voyage
plantations in North America, but by 1655, it
to America by being under contract
was the largest British slave colony. Plantations
to a plantation owner for a set
soon switched to growing sugar, and by the
period of years. Once they had
1690s, most of the island was covered in
finished their period of service they
successful sugar plantations. Barbados became
were then free to work for wages.
far more profitable for the British than the
However, by 1619, African slaves
mainland America colonies, mainly because it
were introduced to British
was seen as just a profit-making area, and not
plantations because they were
as a place to settle.
cheaper: plantation owners could
buy the slaves outright. Slaves had
Barbados was an island that the British
no legal rights and had to work
acquired from the Spanish in 1625. The Stuart
their whole lives without payment,
King Charles I then allowed the island to be
and any slave children born
established for tobacco plantations. To begin
became slave owners’ property
with, it couldn’t compete with the older
too. Purchasing slaves allowed
plantations in North America, but by 1655, it
plantations to become more
was the largest British slave colony. Plantations
profitable, as the unpaid workforce
soon switched to growing sugar, and by the
increased in size.
1690s, most of the island was covered in
successful sugar plantations. Barbados became
Why did people leave Britain to
far more profitable for the British than the
settle in the New World?
mainland America colonies, mainly because it
was seen as just a profit-making area, and not
Explain how the settlers hoped to
as a place to settle.
make money in their new colonies.
As Britain’s worldwide empire grew in North
How did the settlers find workers
America (and India), and became increasingly
to establish and farm the crops
profitable, British monarchs stopped granting
they grew?
privateer permission because there was less
need to steal from other nations. The Royal
Why was slavery so profitable?
Navy also took increasingly effective anti-
pirate measures. This meant that by the 1220s,
Study Source A. How useful is it to
piracy was rare in the Americas. Pirates were
a historian studying the reasons for
chased out of harbours where they had
the British colonisation of North
previously been able to seek safe haven, such
America?
as Nassau in the Bahamas. Plantations, not
piracy, became the area where huge profits
could be made for Britain.
The impact of the slave trade on Britain

From the 1560s onwards, British

merchants became involved in the slave
trade, and in 1619, the first African slaves
arrived in the British colony of Virginia in
America. Between 1690 and 178?, over
11,000 British ships took slaves to the
Americas.
At the height of the slave trade, in the
1700s, an estimated six million Africans
were taken across the Atlantic Ocean to .
slavery in America and the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, British slave traders pocketed
tens of millions of pounds, making Britain
one of the richest nations in the world.
How did the slave trade work, and what 1.Traders leave Britain and other European
were the economic and cultural impacts of ports, headed for Africa, with ships full of goods
it on Britain? such as alcohol, guns, and cloth.
Slavery 2. Traders trade these goods with African
The idea of slavery is a very old one, but tribesmen in return for prisoners from other
slaves were used in very large numbers in African tribes, who have already been captured
the Tudor and Stuart periods, especially by to sell; they also kidnap Africans. The ships are
countries that had started to take over loaded with these slaves and sail across the
North and South America and the Atlantic.
Caribbean. These slaves endured short and 3. In the Americas, the slaves are traded to
brutal lives of hard work and extreme plantation owners and farmers for goods such
misery: sugar plantation slaves had an as sugar, cotton or tobacco.
average life expectancy of 26, because These are loaded onto the ships, which sail back
they often had a poor diet, faced tough to British or European ports to be sold at great
punishments, and had no proper medical profit.
attention.
Development of the slave trade All they needed was the initial investment to
African slaves ended up in the Americas finance the ship, pay a strong crew to control the
and West Indies as a result of a three-part slaves, and buy the goods they would eventually
trading journey known as the slave trade for slaves on the African coast. Slave
triangle. owners also profited from the slave trade:
Traders benefited greatly from the slave owners forced slaves to work all their lives,
trade, and could expect to earn up to 800 without wages, and in great hardship. The
per cent profit on their investment. They increased slave trading up until the 1800s, and a
made money not just from selling slaves, growing slave population, meant that plantations
but from the other parts of the slave became more and more profitable.
triangle too, and their ships were rarely At the same time, as the British Empire grew, the
empty. demand for the crops grown in the American
plantations and the products made grew from
them as well.
Economic impact
Britain wasn’t the only European
nation to get involved in slavery Social impact
during Tudor and Stuart times, but Another impact of the slave trade on Britain was
Britain made some of the largest that west coast towns and ports such as
profits. British slave traders didn’t Liverpool, Glasgow and Bristol grew into large
just work on their own either: they cities during the eighteenth century as they
were supported by investors back benefited from the shipping trade. Also, many of
in Britain, including monarchs. the fine buildings in these places (and to some
Queen Elizabeth was a business extent in London) were built on the profits of
partner of John Hawkins, and even slavery: for example, Liverpool Town Hall and the
gave him one of her ships to use National Portrait Gallery in London were all paid
for slave trading. King Charles II for with the proceeds of slavery. A large number
was a partner in the Royal African of Liverpool’s mayors were slave traders, and in
Company, a large slave-trading parliament, so were many MPs.
business that transported 60,000 George F. Cooke, a well-known British actor, said
slaves from Africa between 1680 the following in 1785:
and 1688. Many of the slaves ‘Every brick in the city of Liverpool is cemented
were branded with the letters DY with the blood of a slave.’
when they were captured, after Up until the 1800s, it was not illegal to make
the man who ran the company: money from slave trades. And because slave
James, Duke of York (the future trading was so widespread, and many British
King James II). people in power were involved in it, it led to the
In fact, many Britons played a belief that Europeans were superior to Africans.
significant part in the slave trade - However, some people at the time felt slavery
shipbuilders, ship owners (who was wrong, and by the late 1700s a campaign
allowed their ships to be used), started to get the trade abolished. In 1807, the
bankers (who lent traders money), British parliament abolished the slave trade, and
investors (who shared in the by 1833, it banned slave ownership not only in
profits) and importers (who Britain but also throughout the British Empire.
brought in the goods that slaves
farmed). Many other Britons were 1. In your own words, describe how
linked in other ways: dockworkers the slave trade developed in the
unloading ships full of cotton that sixteenth and seventeenth
slaves had grown; workers turning centuries.
the cotton into shirts; even the 2. Make a list of the ways Britain
shop owners selling sugar and was linked to the slave trade.
tobacco from the plantations.
Whether directly or indirectly, all Practice Question
these people gained financially Compare the Vikings and British
from slave trading: the British slave traders. In what ways were
slave trade industry made they similar?
approximately £60 million
between 1761 and 1808, making
Britain one of the richest and most
powerful nations in the world.
British colonies in America

Around 80,000 Puritans migrated to America between 1630

In the sixteenth and early and 1641.
seventeenth centuries, people Emigration peaked during the British Civil Wars and
began to leave different duringthe time of Oliver Cromwell’s rule in Britain (1642-
European countries and settle in 60), partly due to the fact that differences in religious beliefs
America. Early British settlers led to conflicts between religious groups. Furthermore,
occupied the east coast of North religious groups in mainland Europe also wanted to escape
America. These British persecution: some Dutch, French and Germans emigrated
settlements, or colonies, made from the 1560s onwards. Some religious groups also wanted
up what could be described as to emigrate in order to convert the Native Americans to
Britain’s first successful overseas Christianity.
empire. By the mid-l?00s there The 13 American colonies, the goods and crops they
were thirteen successful British produced, and early British settlements
colonies. Who were the early
settlers, and why did they leave
Britain? What were the
consequences of British
colonisation for the indigenous
(Native American) people?
Why did people leave Britain?
Several causes made people
leave Britain at this time. Firstly,
economic problems meant that
unemployment among
farmhands and labourers was
high, and wages were low.
People struggled to survive, and
sometimes faced starvation as a
result of failed harvests. As a
result, a new start in a new land
seemed very appealing.
Secondly, some Christian
groups, such as Puritans,
Quakers and Catholics, had
suffered persecution
in Britain since the 1530s, when
King Henry VIII turned the
country from Catholic to
Protestant. For example, failure
to attend Anglican Church
services was punishable by
prison or even execution. As a
result, many of these religious
groups left Britain to settle in
North America, where they set
up or joined colonies.
What was attractive about North America?

People from overcrowded British towns were

excited by the vast expanse of new land available Sir Walter Raleigii (cl554-161S)
to settlers in America, and by the chance to make Sir Walter Raleigh was a sea captain
money. People grew crops such as tobacco, corn for both Queen Elizabeth and her
and cotton, and then transported them back to successor King James I. In 1584, the
Britain to sell. Livestock sales were also Queen sent him to start settlements in
successful. This drove British businessmen to Virginia. These early colonies faced
invest in more voyages. North American seas numerous problems: the settlers were
were stocked with profitable cod, and by the late frequently short on supplies, they
1600s, sugar plantations were also bringing in struggled to grow crops, there were
huge profits for Britain. attacks from Native Americans, and
they caught diseases like malaria.
Elowever, Raleigh is known as the
‘Father of American Colonies’ for
establishing colonies

Case study: Virginia In the late 1500s, many British

people tried to establish settlements in the area
known as Virginia, but they failed to survive. In
1. List the reasons why Britons migrated to,
1606, King James I gave permission for a group of
businessmen to sail to Virginia, to establish a new and built colonies in, North America,
colony called Jamestown, to see if the land was fit 2. Which reason do you think is the most important
to grow crops, and to find gold if possible. The one? Why?
colony was founded in 1602, but the settlers faced 3. Why did the Jamestown settlers succeed?
incredible hardships. 4. Describe what Sir Walter Raleigh did to help Britain
At first they had to rely on friendly local tribes to colonise North America.
help them find and grow food, but some other
tribes massacred numerous early settlers. Also,
some of the early settlers were wealthy aristocrats
who were unused to doing farm work. Life in Practice Question
Jamestown and other early colonies meant hunger
and death for many, but the settlers were
determined to stay. With the support of friendly
native tribes, the settlers began to farm the land Was religion the main factor in causing
successfully, rather than focus on the search for migration to America?
gold. Tobacco planting in particular led to the
success of Jamestown: tobacco was easy to grow
and made high profits. This led to more and more
British migrants seeking their fortune in the New
For ‘main factor’ questions you will need to explain how
World. Other settlements such as New Plymouth
religion and other factors caused migration (see
soon sprung up along the East coast of America -
Chapters 5 and 6). Was religion or another cause the
eventually developing into 13 colonies.
main factor?
 British colonies in America Impact of British colonies on Native Americans
The indigenous (native) tribes in America had been
there long before any Europeans. There were many
Case study: Massachusetts tribes, with different cultures. Most did not have
One of the most famous groups of permanent settlements: they lived off the land and
British people to settle in America established camps where appropriate. As such, the
arrived in 1620 on a ship called the British arrival in North America could be interpreted
Mayflower. They were mainly Puritans; in different ways. For example, Native American
strict Protestant Christians who left tribes would have seen the British as ‘invaders’, who
because they were persecuted by took territory by force and wiped out several tribes
others who did not agree with their by passing on diseases that their immune systems
religious beliefs. They, and other could not deal with. As in Jamestown and New
settlers, set up their own religious Plymouth, early settlers’ relations with the Native
colony known as ‘New Plymouth’, with Americans were varied. Good relations initially
the aim of fishing and trading with existed with native tribes such as the Powhatan, and
other colonies. Enough of the colonists there were some intermarriages. However, in
survived the winter, with help from general, the British did not treat them with respect.
local tribes, for it to become the first Massacres were carried out on both sides, over land
permanent colony (Jamestown claims, but some settlers were particularly vicious:
eventually became deserted). These they often attacked and destroyed natives’ crops and
settlers became known as the Pilgrim villages. In 1500, there were approximately 560,000
Fathers. The New Plymouth colony Native Americans in ‘British’ territories. However by
worked very hard, and offshore fishing 1200, there were fewer than 280,000. Devastating
became the main source of farming: European diseases such as measles and smallpox, the
cod was in high demand as one of the ill treatment of natives, and British expansion into
few highly nutritious foods in British native territory all had a huge impact on Native
diets at this time. The settlers wanted Americans.
peace and order in the colony, so they
quickly established democratic
principles and a constitution, to ensure
that their Puritan religious beliefs
would remain central to colony life.
The example of the Pilgrim Fathers led
to more religious groups moving to this
area: more than 20,000 settlers arrived
in Massachusetts between 1629 and
1640. The Pilgrim Fathers are seen by
some historians as the first ‘real’
Americans: they weren’t just British
emigrants looking for quick wealth. In
fact, they managed to create religious
and democratic rules and traditions
that would become the foundation of
an American identity.

Fact: Thanksgiving in the USA is a celebration and meal on the fourth Thursday in November. The
tradition dates back to a feast held by some of the earliest settlers, the Pilgrims, in 1621 to 'give thanks’
for an exceptionally bountiful harvest.
 A seventeenth-century drawing of Captain John Smith’s
encounter with native people in Virginia; Smith was a
well-known early British settler who became
internationally famous when Disney animated the story
of Pocahontas; the drawing appeared in a book
published in 1624 by Captain Smith, called The Generali
Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles

Questions
1. Describe the successes of the Pilgrim Fathers.
Americans. Many of them had to find a new way
2. Identify the advantages and disadvantages about
of life, adapt to European ways, or move further
colonisation of North America to: the British; the
inland to avoid the settlers. Today, the Native
Native American tribes.
Americans account for only 0.7 per cent of the
total population of the USA.
3. a Study Source C. What is happening in the
For the British settlers, however, overall they
drawing?
gained a better life in the 13 colonies, and saw it
b Compare Source C and Source D.
as a land of opportunity and freedom where
Explain how they are similar in their attitudes to
British culture and religious beliefs could thrive.
Native Americans.
Adapted from a description of the tribes
4.What was the British attitude to Native Americans
encountered by the Virginian settlers, from the
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Explain
document Nova Britannia, written in 1609:
your answer.
It is inhabited by wild and savage people that
live all over the forests. They have no law hut
native. They are easy to he brought to good
[Christian ways] but would happily like better
conditions.
Why did the British fall out with the
American colonists?

By the 1760s, the British had gained an

overseas empire in North America. They T Eimaij Adapted from a document called ‘On the
controlled a huge area of land on the eastern Plantation Trade’, written in 1698 by an English
coast, stretching back from the Atlantic Ocean economist and politician who recommended government
to the Mississippi River. Divided into 13 control of colonial economies:
colonies, each had strong ties to Britain. But in
1776, these 13 colonies broke away from That our subjects in the American colonies are children
Britain and declared themselves to be united of the state, and are to be treated as such, no one
as one independent country - the United denies; but it can’t reasonably be admitted that the
States of America. How and why did this mother country should [ruin] herself to enrich the
happen? children, nor that Great Britain should weaken herself
to strengthen America.
Independent actions
The Navigation Acts
In Virginia and other colonies, the British idea When the British started to intervene too much in
of having a class system of aristocrats (titled American affairs it caused resentment among the
nobles) and monarchs was seen as outdated. colonists. The Navigation Acts of 1651-73 contributed to
The people who had succeeded in America the colonists’ desire for independence from Britain.
were businessmen, mainly due to the These acts were introduced to enrich Britain; they were a
plantations. This meant America was full of series of laws which stipulated that American colonies
self-made’ people, and as a result, many could only import (buy) and export (sell) goods with
believed in equality - the idea that no matter British ships sailing to and from British ports. This
who you were, it was possible to make a monopoly of trade with just the British greatly restricted
success of yourself. Early colonies such as New the type and amount of goods that could be brought to
Plymouth also set up their own constitutions, America, which meant competition for products was
which clashed with British rule. So the idea of scarce, and so prices were often very high. When
being governed by men far away in Britain, American colonists tried to smuggle in cheaper goods
who had inherited their wealth, started to from other countries, the British patrolled the waters and
seem odd. Over time, they began to dislike the seized the smugglers.
control of their colonies by the British, and did
not want to be a part of the British Empire. Taxation
Some negative attitudes towards colonists by If the colonists wanted to buy anything from countries
the people in Britain didn’t help either. other than Britain, the goods had to go first to Britain,
where they were taxed. There was a very high tax on
goods such as glass, coffee, wine and sugar. There was
also the Stamp Act of 1765, which imposed a tax on the
paper used for official documents. Colonists were also
made to pay taxes to fund the British wars against the
French that the colonists felt had little to do with them.
Some colonists started to believe that if they were taxed
so heavily, then they should have representatives in the
British parliament, and have a say in British government.
The Boston Tea Party
Colonists had many reasons to
complain, and so a conflict began
to build. Colonists were especially
upset when the British taxed tea:
three pence was paid to Britain for
every pound of tea sold in
America. In protest, a group of
Americans boarded British ships in
Boston, in December 1773, and
dumped 342 crates full of tea
(worth around £11,000) into the
harbour. The British responded to
the ‘Boston Tea Party’ by closing
Boston port, causing even more
anger. When the British also
banned all town meetings, the
Americans began meeting in
secret. In 1774, 56 representatives
from the colonies met in
Philadelphia to decide what to do.
The Colonies Reduced was published in Britain in 1767;
This meeting is known as the ‘First
it appeared in colonial newspapers as a protest against
Congress’ (and even today, the
the hated Stamp Act. The cartoon depicts Britannia, and
American parliament is still known
she is surrounded by her amputated limbs which are
as Congress). Delegates at the First
named Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and New
Congress decided to fight the
England.
British: the War of Independence
began.

List the reasons why Americans wanted

independence from Britain, and how they Study Source B. How useful is it to a historian studying
achieved it. British involvement in America in the eighteenth
century?
Try to categorise your reasons into ‘long-term
causes’ and ‘short-term causes’. Tip
Explain the point the cartoonist is making about the
Create a timeline, of what happened in consequences of enforcing the Stamp Act.
American and British relations, with the
following dates: mid seventeenth century,
1765, 1773, 1774.
What were the consequences of losing the Colonies?

When discussing the history of the British Empire,

historians often mention the ‘rise and fall of the British
Empire’. The loss of the American colonies at the Treaty
of Paris (1783) was certainly a setback. But was it a
complete failure for Britain?
Losing America, gaining an empire?
The War of Independence The maps on these pages help us understand the
The British sent soldiers to force the American rebels to consequences, for Britain and its empire, of losing the
stay loyal, but they were met with fierce resistance. In American colonies.
July 1775, the Americans appointed George Washington
as the leader of their army - he would go on to become
their first President. A year later, in July 1776, Congress
met again and formally declared themselves
independent from Britain.

Although the 13 American colonies declared

independence in 1776, there was over five years of
bitter fighting before the British conceded that they had
lost. War officially ended on 3 September 1783, when
the Treaty of Paris was signed; but it is the British
surrender at the Battle of Yorktown (1781) that was seen
as the decisive end of the war. Britain had lost many
battles throughout the war, but Yorktown was the most
humiliating because the Americans completely
surrounded the British and forced Lord Cornwallis,
Britain’s army leader, to surrender. After Yorktown,
Britain realised that victory was impossible and
America’s ally, the French, increased their support for
the Americans further. This meant Britain had little
choice but to formally sign the Treaty of Paris, and so this The British Empire in 1775
valuable colony was lost to Britain.

Canada
When America broke away from British rule in 1776, the
colonies to the north (now known as Canada) remained
part of the British Empire. These huge colonies, such as
Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,
remained a key part of the empire for nearly a century,
until they achieved ‘self-government’ (the right to run
most of their own affairs) in 1867. America lost 100,000
settlers to Canada, who preferred to emigrate rather
than live under a republican government.
The war cost an estimated £80 million, which The West Indies and South America Britain
increased Britain’s debts. However, Britain was colonised parts of the Caribbean and the eastern
rapidly industrialising and was very wealthy. But coast of North America from the 1500s, until
the human costs were high, with an estimated American independence in 1226. After that,
10,000 British soldiers dying during battles or from Britain kept Central American territories (and
disease, and up to about 20,000 sailors dying. Canada) until the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Central American areas such as
Britain and America were soon trading again after Anguilla, Montserrat and the Cayman Islands, as
the war, and by 1285 this trade was back to its well as the Falkland Islands in South America,
pre-war levels. For example, the British slave are examples of countries in the Americas that
trade to the Americas continued. As the USA remained a part of the British Empire.
eventually became an ally of Britain’s, losing it
was not important in the long term. Britain’s pride
may have been dented, but financially, Britain was
still as strong as before - if not more. Since the USA
age of Elizabethan exploration, Britain had had a After beating the British, America was now a
very strong navy, and by 1813 it had developed republic controlling its own political and
into the world’s biggest. It helped to defend economic affairs. It was now free to develop
Britain’s existing colonies, gain new colonies, and and expand as it wished. However, America
fight against opponents such as the French. The lost up to 25,000 men during the war, mostly
British Empire stretched from Canada to the through disease. The impact of the soldiers’
Caribbean, parts of Africa [see Chapter 8), and deaths on American labour and industry was
India (see Chapter 2), and Britain was able to felt for many years. On the other hand, the
focus its wealth and resources in expanding and result of the war meant that Americans were
developingthese. The vast territories gained in able to forge stronger links with the French,
Africa and India between the 1200s and 1920 since they had supported the Americans
meant that Britain controlled a quarter of the against the British. However, the cost of
world. At that point, the British Empire was the helpingthe Americans fight caused severe
biggest empire the world had ever known. problems in France, which developed into
their own revolution - the French Revolution -
in 1289.

Australia The British Empire in 1920

After the War of Independence, Britain needed
a new place to send criminals, because it was
no longer able to send them to America.
Australia became the place to send them.
Furthermore, like New Zealand and Canada,
Australia was a loyal and dutiful colony. It
provided willing markets for British goods, and
also locations for ambitious or poverty- stricken
Britons to emigrate to.

1.Identify three consequences of Britain losing

the American War of Independence.
2.Write a short paragraph explaining what you
think is the significance of the War of
Independence for Britain.
3.Were political or economic reasons responsible
for causing the War
of Independence in 1225? Explain your answer.
 Edward VI, for example, allowed the first French church to be
Huguenot migration set up, and Elizabeth's ministers invited skilled Huguenot
craftsmen to work in England and teach British apprentices
their skills. As some Huguenots settled in Britain, more from
abroad followed them. Indeed, from Elizabeth’s time onwards,
Britain experienced an ongoing boom in wealth as the first
While some British people industrialised nation and skilled Huguenots played a part in
headed to America between the this.
sixteenth and eighteenth
centuries, people from other Another wave of migration
countries migrated to Britain. The number of French migrants fleeing to Britain began to drop
Immigrants who were escaping as the French religious wars ended by 1598. French King Henri
religious persecution from IV issued a bill of rights for the Huguenots called the Edict of
France, for example, contributed Nantes, which granted them freedom to practise their religion
greatly to British life at this time. without fear. However, France became an unwelcome and
However, their migration dangerous place for French Protestants again in the time of
provoked anti-French and Henri’s grandson, King Louis XIV. He agreed with his advisers
antiimmigration feelings. Were that allowing Huguenots to remain in France meant a threat to
these French Protestants, known his own absolute power as king. He withdrew the privileges
as Huguenots, a welcome Huguenots had been granted since his grandfather’s time, and
addition to Britain? gave Protestant ministers the choice of converting to
Catholicism or emigrating. Protestant families faced increasing
French Protestants arrive in intimidation. In 1685, Louis tore up the Edict of Nantes:
Britain without this written legal protection, the Huguenots were
France was a Catholic country, officially heretics and faced persecution once more. This time,
but it experienced a series of despite a ban on fleeing the country, up to 200,000 Huguenots
religious civil wars between the fled from France. Many faced risky journeys at sea, including
1560s and the 1590s. up to 50,000 who escaped to England.
The ruling French Catholics St Bartholomew's Day Massacre
severely persecuted those who An estimated 3000 Protestants were murdered in
wanted to follow Protestantism. Paris in this massacre in August 1572, and as many as 70,000
Hostilities reached a peak in throughout France. The massacre started because Catholics
August 1572 when tens of believed Protestants were plotting rebellions and war with
thousands of French Protestants Spain. This event marked a turning point in the French religious
were killed in the St wars, and the Huguenots lost many of their leaders.
Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. To
escape the killings, French
Protestants (or Huguenots)
started to emigrate to many
different destinations, and
neighbouring Britain was an ideal
choice. This was because A drawing from 1685,
England’s King Henry VIII had of French Huguenots
turned the country from Catholic landing at Dover,
to Protestant duringthe English fleeing from France
Reformation in the 1530s. when Louis XIV
French emigration continued revoked the Edict of
when Henry’s Protestant Nantes.
children, Edward VI and Elizabeth
I, ruled England. They made the
country a welcome place of
refuge for fellow Protestants.
 Impact of the Huguenots in
Britain 1.How useful is Source B to a historian studying
British attitudes towards immigrants to Britain in
The French Huguenots contributed much to British life the 1700s? Explain your answer using Source B
and had a positive social and economic impact on Britain. and your contextual knowledge.
As they were largely highly skilled craftsmen, they
revitalised British industries such as watchmaking, gun- 2.Has religion been the main factor in causing
making and bookbinding. Huguenot weavers, merchants migration to and from Britain since 790?
and joiners established businesses in communities as far Explain your answer with reference to religion
apart as London, Plymouth, Rochester, Norwich and and other factors. Look back over your notes
Canterbury. from previous chapters to refresh your memory

The Huguenots transformed existing British industries,

and started up new ones such as paper-making. With no
paper mills before the Huguenots arrived, Britain’s paper
industry relied mainly on imports from France. But by
the 1710s, Huguenot expertise meant that Britain
boasted 200 paper mills, supplying nearly 70 per cent of
Britain’s paper market. British banknotes were printed
by a Huguenot business from 1712 onwards, for over
Practice question
250 years. Britain also gained scientists, intellectuals and
Compare the impact of the Huguenots
experts from France that boosted the country’s business,
on Britain with the Pilgrim Fathers on
arts and crafts.
America. In what ways were they
similar?
However, there was some anti-Huguenot feeling in
Britain upon their arrival. Some felt that they took jobs
away from English people and were full of diseases. They
Source B
ate strange foods (such as snails) and one Bristol MP
even compared them to one of the plagues of Egypt in
the Bible. But, in time, the Huguenots merged into
English society. They changed or translated their
surnames to sound more English (Blanc became White,
for example) and married English men and women.

The impact of the Huguenot migration was significant for

France too: France lost many talented merchants and
craftsmen. Its glassware and hat-making industries were
lost, for example. In fact, France was so badly affected
that King Louis XIV’s ambassador to Britain offered
Huguenots cash to return to France! The Huguenots
were France’s loss and Britain’s gain.
What were the Ulster Plantations and the Highland
Clearances?

While Huguenots were moving into Britain,

there was also a great movement of people
out of, and around, the country. In the
northern part of Ireland (known as Ulster),
English and Scottish Protestants settled on land
confiscated from the Irish, while people who
lived in the Highlands of Scotland moved to the
Scottish Lowlands and other parts of Britain, or
emigrated abroad.
The Ulster Plantations
The Ulster Plantations began in the early
1600s during the reign of King James I of
England (and VI of Scotland). He planted’ the
northern part of Ireland (Ulster) from Scotland
and England, hopingthey would be obedient to
him and his government. Most settlers moved
hoping to find a new and better life for The Ulster Plantations; the settlers were given the name
themselves and their families, but most Irish 'undertakers', because they had to undertake certain
people resented what they saw as an conditions, including building a house and 'bawn' (fortified
‘invasion’. barn), and to settle the land with a minimum number of
The Ulster Plantations brought big changes. people of the Protestant faith
The population grew rapidly as thousands of
settlers arrived, and they brought with them
new customs and a new religion -
The Highlanders were largely Catholics and
Protestantism. Resentment between the
Jacobites (supporters of the Stuart royal family),
Protestant settlers and the mainly Catholic
and had participated in the Stuart-led Jacobite
Irish continued for centuries and often spilled
Rebellions. These occurred in 1715 and 1745-46
over into violence.
after the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne, died
The Highland Clearances
in 1714; following her death the German prince
In the early 1700s, over half the people in
George of Hanover had come over to rule the
Scotland lived in the Highlands. Most spoke
country as King George I. Descendants of the
Gaelic, a language similar to Irish, and the way
Stuarts tried to regain the throne through the
of life was different from those who lived in
rebellions, but they failed. After they had been
Lowland Scotland. Many Highlanders belonged
finally defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746,
to ‘clans’ (a type of‘family group’, like a tribe).
the English wanted to reduce the power of the
Clan members supported their chief in return
Highlanders and their chiefs, since many of them
for protection and leadership. Most
were loyal to the Stuarts, and not to George I.
Highlanders were farmers, and families lived
The English began a brutal policy of removing all
on the same small farms for generations. They
potential opposition in the Highlands by
lived in simple stone cottages called crofts, and
eliminating Scottish chiefs who supported the
made money from selling wheat they grew on
Stuarts, together with their clans. Some chiefs
the farms. In the Lowlands, the towns and
had no choice but to keep the English happy; they
cities were growing, and manufacturers and
did this by supporting English demands to clear
merchants were becoming wealthy.
the Highlands of its clans, in what became known
as the Highland Clearances. Laws were passed
making life difficult for Highlanders, and bagpipes
were banned because they were viewed as
‘instruments of war’.
 Different tactics were used to clear the Highlands. From
A new type of farming1 in the Highlands the 1780s to the 1820s, tens of thousands of Highlanders
Much of the land in the Highlands was were evicted from their homes. Evictions of up to 2000
owned by Englishmen and rented by families in one day were not uncommon. Highland
Highlanders. However, at this time, the families were forced onto barren coastal land, or other
English landlords began to prefer the idea of unworkable land, and many starved to death.
having large sheep farms, rather than Highlanders who refused to leave could be killed. Even
renting small strips of land to tenant the old and dying had their homes burned or were
farming families. Sheep farming made the thrown out in the open to die. Many of the chiefs were
landlords more money. However, the fully aware of what was going on; and many clans felt
Highland farmers were usually too poorto betrayed.
buy the large numbers of sheep needed, so Impact on the British Empire
chiefs and landlords began to clearthe Thousands of Scottish people emigrated during the era
Highlanders away to make way for the more of the Highland Clearances, to countries such as Canada,
profitable sheep farming. Many were forced America and England as well as to Scottish cities such as
to move to towns and cities in the Lowlands Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
to look for work, but many more emigrated The word diaspora describes the scattering of a group of
abroad. peopleacross a wide location. The Scottish diaspora
contributed greatly to those countries in which the
Highlanders settled - and to the empire itself. Many
Scots contributed engineering skills to the building of
roads, railways and many building schemes in the
How were the Highlands cleared? colonies. Many of the empire’s greatest explorers, such
as David Livingstone, were Scottish. Some historians
argue that the empire didn’t really start expanding until
A painting bY Scottish artist Thomas Faed, called England and Scotland stopped fighting and the Scots put
The their efforts into empire-building. The British Empire was
Last of the Clan (1865); Faed was a popular and most certainly British, not English.
respected artist in London; the women in the
picture are fashionably dressed for peasants 1.a) Why were Protestants'planted'in
Ulster by King James? B) What was the impact of the
Ulster
Plantations?
2. Who were the Highlanders?
3. Why did the Highlanders rebel against the English
duringthe Jacobite Rebellions?
4. a)Suggest two reasons why the Highlands were
cleared,
b) How were the Highlands cleared?
5.Compare the Ulster Plantations with the Highland
Clearances.
Practice questions
How useful is Source B to a historian studying Scottish
emigration from the Highlands in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries?
Tip
Remember that to demonstrate how useful a source is,
you should also show that you know what point the
source is trying to make. Try to link it to your knowledge
of this period and topic.
 British control of India
India is rich in natural resources - iron ore, silk, copper, gold, silver, gemstones, tea and timber. Spices
(which were very valuable in the Middle Ages) are common in India too. This meant that any country
that made strong trade links with India could potentially become very rich and powerful.

Rivalry amongst Nations

 In the 15th century a sea route to India was
discovered and European countries began
sending ships to trade with India.
 Initially they traded by swapping items such as
guns and swords for spices, cotton, tea and silk.
This trade made the Europeans a big profit.
 Britain, short of people to help control its
Empire began to pay and train up Indian men to
become soldiers to fight for them.
 With the permission of local rulers the
European traders set up permanent bases
called trading stations.
 These were warehouses surrounded by high A map of India and the main trading stations, showing the
walls and guarded by soldiers where goods countries that ran them.
could be stored or traded. Many traders moved
their families to live in the trading stations.
 There were often workshops or 'factories'
within these trading ports that turned some of ECONOMIC FACTOR
the raw materials into goods; e.g. cotton was The British (and other European
woven into cotton cloth in trading stations to countries) went to India as there
supply the huge demand for cheap, washable
fabrics. were valuable resources to make
 Opium, an addictive drug, was also grown and their country richer.
sold by British traders in China at a huge profit.

The East India Company (EIC)

 The British trading stations were run by one company -the East India Company (EIC).
 It had been trading all over the world since it was set up in 1600. The company’s ships carried cheap
British goods and exchanged them for goods in countries as far away as Japan and China. They then
brought the fine china, silk, coffee and spices back to Britain.
 The businessmen in charge of the company, and the kings and queens to whom they paid taxes,
made a fortune from this trade.
 It had a monopoly in British trade in India to begin with, but this ended in 1694. However, by then
the EIC was so powerful, with its own army and navy, that it continued to be the major force in trade
in India for the next century.

Invasions in the 17th and 18th Centuries

 Control over the goods coming out of India wasn’t the only thing that attracted the Europeans: India
was a good place in which to sell their own goods to the many millions of Indians in their territory.
 Dutch, French and British companies realised that by helping certain Hindu princes (by providing
them with weapons and soldiers, for example), they could affect the outcome of the wars, and help
the princes to beat their enemies. They could then demand rewards from the princes they had
supported - perhaps land or goods.
 British rule over India
The Mughals (ruling Emperors) began to lose control of India by the late 1600s and early 1700s. It was
at exactly this time, when much of India was at war, that some European nations - and powerful trading
companies such as the East India Company - began to take advantage of the situation.

Expansion of the EIC

 In the 1700s, the EIC began to take more and more Indian land. It had its own private army and navy,
and used them against various regional rulers of India.
 For example, at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, around 3000 company troops (2200 of whom were
local Indians) led by Robert Clive defeated an Indian army of over 40,000.
 This allowed the EIC to take over Bengal, one of the richest parts of India.
 The company also fought against other European nations, such as the Dutch, and took over their
trading posts.

Robert Clive
 Born in Shropshire to a wealthy family.
 Moved to India, aged 18, to work as an office clerk for the EIC.
 Joined the company’s army and quickly proved to be a great
leader.
 Best known for his victory at the Battle of Plassey in June 1757.
Victory enabled the company to progress further across India.
 Returning to England, was elected to parliament in 1761 and given
an Irish barony.
 In 1763, returned to India as Governor and Commander-in-Chief
of the East India Company’s army.

Britain takes control

 Over the following decades, more and more of India came under the rule of the East India Company.
 Despite making huge profits in India, the EIC was losing money elsewhere, mainly as a result of a
decline in trade with America at this time.
 In 1773, the British government decided to help solve the company’s financial problems (as the EIC
paid taxes and they didn’t want to lose India). The Government of India Act stated that both the
British government and the East India Company controlled the territory in India jointly.
 A Governor General was appointed to control the territory, and Warren Hastings was given the job.
 After Britain lost the valuable American colonies in the late 1700s, India became an even more
important part of the empire. The British government became increasingly involved in India and
gradually took more control of the EIC’s affairs.

Warren Hastings
 First Governor General of India (1733-85).
 Best known as a reformer: reorganised tax systems, tightened ECONOMIC
anti-corruption laws, wiped out thieving gangs who were running FACTOR
wild in the countryside.
After losing the
 Tried to preserve existing Indian traditions and systems too.
 Despite ending his career in a controversial way - Hastings was American colonies the
falsely accused of 'high crimes and misdemeanors' by his political British needed India
enemies - he is regarded as one of the key figures in establishing more than ever!
India as part of the British Empire.
 The Indian Mutiny 1857
By the 1850s, most of India was ruled by a British company - the East India Company. Many of the
British people who worked for the EIC lived in great luxury in India and made huge fortunes. To help
‘protect’ them in India - and to make sure things ran smoothly - British soldiers were stationed there.
The army also recruited local Indians as soldiers.

Sepoys and Rebellion

 According to Queen Victoria, the aim of the British Empire was to ‘protect the poor natives and
advance civilisation’.
 It was clear, then, that there was more to the empire than just the financial benefits. British empire-
builders felt they were superior to the native people who lived in the colonies, who were a different
colour and worshipped in a different way.
 In India, the British claimed that they were improving the country, by building railways, roads, schools
and hospitals, rather than exploiting it.
 However, in the army, the Sepoys were very unhappy:
 They weren’t treated well; WAR FACTOR
 They had little hope of promotion; This war resulted in the
 They were often the first to be sent to the most dangerous places; British government
 Some were being pressured into converting to Christianity. having direct control of
India; therefore
The Spark officials and politicians
migrated there.
 In January 1857, a new Enfield rifle was given to each Indian soldier.
 It was rumoured that the grease covering the ammo (called cartridges) was made from animal fat, a
mixture of pork and beef fat. Hindus don’t eat beef because cows are sacred to them, and Muslims
are forbidden to eat pork.
 The Sepoys objected to the new cartridges, but they were largely ignored.
 When 85 Sepoys refused to use the cartridges in Meerut on 9 May 1857, they were arrested and sent
to jail for ten years. The day after, a group of Sepoys broke into revolt in Meerut.
 They killed British officers, freed the imprisoned Sepoys and set fire to army barracks and soon the
whole of northern India was engulfed in rebellion.

India at War
 The main battles were fought in Delhi, Cawnpore and Lucknow.
The massacre of 200 British women and children at Cawnpore (July
1857) outraged the British.
 Back home in Britain, crowds cried for blood. Even Queen Victoria
was horrified. Soon, 70,000 fresh troops were sent to India armed
with the latest Colt revolvers made in America. Revenge was
violent, bloody and swift.

Rebellion or fight for independence?

 Peace was declared on 8 July 1858, but the rebellion had shocked the British.
 After the events, the British were a lot more careful about how they governed India.
 Running of the country was taken away from the East India Company and replaced with direct rule by
the British government.
 For Indians today, it is most often referred to as the 'War of Independence’ or the ‘Great Rebellion’. It
is looked upon as the first episode in the struggle against the British for an independent country.
 Impact of Empire - India
India was the largest and richest of all the territories in Britain’s empire. In 1858, a viceroy appointed by
the British was put directly in charge of the country and ran it on behalf of Queen Victoria. The queen
even gave herself an extra title, Empress of India, in addition to her traditional title of Queen of Great
Britain and Ireland. Indeed, India was the colony that many people in Britain treasured most - even
calling it ‘the jewel in the crown’.

Impact on India
Resources taken from India – tea,
British would harshly deal coffee, sugar, gemstones, gold,
Devastating famines in the late
with any resistance. silver, silk and spices.
1800s killed millions – farms were
producing ‘cash crops’ not food.
Malaria & smallpox vaccines.
Thousands of schools and
Improved sewers and water colleges built.
supplies.
Impact on New legal system created
ensuring Indian traditions and
£400 million invested into India’s India culture was taken into account
transport system, much still
survives today.
Factories were built in India
owned by British mill owners but
30,000km of railways built. provided work.
Irrigation programme introduced
increased the land that could be Innovations in coal mining were
130,000 bridges built. farmed by 8 times. paid for by the British.

Impact on Britain
Boost to economy, industry and
wealth – supplying Britain with
Tea industry alone made raw materials which could be In 1900 these exports
£30 million a year. turned into finished products thought to be worth £140
and sold back to countries in the million a year.
British Empire.

The Indian army fought for Jobs for merchants, sailors,

Britain in both world wars dockworkers, factory
workers, shopkeepers,
– in WW1 1 out of every 3 Impact on etc…
British soldiers came from
India! Britain
Buildings such as the Royal
Pavilion in Brighton were
influenced by Indian
Indian tea became the architecture.
national drink of Britain.
Indian food became
popular in Britain. Queen Victoria employed an Indian
secretary who taught her Hindi and Urdu.
 The Scramble for Africa
Until the 1800s, European countries weren’t really interested in Africa - unless it was to make use of
people from the west of Africa as slaves. Britain was one of the nations that took the most land: 16
colonies were added to the British Empire between 1820 and 1900.

African benefits
 Explorers and missionaries (such as Britain’s David Livingstone) brought back tales of African gold,
diamonds and ivory - as well as ‘cash crops’ such as rubber, coffee and timber - so some of the
world’s richest countries looked to Africa as a way of getting even richer.
 The idea was to take over land in Africa, strip the natural resources and then sell finished goods from
Britain back to the people who lived there.
 This was also a time of ‘Empire building’ where having control of lots of land made you seem more
important than rival countries.
 Christian missionaries referred to Africa as the ‘Dark Continent’ and by preaching the benefits of
Christianity thought their job was to ‘enlighten’ it.

ECONOMIC The Scramble

FACTOR  In the late 1870s, several European nations started to ‘claim’ land in
Africa. The French and Belgians began to colonise much of the west
There was a great deal of
of Africa, while the Germans and the British were interested in the
money to be made by
east and the south.
colonising Africa.  Britain took over 16 huge areas of land (or colonies) in Africa during
the scramble’, including Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Northern
GOVERNMENT and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia).
 Britain’s land ran in an almost unbroken line from Egypt in the north
FACTOR of Africa to South Africa in the south.
To have more colonies was  In total, the British had claimed 32 per cent of Africa by 1900.
to be more powerful than  Britain's control of key areas of African land was important because
the European rivals. it lay along part of Britain's sea route to India.

African resistance
 African people fought fiercely at times to defend their
lands, but the invention of the Maxim gun (a type of
machine gun) gave the European armies a major
advantage over the Africans, who were mainly armed
with spears and swords.
 Sometimes, African tribes scored major victories over
European countries (such as in the Zulu War of 1829),
but more often than not the European invaders wiped
out the African forces.
 After they were defeated, many Africans suffered
hardship and hunger as their traditional way of life was
destroyed.
 Some were forced to work as cheap labour in mines or
on huge British-owned farms growing tea, coffee,
cotton or cocoa for export back to Britain.
Africa in 1900, after the ‘scramble’, showing the areas
controlled by various European countries
 Cecil Rhodes
Cecil Rhodes is regarded as one of Britain’s greatest empire-builders. Streets, schools, and even two
African countries - Southern and Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia) - were named after
him. When he died, statues of him were erected all over the world.

Cecil Rhodes
 Born in Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire, England; 1853.
 In 1870 went to Cape Colony aged 17, the southern part of Africa controlled by the British, to work in
gold and diamond mines. Soon made a fortune.
 In 1881 was elected to the Cape Colony parliament, and in 1890 became its Prime Minister.
 In 1888 he formed a company, De Beers, which owned most of the gold and diamond fields in
southern Africa. He then used his money and political skills to gain control of more land.
 When gold and diamonds were discovered in the Transvaal, an area controlled by Dutch settlers
known as Boers, Rhodes was refused permission to mine there. Britain was dragged into wars with
the Boers.

Rhodes’ ideas about Empire IDEOLOGY

 Rhodes was an imperialist, and believed that Britain should FACTOR
extend its power and influence over other parts of the world by The idea of Social
any means possible. Darwinism was a
 He believed he could take Darwin’s theory of evolution, which justification for
said that weaker animals would die out and stronger ones would
migration to Africa.
evolve and survive, and apply it to countries or peoples.
 Darwin’s theory made Rhodes think it was right for the stronger
(and therefore ‘superior’) Britain to take over weaker countries. INDIVIDUAL
 This belief - called social Darwinism - was frequently used to
justify European imperialism in Africa and other areas of the
FACTOR
world. Cecil Rhodes is an
example of migrating
abroad and having
Cecil Rhodes assessed success. This would
have inspired others.
 Rhodes is a controversial figure.
 His actions caused the Boer war in which thousands died.
 While a politician, he introduced an act that pushed black
people from their lands and increased taxes on their homes.
He also made it harder for black people to vote.
 On the other hand, he brought vast wealth to Britain and
made the southern part of Africa into a more stable and
developed place.
 When he died, he left money in a scholarship funds.
 Ideas like social Darwinism were widely accepted at the
time, and Rhodes was simply doing what lots of people and
countries were doing.
 However, others argue that there should be no excuse for a
person’s actions and beliefs, no matter when they lived. We
look at Rhodes differently today because we have
contrasting views about empire and race to those that were
The removal of the Cecil Rhodes statue, in April
common in previous centuries.
2015, from the University of Cape Town
 Britain and Egypt
The Suez Canal in Egypt, is an important A map of the Suez Canal, and
trade link between the Mediterranean Sea the different shipping
and the Indian Ocean. distances from London to
The 164-kilometre-long canal is in northern Mumbai. The canal reduces
Africa. the journey distance by over
4000 nautical miles, making
Its opening in 1869 meant that countries
the journey around two
who wished to trade with India (and other weeks shorter.
eastern countries) did not have to sail their
ships all around the vast continent of Africa.
This was safer and faster, so goods could
travel much quicker.

The Suez Canal

 The British government took no part in
paying for the Suez Canal, or its
construction.
 However, the route was vital for Britain’s
trade with India as it meant that ships
could take a short cut.
 Within a few years of the canal opening,
around 80 per cent of the ships using
the canal were British.
 Furthermore, in the event of another rebellion in India,
or problems in other British colonies in the area, the time saved by using the canal could be vital.
 So to secure the route, the British government bought a controlling share in the canal from the
Egyptians when they got into financial difficulty. The deal to buy this share of the canal was
organised by British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who arranged for the government to borrow
£4 million.

Egypt in Trouble
 Just a few years after receiving money from the sale of their shares in the canal, the Egyptian
government was again in economic difficulties.
 The British, in partnership with the French, gave money to the Egyptians in return for control over
much of their trade, railways, post offices and ports.
 But in 1882, the Egyptians rebelled against this British and French ‘interference’. In one riot in
Alexandria, a number of British people were killed, and the British responded by ordering the navy to
bomb the city.

Occupying Egypt
 A few days after the bombing of Alexandria in July 1882, soldiers from Britain and 2000 soldiers from
British India entered Egypt. They began taking control of major towns and cities, including the capital,
Cairo. Over 40 navy warships secured the Suez Canal.
 So, by 1882, Britain had gained control of another African country. Thousands of soldiers were
permanently based in Egypt and British navy warships defended the Suez Canal.
 The Boer War 1889-1902
In the 1800s, two groups of Europeans competed for control of land in southern Africa - the British and
the Boers. The Boers were descendants of Dutch settlers who had gone to southern Africa in the 1650s.
They were mostly farmers (boer is the Dutch word for farmer) and their colony was named Cape Colony.
In 1806, the British invaded Cape Colony and it soon officially became part of the British Empire. The
Boers resented British control and left Cape Colony to head north. They set up two new colonies named
the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

Causes of the Boer Wars

 In 1862, diamonds were discovered in the new Boer states.
 The British government tried to get the Boers to unite their states with the British ones, but the Boers
refused.
 British troops were sent in to try to force the Boers to accept British rule, but the Boers fought back
brilliantly.
 The Boers won the first Boer war (1867-1881) and the British pulled out.
 In 1886, gold was discovered in the Boer states. British businessman Cecil Rhodes saw this as an
opportunity and opened dozens of mines inside Boer territory. Thousands of British workers flooded
into the area and soon the Boers felt their land was under threat.
 The Boer leader, Paul Kruger, refused to give the British workers any political rights.
 Tensions reached breaking point when Cecil Rhodes sponsored a plan (which failed) to overthrow
Kruger and replace him with a British ruler.
 The British began to send more troops to Cape Colony, and placed them along the borders with the
Boer states. In 1899, another war broke out.

The Second Boer War: 1899-1902

 Early on in this war, known as the Second Boer War, the small Boer army stunned the British with a
series of victories. The British had completely underestimated the Boers, who were highly skilled
fighters, armed with modern guns, who knew the terrain well.
 In January 1900, the British responded to their losses by sending half a million troops to fight
approximately 50,000 Boer soldiers. The British army used all the hi-tech weaponry they had -
machine guns, modern rifles and high explosive shells. Yet the Boers refused to surrender and carried
out dozens of small raids on British camps, railways and mines.
 The British responded savagely. The British commander during the Second Boer War, General
Kitchener, decided that the only way to get the Boers to surrender was to introduce a scorched earth
policy.
 This meant that British soldiers were instructed to burn down Boer farms, kill the animals, destroy
crops and poison drinking wells.
 Then Boer men, women, children, and their black servants were rounded up into ‘concentration
camps’. Out of 116,000 Boers put in these camps, 28,000 (mainly children) died, largely due to disease
and illness brought on by poor conditions.
 In 1902 the Boers finally agreed a peace and all the territories were joined together to form what is
now South Africa.

Consequences of the War

1. It showed how desperately the British would fight to hold 4. It passed laws giving free school meals and medical checks
onto their Empire. for poor children.
2. Thousands of men volunteered, they were enthusiastic 5. It introduced unemployment pay and sickness benefits to
about supporting the Empire. help the most vulnerable.
3. Many men were declared unfit to fight and this made the 6. Domestic science was taught in schools to encourage good
government look at conditions for the poor. nutrition and healthy living.
 Celebrating Empire
In 1887, Queen Victoria celebrated 50 years as queen. The event was marked by special celebrations,
and Queen Victoria was cheered by thousands of people as she travelled to a special service at
Westminster Abbey, London. The public enthusiasm for her Golden Jubilee resulted in the production of
a huge range of souvenirs. Commemorative plates, teacups, biscuit tins, spoons, special coins and
pictures were produced and bought by members of the public. These souvenirs form part of what we
can call imperial propaganda.

Queen Victoria
 The British Empire expanded rapidly during the
reign of Queen Victoria (reign: 1837-1901).
 The British government, and the queen herself, IDEOLOGY FACTOR
knew that a large empire brought trading The imperial propaganda that, the British
benefits to Britain and made the country Empire was the best, would have
richer. encouraged people to migrate to parts of the
 There was also the belief the British had a Empire to help make Britain greater.
‘right’ to the land and were helping people in
conquered nations by teaching them a new,
Christian way of life.
 Even Queen Victoria said that one of the aims
of the British Empire was to ‘protect the poor
natives and to advance civilisation’. This was a
time when most people were very loyal to their
queen and their country, and patriotic pride
was encouraged - the government realised that
if people’s enthusiasm for the empire remained
high, then it would have their full support when
taking over more land abroad.
Queen Victoria at her coronation in 1937 and then at her
Diamond Jubilee in 1887.

Imperial propaganda
 All sorts of products, from bars of soap to tins of chocolates, were covered with images relating to
the glory of the empire.

 Posters, school books, exhibitions and parades all conveyed the empire’s positive aspects. This was a
type of imperial propaganda, in which the positive aspects, ideas and information about the empire
were spread in order to influence public opinion and beliefs.

 In schools, textbooks were filled with stories of Britain’s great empire-builders, such as Cecil Rhodes,
and students were taught that a huge empire was Britain’s destiny.

 Poems and music hall songs celebrated the power of Britain and its armed forces, and even nursery
rhyme books sometimes had an empire theme.

 Furthermore, two new societies were formed (the British Empire League and the British Colonial
Society) to support the idea of imperialism and to promote loyalty to the British Empire.

 Newspapers wrote vivid accounts of successful battles overseas, and the spread of the telegraph
communication system meant that stories could appear within a day of the event.
 Irish Migration
One of the largest groups to come to Britain in the last few hundred years has been the Irish. There
were a number of reasons why they came…

Why Migrate?
 From the late eighteenth century onwards, large numbers of Irish people migrated to Britain, mainly
through the ports of Liverpool and Glasgow.
 Thousands stayed in those cities, and there are still large Irish communities there now. Most came to
escape the extreme poverty in parts of Ireland, and to find better paid work.
 Many found jobs around the country as navvies, building the many new canals, roads and later
railways: one third of the navvies who worked on the railways were Irish. They also worked in mines
and in cotton mills, in Britain’s quickly expanding towns and cities.
 There was a great surge in Irish immigration after 1846, when a disease called ‘potato blight’ ruined
the Irish potato harvest.
 Potatoes formed a major part of the Irish diet at this time, so many people starved. Around one
million people (or one eighth of the population) died during famine, either from starvation or from
illnesses that their weakened bodies couldn’t fight.
 Hundreds of thousands fled to Britain, peaking in the 1840s and 1850s, when over one and a half
million Irish people left their homeland.

British reaction to the Irish

Impact of the Irish migration

 Despite the difficulties, the Irish settlers continued to arrive in Britain, especially in the 1930s, 1950s
and 1960s, when people came looking for work in Britain’s expanding cities.
 Over the years there were fewer problems between the Irish and the British as they intermarried.
 The Irish, therefore, have made a huge impact on Britain. Britain’s canals, roads and railways could
not have been built without the Irish navvies, and in the early 1800s, as many as 40 per cent of
soldiers in the British army were Irish.
 Irish dancing, music and bars have become part of British culture. Famous Irish-born people include
writers Oscar Wilde and C. S. Lewis, explorer Ernest Shackleton and the military hero, the Duke of
Wellington.
 Jewish Migration
In 1290, King Edward I expelled all the Jews from England. It was over 350 years until England’s leaders
allowed Jews back in. There were only about 400 Jews living in England in 1B90. However, by 1850 the
number of Jews had grown to about 40,000 (out of a population of 18 million). As the Jewish
communities prospered, their contribution to British life grew.

Early migrations
 By the mid-1800s, Jewish people had made important
contributions to Britain. By then, of course, many Jews regarded
themselves as British.
 The vast majority had been born in Britain, spoke English and lived
typical British lifestyles. The first Jewish Mayor of London took
office in 1855, and shortly afterwards Lionel de Rothschild
became the first Jewish MP.
 As well as his role as a politician, Rothschild was a banker who
famously lent money to the British government to buy a
controlling share in the Suez Canal from Egypt.
 Since then, the British parliament has never been without Jewish
politicians. In 1874, Benjamin Disraeli became Britain’s first Jewish
Prime Minister.
Disraeli and Queen Victoria,
New Jewish migrations painted in 1887

 In the 1870s and 1880s, there was a new influx of Jews from Eastern Europe, mainly from Russia.
Jews had been wrongly blamed for the assassination of the Russian emperor Tsar Alexander II in
1881, and laws and attacks against them (called pogroms) became common. Around 120,000 Jews
arrived in Britain, mainly fleeing from extreme persecution like this.
 However, apart from their faith, these new refugees had little in common with the Jews already living
in Britain. They looked different, were largely uneducated and didn’t speak any English. They were
paid badly and lived in the poorest areas. There was a lot of resentment towards them as they were
seen as ‘taking jobs’ away from British people.
 The new immigrants worked in sweatshops (small backstreet workshops that were very hot)- making
clothes, shoemaking or furniture making
 Within a few decades, Jewish communities gained a reputation as hardworking, law-abiding citizens
with ambition and keen business sense.
 Many current UK businesses such as TESCO and Marks & Spencers were started by Jewish
businessmen.

Our oldest ethnic minority

 The Jewish community is now a successful and important part
of British society. Jews live all over Britain but have particularly
large communities in London, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow. RELIGION FACTOR
 British Jews who today continue to excel in the world of Jewish people migrated
business include Lord Alan Sugar and Philip Green (owner of
Topshop and Miss Selfridge). to Britain as they were
 Many British Jews have been successful in show business too, persecuted because of
including Daniel Radcliffe, Orlando Bloom and Matt Lucas. their faith.
Many Jews have fought for Britain, six British Jewish soldiers
have received the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery.
 Forced Migration - Transportation
During the era of the British Empire, millions of people migrated huge distances across the globe. Some
of these people had no choice but to move and were forced to go. Others willingly migrated as they
looked for fresh challenges and new opportunities. The most obvious example of forced migration was
the transport of millions of Africans as slaves to work on sugar, tobacco and cotton farms in the West
Indies and North America. The transportation of prisoners to America and Australia in the 1700s and
1800s is another example of forced migration.

Case study: Africa and Asia

 When slavery ended in the early 1800s, the British needed another way to get large amounts of
people to work on their plantations, estates and farms in various parts of the empire.
 The indenture system was created, meaning that migrants would agree to work for a period of five
years in return for a basic wage and transport to their new workplace. The worker was to be returned
at the end of the period of service to the port of departure. Around half of the immigrants to the
American colonies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries went there under this system.
 It has been estimated that, between 1841 and 1910, around 150,000 people per decade moved
around the empire under this system.
 In the British African colonies of Kenya and Uganda, for example, over 30,000 Indians moved there
under the indenture system to help build railways, bridges and roads.
 Some came home when the work was done, but thousands stayed and they and their descendants
went on to play a vital part in the African economies as businessmen, bankers, shopkeepers and
professionals.

Case study: Australia

 In April 1220, a British explorer named James Cook claimed the ECONOMIC
east coast of Australia for Britain and named it New South Wales.
The British government then sent naval commander Captain FACTOR
Arthur Phillip to set up the first colony on Australian soil. The The system of Indentured
government also wanted him to transport convicts from Britain’s servants allowed
overcrowded jails to help him do it: it was hoped that these plantation owners to
prisoners would never return to Britain. replace slavery with cheap
 In May 1282, 11 ships left Portsmouth heading for the new British workers. Who could then
colony. There were over 1300 people on board the ships, including
start a new life abroad.
236 convicted criminals.
 The convicts began to build the settlement. Each convict was
assigned a master. The master decided what work each convict
would carry out. Good, hardworking convicts earned themselves
an early release, while bad behaviour ended in a whipping or an
extended sentence.
GOVERNMENT FACTOR
 Over the next 20 years, British courts transported over 20,000
more convicts to join them. But life in the new settlement was To solve the problem
tough. Few of the convicts - or their masters - knew about farming of overcrowded jails
or carpentry, two of the most important skills needed in the new in 1882 government
colony.
 Australia was first used mainly as a place to dump Britain’s began transporting
criminals, but things soon started to change. The majority of criminals to the
convicts decided to stay in Australia at the end of their sentences. colonies.
 Many became sheep or wheat farmers. Britain would eventually
claim the whole of Australia as part of the British Empire.
 People on the move
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many millions of people moved around the British Empire
for different reasons. But it wasn’t just within the empire that this migration happened - millions of
people moved around Britain too.

Leaving home
 It has been estimated that over 22 million
people left Britain between 1815 and 1914, the
vast majority going to North America, South
Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
 Thousands were lured to North America and
South Africa to hunt for gold and diamonds.
 In the late 1200s, the first ‘free settlers’ began
to arrive in Australia from Britain, attracted by
the idea of a new life in another part of the
world.
 Emigration was also seen as a solution to the
growing problem of crime and poverty in
Britain. The government gave local councils
money to create schemes that encouraged the
poorest people in an area to emigrate.

Internal migration
 Migration is not just about leaving one country to go to another. A
person can also migrate within their own country. This is
sometimes called internal migration.

 This took place in Britain, more rapidly than at any other time,
between the years 1250 and 1900.

 Britain’s population went from around 10 million in 1801 to about

32 million in 1901 due to improvements in food supply, medicine
and sanitation.

 The amount of people in towns and cities (urban areas) grew

much faster than in country (rural) areas at this time, particularly
in London and the large industrial towns in the North and the
Midlands. We call this process urbanisation - the increase in the
proportion of people living in urban areas. This was because:
ECONOMIC FACTOR
 Immigration from abroad: immigrants were attracted to People emigrated to
jobs in urban areas.
find a better life with
 Rural to urban migration: farm machinery became more more wealth. In the UK
common, so fewer workers were needed on farms. People migrated to the
Farming is also very seasonal, whereas factory work isn’t,
cities in search of work.
so workers in the countryside poured into urban areas to
find work.
 The British lose an Empire
Map A below shows the British Empire at its largest, in the early 1920s. At that point it was the largest
empire the world had ever known. It contained around 450 million people and it covered about one
quarter of the world’s total land area. Today the British Empire (now called the British Overseas
Territories) is very small, consisting of a few small areas, mainly islands, dotted around the world.

Impact of the World Wars

 Before the First World War, Britain was one of
the richest countries in the world, with its
mighty industrial power and vast empire.
 However, after four years of fighting, Britain's
wealth was nearly all gone: it was now in debt
because it had borrowed money, mainly from
the USA.
 Also, during the war many countries had been
cut off from the supply of British goods so had
been forced to build up their own industries.
They were no longer reliant on Britain, and
directly competed with it instead Britain, Map A: The British Empire at its territorial peak in 1921
 The First World War changed Britain’s status in
the world: it was no longer the world’s
economic superpower.
 After the war, Britain recovered some of its
strength, but it was then completely
ECONOMIC FACTOR
bankrupted by the Second World War. Britain's Both World War left Britain
economy was also beginningt o change. economically crippled. They
 Its trade with Europe and the USA became far
more important than its trade with countries of
simply could afford to keep onto
the empire. Britain was also no longer as their empire
important on the world.
Demanding Independence
 By 1914, several of Britain’s colonies - such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa - had
already been running their own affairs for several years. In 1922, Egypt became independent too.
 These countries, and others in the empire, played an important role in Britain’s victory in both world
wars by supplying troops and materials. However, by the end of the Second World War, many other
British colonies were demanding independence, or the right to rule themselves.
 Britain no longer had the military strength or the wealth to hold onto them. Also, many British
people felt that rebuilding Britain after the war was far more of a priority than holding on to distant
colonies.
 There were several reasons why there was an increasing demand for independence:

 The British-style education systems in some of the colonies (such as India) meant that many
people there were now becoming teachers, lawyers and doctors. They learned about political
ideas, like democracy and freedom, and wanted this for their own countries.

 The Africans and Indians who had fought for Britain felt they were fighting to defend
freedom, and were getting increasingly frustrated that their own countries were not yet free.
They thought it was wrong that they should fight to stop the Nazis occupying other countries,
but not fight to stop Britain occupying theirs.
 British rule over India
 Researchers, historians and scholars were showing how important the cultures and
achievements of Africa and Asia had been before the Europeans had taken over. Many people
in the colonies were very nationalistic and wanted to revive their old traditions, and this could
only be done if the British left.
 Some critics of British rule argued that Britain seemed happier to allow self-rule in countries
that contained a majority of white settlers (such as Australia and Canada) rather than ‘non-
white’ colonies such as India or in Africa. They suggested that the British thought people of
European descent (such as in Australia and Canada) were superior to non-Europeans. The
demand for independence from the ‘non-white’ colonies began to grow.

Case Study 1: Independence of India

The campaign for Indian independence began with the founding of
the Indian National Congress in 1885.
In 1919, the British made slight changes to the way India was
governed. Law-making councils were set up in each province and over
five million wealthy Indians were given the vote.
However, the British government in London still controlled taxation,
the armed forces, education and much more.
In the 1920s, the Indian independence movement gained more
support under the leadership of Mohandas Gandhi. He led a series of
non-violent protests against the British.
Muslims in India had formed their own independence group (the
Muslim League), and their leader called for a new separate country
for Muslims. INDIVIDUAL
After the Second World War, Britain wasn’t strong enough to hold
on to India
FACTOR
In 1947,Britain offered independence to India - but Muslims did not Ghandi and Kenyatta
want to live under a Hindu majority and terrible violence broke out. inspired millions to
Indian and British finally leaders agreed to partition British India into rebel against the
two states-Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. Sadly, troubles at the British Empire.
start of the two new, independent nations continue to this day

Case Study 2: Independence of Kenya

 In Kenya, a number of groups formed to fight for self- rule in the
1940s. One group, the Kenya African Union (KAU) and its leader Jomo
Kenyatta, campaigned for both independence and access to white-
owned land.
 Another group, known as the Mau Mau, favoured violence against the
white settlers who controlled large areas of land. In the 1950s, the
British fought the Mau Mau with their own violent campaign and
hundreds were killed WAR FACTOR
 The Mau Mau Rebellion, as it was known, lasted for over eight years The Mau Mau in Kenya
and eventually persuaded the British that reforms were necessary. fought a long and
 On 12 December 1963, Kenya gained its independence from Britain vicious war against the
and Kenyatta, who had been released from prison in 1961, became British and White
Prime Minister. settlers.
Immigration to Britain after WW2
There were two main
reasons why large groups
of immigrants came to
Britain after 1945. Some
came as refugees from war-
torn Europe.. Other
migrants came from parts
of the British Empire to find
work. The government
encouraged migration
because there was a
shortage of workers.

ECONOMIC
FACTOR
After WW2
Britain had an
array of job
opportunities.
The jobs paid
much more than
the ones back
home.

WAR FACTOR
The Jewish and the
Polish were forced to
leave their countries
due to the actions of
the Nazis and Russians.
 Empire Windrush
On 22 June 1948, a ship named Empire Windrush arrived at the London docks. The ship was returning to
London from Australia and had stopped off in Kingston, Jamaica, to pick up British soldiers who were
there on leave. But it wasn’t just soldiers who got on the ship in Jamaica: 492 other people did too, most
of them young men, who were travelling to Britain to start a new life. This was an event that would
change the face of British society forever.

Life in the Caribbean

 At the time of the Second World War, many islands in
the Caribbean Sea (known as the West Indies) were part
of the British Empire, including Jamaica, Barbados, and
Trinidad and Tobago. These islands had supplied over
10,000 men for Britain’s army, navy and air force, and
they had been proud of their role in helping Britain.
 Life was very hard in the Caribbean in the 1940s.
Jamaica had been devastated by a hurricane in 1944,
and poverty and hardship were common. The
Caribbean had not yet developed a tourist industry to The Empire Windrush at Tilbury docks,
London; the first black immigrants to arrive in
provide jobs, and the price of sugar - the Caribbean’s
Britain from the West Indies after the Second
main source of income, was at an all time low. World War
ECONOMIC
FACTOR They arrive from the Caribbean
Poor economic
conditions in the  In 1948, the British parliament passed the British Nationality Act.
Caribbean force them This meant that all people who lived within the British Empire - now
to migrate to the UK commonly referred to as the Commonwealth - were British passport
holders and therefore entitled to live and work in Britain.
GOVERNMENT  Many West Indians saw this as a great opportunity. Having
been brought up speaking English, named after British heroes, and
FACTOR educated to believe in ‘king and country’, many West Indians felt
Nationality Act 1949 very ‘British’. And at the time, Britain was short of workers, for
allowed all people example in transport, healthcare and building.
under British rule the
right to apply for a
British passport

Ulric Cross was one of 250 Trinidadians who joined the

RAF when the Second World War broke out; he flew
over 80 bombing missions, 20 of them over Germany
 Empire Windrush
Cecil Rhodes is regarded as one of Britain’s greatest empire-builders. Streets, schools, and even two
African countries - Southern and Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia) - were named after
him. When he died, statues of him were erected all over the world.

Claudia Jones
® Born in Trinidad, moved to New York aged nine.
8 Worked on a variety of newspapers and magazines; made speeches about the importance of

democracy, equal rights for African Americans, and safe working conditions.
0 Was considered an extreme radical in America because of her views on civil and human rights issues;

was deported from the USA and gained asylum in Britain in 1955.
8 In 1958, became founder and editor of the first black British weekly newspaper, The West Indian

Gazette.
8 Following the Notting Hill and Nottingham riots in 1958, she helped launch an annual ‘Mardi Gras’

event in 1959, aimed at showing the culture of the Caribbean to the people of Britain. She said she
wanted to ‘wash the taste of Notting Hill and Nottingham out of our mouths’. This later became the
Notting Hill Carnival, one of the largest street festivals in the world.

The British Experience

 Not all white Britons welcomed Britain’s newest citizens. Many West
Indians found that their skin colour provoked hostile reactions. Some
immigrants found good jobs, but many - whatever their qualifications
- ended up working in low-paid jobs as cleaners, ticket collectors and
hospital porters.
 They also experienced difficulties finding decent places to live. Often,
they would be faced with openly racists words on house rental signs
specifying ‘No Irish, No Blacks, No dogs’. INDIVIDUAL
 By 1960, there were work around 40,000 West Indian immigrants FACTOR
arriving each year. This outnumbered all other immigrants from other Claudia Jones is an
areas of the world. The newcomers settled in industrial areas such as
example of an
Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham.
immigrant coming to
 On occasions there were outbreaks of violence in areas where large
numbers of West Indians lived. In 1958, in Nottingham and in Notting Britain and changing
Hill, London, there were several weeks of violence when white society
youths attacked black youths on the streets, at nightclubs, and in
their homes. In fact, the Notting Hill Carnival (which now attracts
over one million visitors each year) began as a gesture of defiance by
the black community against the widespread racial attacks of the
time.
 In 1962, the government made an attempt to slow down the number
of black and Asian people entering Britain by passing an Immigration
Act. This said that any black or Asian person wanting to enter the
country must have a skilled job already lined up - and a limit was put
on the number of immigrants allowed in.
 In 1968, when the government feared a large influx of Kenyan Asians
into Britain, the Commonwealth Immigration Act was created. This
said that Kenyan Asians with British passports were no longer
allowed to enter the country - but white Kenyans with British Jamaican men on the street in Brixton, London.
passports were! These policies divided the country. KBW means Keep Britain White!
 Falklands War
The Falklands are located about 300 miles off the coast
of Argentina. They are a collection of over 700 islands,
but most people live on the two main islands, East and
West Falkland. Britain first claimed the islands in 1765,
but the Spanish later took them over and named them
the Islas Malvinas. When Spanish rule ended in 1806,
the islands were claimed by Argentina. Up to this
point, the islands were uninhabited. Britain seized the
islands from Argentina in 1833, and British settlers
began to live there. As a result, the majority of the
population of around 2000 are of British descent. From
the time that Britain took control of the islands there
has been a long, heated argument between Argentina
and Britain over who should control them.

What caused the Falklands War?

 In the early 1980s, Argentina was controlled by the
army and its leader, General Galtieri. Argentina’s
INDIVIDUAL
economy was having severe problems at this time
WAR FACTOR FACTOR
British colonial past
Galtieri hoped that a quick, successful wart hat Margaret Thatcher
causes a war
ended with the return of the Falklands to Argentina and General
between Argentina
 On 2 April 1982, Argentine troops invaded the Galtieri were
and Britain over the
islands. About 12,000 soldiers arrived, and they major factors to
Falkland Islands.
quickly took control.
this war
 Britain’s Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, responded quickly and defiantly to the invasion. She said,
'We have to recover those islands. We have to recover them for the people on them are British and
British stock and they still owe allegiance to the Crown and want to be British.
 Britain sent a task force of over 100 ships and around 28,000 troops to the islands, and declared a 320-
kilometre exclusion zone around them. This meant that the British would, without any warning, open
fire on any ship or aircraft from any country entering the zone. Britain and Argentina were now at war,
which ended on 14 June when the Argentines surrendered. In total, about 750 Argentines and 255
British troops were killed during the war.

What were the consequences of the war?

 The war cost Britain the lives of 255 men, six ships (ten others were damaged), 34 aircraft and over
£2.5 billion. Politically, the war was a huge boost to the popularity of the British Prime Minister,
Margaret Thatcher, and the war played a role in her re-election in 1983.
 There was also a boost in patriotic feeling among British citizens, who were proud of their country’s
defence of one of its last colonies. Foreign politicians reported that there was an increase in
international respect for Britain, a country that was regarded as a fading power after the failure of
the 1956 Suez campaign and the loss of its colonies.
 Still today, the victory is looked upon with pride by many who remember the war, or even fought in
it. In 2012, a commemorative service was held to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the start of war.
The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, said, 'We are rightly proud of the role Britain played in
righting a profound wrong.
 However, the war did not end the dispute between the two countries. Argentina continues to claim
the islands, but Britain maintains that this is not open to negotiation. To this day, the Argentinians
always refer to the islands as Islas Malvinas.
 Britain and Europe
During the first half of the twentieth century, Western Europe was devastated by the two world wars.
During the second half of the century, Europe witnessed increased stability and wealth, and closer
cooperation than ever before.

The Early Years

 After the horrors of the Second World War, when
European neighbours were enemies, European leaders GOVERNMENT FACTOR
saw that things had to change. They were determined Governments from across Europe
to avoid another large-scale war, and felt that future decided to create the EU and
peace was far more likely if differences in language,
expand it over the last 66 years
culture and history were put aside, and countries
worked together.
 Rather than compete as rivals, they would join forces ECONOMIC FACTOR
where possible to develop Europe peacefully. Also, it
was thought that a strong, unified Europe might
The EU was initially set up to bring
become a powerful trading group and a competitor for close economic ties between
the increasingly powerful and influential USA. European countries.

Britain’s timeline with Europe

Impact of the Cold War

 At the same time, the USA and the USSR became the world’s superpowers after the world wars. They
became rivals and each tried to prevent the other from gaining too much power. This period of
tension was known as the Cold War.
 Other countries also supported the rivalry: for example, the USA built a very close relationship with
Britain, while the USSR forged very strong links with countries in Eastern Europe such as Hungary and
Poland.
 In the meantime, Britain was finally admitted into the EEC in 1973; the European parliament was
created and MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) were elected by EEC citizens; and a single
market was created
 In the early 1990s, the Maastricht Treaty was signed, and the EEC became the European Union (EU).
All countries agreed to extend cooperation even further to include foreign affairs
 Migration in Europe
If you live in a European Union (EU) member state, you have the right to live and work in any of the other
member states. EU countries cannot stop any citizen from another EU country from living and working
there. This means that, every year, numerous Europeans move between European countries.
European countries.
Migration within the EU
 There is a huge amount of migration within the EU. In Britain,
immigration from EU countries has steadily increased over the last
50 years. In the 1930s, for example, around 20,000 EU citizens
entered Britain every year, rising to about 60,000 per year in the
late 1990s and early 2000s.
 There was a huge increase in immigration into Britain from EU
countries in 2004 when eight more countries joined the EU,
including Eastern European nations such as Poland, Hungary and the
Czech Republic
 Generally speaking, these countries were poorer than many of the
existing EU countries, so the wealthier countries such as Britain,
Germany and France attracted people from the new EU member
countries. As a result, between 2004 and 2006, around 600,000
Eastern European immigrants came to Britain.

Migration from Outside of the EU ECONOMIC

 After the Second World War, immigration was encouraged by the British
government. Immigrants came mainly from current or former countries of
FACTOR
the British Empire. Britain tightened immigration controls in the 1920s, but By far the largest
many thousands of non-EU migrants still come to Britain. factor for EU
 Britain operates a points-based system for non-EU immigrants. Applicants migration to
are awarded points depending on their skills, education, income and age. If Britain is the
an applicant reaches a certain total of points, then they are given a visa to economy. Richer
allow them entry into Britain for work, especially if there is a shortage of countries offer
labour in that sector. Europeans a
 Britain also gives permission for thousands of non-EU citizens to come into chance of a
the country to study at colleges and universities. Some of the most common better job,
non-EU countries where immigrants come into Britain from are India, earning much
Pakistan, the Philippines, Australia, China, the USA and Bangladesh.
more money
What is net migration?
 There are roughly the same amounts of EU citizens moving into Britain as there are non-EU citizens, but
people also leave Britain too. People emigrate for all sorts of reasons - including a better job, a better
climate or more opportunities..
 Net migration is the final change in population after all the people leaving Britain (emigrating) and all the
people moving into Britain (immigrating) have been taken into account. Graph B below shows Britain’s
net migration figures from 2005 to 2015. The figures clearly fluctuate a lot, but overall, net migration has
remained roughly the same..
 People have different opinions about the impact of migration on Britain. Some believe that immigration
damages community relations, and that there is great public anxiety over issues such as pressure on
public services. Others argue that most immigrants are young and able, so they work and pay more in
taxes, use less of the public healthcare and education services, and help with the economic growth of
the country.
 Paper 2: Section A
Britain: Migration,
Empires and
People

Source Questions: How useful

Non-source: Significance, Comparison

and Factor essay
 HOW USEFUL?[8]

• Spend approximately 10 minutes on this question.

• This question is asking you HOW USEFUL something is

to a Historian studying a specific time period, person
or event.

• You should JUST be thinking about the ways that it is

USEFUL (there will always be some)

• You should be using PROVENANCE, CONTENT and

PURPOSE to help you to determine how useful it is
and making 3 explained points.

• REMEMBER a source is NEVER completely NOT

USEFUL – but you can talk about its LIMITATIONS
after you’ve made 3 explained points.
 SIGNIFICANCE [8]

• Spend approximately 10 minutes on this question

• This question is asking you HOW IMPORTANT

something or someone has been over time (SHORT
TERM/MEDIUM TERM/LONG TERM)

• You should be thinking about HOW IMPORTANT it

was THEN and HOW IMPORTANT it is NOW.

• You should have 2 EXPLAINED points for THEN and

NOW.

• REMEMBER Significance can change over time.

Something that was significant for one reason when
it happened, may be significant for a different
reason now.
 COMPARISON [8]

• Spend approximately 10 minutes on this question

• Split your answer into 3 paragraphs:

CAUSES/DEVELOPMENT/CONSEQUENCES

• Each one should have 2 explained reasons WHY they

are Similar.

• DO NOT write how they are DIFFERENT – you won’t

get any marks for this!

• Consider the different FACTORS why something

happened or people migrated.

• Remember to refer to both EVENTS in your answer,

not just one!
 FACTOR essay [16 +
4]
• Spend approximately 20 minutes on this question

• This question is asking you to decide how important

different factors was in causing migration to and from
Britain.

• You should have 3 paragraphs and a conclusion.

• Paragraph 1: 2 explained points as to why the factor in

the question had the biggest impact.
• Paragraph 2 and 3: choose any other two factors and
make 2 explained points why they had the biggest
impact.
• Conclusion: Answer the question! How big an impact
did the factor in the question have?

• Remember to refer to different time periods and use

different groups as examples.
 Paper 2: Section B
Norman England
C1066-c1100

Source Questions: How convincing

Non-source: Explain importance, write

an account, How far essay
 How convincing is
interpretation X [8]

• Spend approximately 10 minutes on this question.

• You need to be using the SOURCE and

CONTEXTUAL knowledge for this question. You do
not need to use the provenance!

• Summarise what is in the source and use your

knowledge to support it.

• Make 3 points and fully explain them.

• Make a JUDGEMENT as to HOW CONVINCING it is!

• Remember this question wants you to showcase

your knowledge!
 Explain what was
IMPORTANT [8]

• Spend approximately 10 minutes on this question.

• This question is focused on the CONSEQUENCES of

the event in the wider historical context eg. What
did it lead to, and then what did that lead to?

• You need to make 3 fully explained points!

• Use your Historical Knowledge to strengthen your

answer!

• Remember to only focus on the consequences… you

do not need to talk about the consequences or the
actual event!
 Write an account
[8]

• Spend approximately 10 minutes on this

question.

• You should be making 3 fully explained points.

• Make sure that you write in CHRONOLOGICAL

order.

• You will be asked to think about either the

CAUSES or CONSEQUENCES of an event – not
describe what happened.

• Focus on how the HEAD of the Question impacts

the TAIL

• Remember this question wants you to focus on

how one thing led to another, not just explain
what happened.
 How Far does this
support? essay [16]

• Spend approximately 10 minutes on this question.

• This question wants you to split your answer into 3

paragraphs and a conclusion.
• First Paragraph: 2 explained reasons to discuss the
impact that the point in the question had.
• Second Paragraph: 2 explained reasons to discuss the
impact of any other point.
• Third Paragraph: 2 explained reasons to discuss the
impact of any other point.
• Conclusion: Answer the question!
• Remember to think about the PLACE, TIME, SCOPE
and PEOPLE for Level 8/9