LECTURE 1

ANCIENT BRITAIN.
BRITAIN IN THE PERIODOF MIDDLE AGES

The division of the world history:

– Ancient history – from the 5th millenium before Christ up to the
5th century of A.D. (primitive and slave owning society);
– Middle Ages (Early Middle Ages – the 5th – the 11th cc.;
Developed Middle Ages – the 12th – the 13th cc.; Late Middle Ages – the
14th – the 16th cc.) – the 5th –the 16th cc. (feudalism);
– New History – the 17th c. – up to nowadays (capitalism, free
market economy)

1. Ancient Britain. Early Middle Ages

А) the Iberians
The first known inhabitants are the Iberians, who came in 3000-2000
B.C. from the Spanish peninsula (Iberia is the second name). The Iberians
may be forefathers of dark-haired inhabitants of Wales.
They settled in Cornwall, in Ireland and along the coast of Wales and
Scotland. The main social unit of the people was a kinship group. They left
many places of civilization: remains of their dwellings, their weapons and
different other relics of their culture, like burial places, man-made hill
forts, stone constructions (Stonehenge – висячікамні) – megalithic culture.
The size and splendor of their numerous monuments show that they
were a well-organized people. Stonehenge is the most famous prehistoric
site in Europe. It was built between 2200-1300 B.C. It is thought to have
been a prehistoric temple. This construction consists of two circles of
upright stones, standing in groups of twos, 8,5 meters high. They are
joined on the top, by other flat stones. Stonehenge is still a mystery. Was it
a temple? Was it a sacred place where early man worshiped the sun? Was
it a sort of observatory?

B) In 1700 B.C. an Alpine race came to the territory of modern

England. The race was called «the Beaker Folk» as they left a
characteristic relic of their civilization, – a drinking vessel called «beaker».
They knew how to use bronze and employed metal tools and weapons.
They gradually merged with the Iberians.

C) The Celts
 In the 8th – 7th cc. B.C. the Celts dominated Europe. Soon after
700 B.C. the first wave of Celtic invaders entered Britain from the
territories which are now France and Germany. The first Celtic invaders
were the Gaels. About 2 centuries later they were followed by the
Brythons. In the 1st century B.C. the most powerful Celtic tribe, the
Belgae, invaded the island.
The Brythons probably gave their name to the whole country. In the
course of time the Celts merged with the Iberians and the Alpine people.
The Celts lived in clans; clans were united into large kinship groups
and those into tribes.
The basic activity was farming; they owned common property and
were all equal. They were tall, blue-eyed people, lived in villages. In the
last centuries of B.C. and the first centuries of A.D. the Celts were in a
period of transition from primitive communal society to class society.
Their women were very independent. They could be prophets, warriors.
Some women were even made tribal chiefs and were called queens.
The Celts were pagans. They worshiped nature and believed that
everything in the surrounding world was ruled by gods. They sacrificed
not only animals, but also human beings to satisfy their gods. Their priests
were called druids. They were very powerful.
The Celts became forefathers of the Welsh, the Scots and Irish whose
national languages are of a Celtic origin. There are some words of the
Celtic origin in Modern English: the names of rivers, hills, lakes and towns
(Avon – «a river», Derwent – «clear water»). Nowadays the revival of the
national languages can be observed. Welsh are spoken by 20 %, it is
studied at schools in Wales; Scottish Gaelic is spoken in Highlands, Irish
Gaelic is spoken by very few people.
The Halloween (October 31, All Hallow’s Day) has Celtic origin.
October 31 was the eve of the Celtic New Year.

D) The Romans
In 55 B.C. and 54 B.C. a Roman army headed by Julius Caesar made
2 attempts to conquer Britain but failed. The actual Roman invasion of
Britain began in 43 A.D. under the Emperor Claudius. Since that time up
to 410 Britain was one of the provinces of the Roman Empire.
As for the relics of culture, they built 20 large and 100 smaller towns
(York, Lincoln, Colchester), roads, bridges, amphitheaters, walls, and their
houses had central heating and were connected with roads.
Latin words in Modern English: «castra» (camp) in names of cities
and towns (Winchester, Lancaster,«vallum» (wall), «via strata» (street).
At the end of the 4th century the slave-owning Roman Empire was in
the process of decay. The Romans had to leave Britain to defend their own
country from the barbaric tribes. The Celts remained independent for some
period of time.
E) The Anglo-Saxons
From the middle of the 5th c. (449) the Celts had to defend their
country against the attacks of Germanic tribes from the Continent. The
Jutes and the Angles came from the Jutland Peninsula. The Saxons came
from the territory lying between the Rhine and the Elbe rivers. They were
barbaric people and destroyed the Roman civilization. They established
7 kingdoms: Sussex, Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, East Anglia, Mersia,
Kent. At the end of the 8th c. supremacy passed to Wessex. The Anglo-
Saxons lived in villages. People of the village formed a community. The
land was in a communal ownership. In the 7th-9th cc. the process of social
disintegration led to the formation of such social groups: as ceorls (toilers)
and thanes (predecessors of landlords). The society was passing to the
beginning of the feudal class organization.
Christianity
In 597 Pope Gregory the Great sent his servant, Augustine, and about
forty monks to reestablish Christianity in England. Anglo-Saxons were
pagans. He started from Canterbury, the capital of the king of Kent,
because the king’s wife was from Europe and was already a Christian.
Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. The church
increased the power of the kings and the lords and promoted the
development of feudalism.
The spread of Christianity promoted the development of culture in
Britain. The Roman monks brought many books to Britain; most of them
were of a religious character and were written in Latin and Greek. The
church services were also conducted in Latin. Latin was of international
importance at that time. Monasteries became the centers of learning. The
first libraries and schools for the clergy were set up in monasteries. Some
monks were chroniclers, historians, like Bede the Venerable (673-735).
Bede the Venerable wrote «Ecclesiastical History of the English people».
The spread of Christianity made some influence on the development of
the English vocabulary: words of Latin origin from the sphere of education
and theology: school, paper, candle, alter, etc.; words of Greek origin from
the sphere of education – arithmetic, mathematics, theatre, geography.
In the 9th – 10th c. the kingdoms were united into England. Actual
unification ended in 973 under Edgar, grandson of King Alfred the Great.
The unification of the kingdoms into one state was promoted by an
important cause defending the country from the dangerous raids of the
enemies, the Vikings, from the North of Europe – from Norway, Sweden
and Denmark.
 F) The Danish invasion
A.L. Morton, a historian, points out the following positive aspects of
the Danish invasion: as the Danes had a superior culture to that of the
English, they promoted the material development of England. First of all
they brought the great iron axe into the country. Due to this big forest
areas were cleaned and used for fields and pastures. Secondly, in
comparison with the stay-at-home Saxons, the Danes were trading and
town-dwelling people. So their invasion led everywhere to town building
and increased trade. Besides, the English improved their craft in
shipbuilding under the Danish influence. On the whole, the Danish
invasion promoted consolidation of the nation and accelerated the process
of feudal development. Scandinavian words in the English vocabulary:
adjectives – happy, low, loose, ill, ugly, weak; verbs – to take, to die, to
call; nouns – sister, husband, sky, fellow, window, leg, wing, harbor, etc.;
geographical names – the names of towns with the endings «by» or «toft»
(Grimsby, Whitsby, Lowesstoft, etc.)
G) The Norman Conquest
– 1066, William the Conqueror (a distant relative of the last Anglo-
Saxon king).
– Played an important role in the development of the English people.
William followed the policy of strengthening the king’s power and
developing an absolute monarchy. Under William feudalism was
developed in its full form. In 1086 the king arranged a registration of all
the holders of arable land and pastures. As a result of the census the king
got a clear idea of the economic state of the country and the class structure
of Anglo-Norman society. The population of the country was about two
million people.
2. Developed Middle Ages
A) Foreign relations
After the Norman Conquest the kings of England were also
proclaimed Dukes of Normandy and even extended their domain in
France. So William’s followers had their estates both in France and in
England. For at least a century the ruling class in England had a double
nationality. Up to the end of the 13th c. French was a state language.
Due to the double national character of kings and barons they were at
home both in England and in France. That’s why foreign relations with the
Continent increased greatly at that time. London was becoming a center of
the commerce of Northern Europe. The southern ports became very
important. The list of imports was considerably increased (wine from
Gascony, fine cloths and spices from the East, etc.). Export included wool,
lead, tin and cattle. At that period skilled artisans began to enter England
too. The Normans were skilled builders in stone. Building of monumental
cathedrals and castles started at that time.

B) The Great Charter and the beginning of Parliament

The Great Charter
In the 11th-13th cc. England was an absolute monarchy. The nobles
looked for some political ways of increasing their political power and
limiting the king’s power. In 1215 the nobles, the churchmen and the
merchants composed a document, the Great Charter, limiting the king’s
power and made the king sign it. The Great Charter proclaimed the first
constitutional rights for the propertied people (the right to a fair and legal
trial, «no taxation without representation») and guaranteed municipal
liberties to some towns. The Great Charter marks a clear stage in the
collapse of English feudalism. Feudal society was based on link between
lord and vassal. While creating the document the lords were not acting as
the king’s vassals but as a class.

The Beginning of Parliament

In 1258 they elected a council of nobles and called it a parliament (a
French word meaning «a discussion meeting»). In 1265 the first
Parliament was convened with the barons, the clergymen and two knights
from each shire and 2 representatives from the leading towns of the
country. At first it consisted only of the House of Lords. In the 13th c.
under Edward 1 Parliament was divided into the House of Lords and the
House of Commons, which consisted of knights, merchants and other
wealthy freemen from shires. Since that time Parliament set pattern for the
future by including elected representatives from urban and rural areas. The
leading House was the House of Lords. The form of political government
of England was a feudal monarchy.
Parliament limited the king’s power and took control of the treasury
and demanded the king to keep to Magna Carter.

C) Lifestyle, language and culture in the 11th–13th centuries

The Normans spoke a Norman dialect of French, a language of Latin
origin. The Anglo-Saxons spoke English, a language of a Germanic origin.
French became a state language. The clergy used Latin. Thus three
languages were used at the same time. In the course of time the conquerors
gradually learned to speak English. Many of them married Anglo-Saxon
wives and their children learned to speak English. So the language of the
natives won but its vocabulary was greatly influenced by French.
In modern English simple everyday words are mostly Anglo-Saxon,
like eat, land, house and others. But the vocabulary was enriched with
such Norman-French words denoting new feudal relations as manor,
noble, baron, serve, obey; or such military terms as arms, troops, navy,
battle, victory and many others characterizing the lifestyle of the Norman
aristocracy. Many synonyms were formed in the English language when
French names were given to already existing English words and
correspondingly they belonged to the literary layer and to the common
layer, for example, chair for stool, belly for stomach. Two languages
gradually formed one rich English language which got the status of a
national literary language in the 14th c.

3. Late Middle Ages

A) General characteristics. Peasants’ revolts
General characteristics
The 13th c. was the peak of feudalism. In the 14th c. little by little
money commodity economy began to replace the primitive feudal natural
economy. Instead of exchange of goods the towns and manors began to
sell them for money. Peasants could now pay their rent in money instead
of goods. Both home and foreign trade extended. England traded very
actively with France, Flanders, Holland, Norway.
The most important good was becoming wool, a key to the economic
development at that time. Many hilly areas, especially in the eastern and
northern counties became sheep breeding areas. Towns were beginning to
develop wool processing industry. Foreign markets were open to receive
English wool. This meant that trade was developing on an international
scale, and merchant capital was appearing on the scene.
The 13th c. witnessed the birth of the new class of gentry, small
landowners. Wealthy peasants, craftsmen who accumulated an income of £
40 could be knighted and become landowners. The gentry began to hire
wage labourers. The appearance of the phenomenon of hired labour
reflected the crisis of the manor.
Money commodity economy was also called commutation. The old
feudals were against this system. They preferred to let the land on lease.
The lease holders had to pay rent in money and perform other obligations
of the feudal cycle. The great lords tried to get still more land. The village
community was quickly disintegrating and the great lords took advantage
of it seizing the common land, evicting peasants from their strips of land
and using them for pastures.
These changes led to the process of class disintegrating among free
peasants, to their division into the rich and the poor. Some of them lost
their lands and became homeless. They went to town to become hired
labourers, or they were made villains and had to serve their new masters.
 Peasants’ revolts
The conditions of peasants grew much worse in the 14th c. because of
the process of enclosing their lands. They were driven away from their
land. In 1348 the Black Death came to the country. Out of 4 million people
only 2 million remained. There was a shortage of the working hands, so
they were more cruelly exploited. The Government adopted the Statute of
Labourers according to which everyone under 60 had to work otherwise
committed to jail. The last straw was the introduction of a tax payment for
every person over the age of 15. A lot of peasants’ revolts started. In 1381
was the biggest one, headed by Wat Taylor. They demanded the abolition
of serfdom, confiscation of church land. They failed but this revolt shook
the feudal system.

В) Corruption of the church

There was another aspect to the discontent of the wide masses. The
Roman Catholic Church was becoming more and more sinfully corrupt
arousing anger and discontent. This growing corruption was publicly
condemned by simple village priests. One of them was John Wycliff.
John Wycliff’s followers, the Lollards, were more radical. They were
poor priests, wandering from village to village and preaching anti-Catholic
ideas. They condemned the privileges of the Catholic Church; they
criticized the injustice of feudalism, demanding abolition of serfdom, of
heavy taxes. They demanded social equality. The most radical of Lollards
was John Ball. But Henry IV was deeply loyal to the Church and began
persecuting the Lollards and executing them by burning.

C) The Wars of the 14th-15th centuries

The Hundred Years’ War
In the period between the 13th and 15th cc. the royal power in England
was very weak. Especially the 14th and 15th cc. were disastrous for Britain
because of the effect of feudal wars and plagues. 1337- 1453 were the
years of the Hundred Years’ War between Britain and France for the
commercial influence. The Kingdom of France included two regions that
were of vital importance to both France and England. They were Flanders,
the center of the wool industry, and Gascony, significant as a base for the
import of iron. The English lost the war.

The War of the Roses

The War of the Roses was the most serious civil discord between the
most powerful feudal families of the Lancastrians and the Yorkists for
the royal power. The Yorkists came to power in 1461 (Edward IV, Edward
V, Richard III) and ruled till 1485 when Richard III was killed in the battle
with Henry the Tudor, who became Henry VII. Thus the Tudor Dynasty
came to power. Henry VII established an absolute monarchy resting on the
new nobility and the rising bourgeoisie who needed a strong royal power
to protect trade and keep in check the old nobility.

D) Language and culture in the 14th – 15th centuries

By the end of the 14th c. English became an official language, based
on the London dialect. Geoffrey Chaucer’s work «Canterbury Tales» gives
a powerful description of that period. The formation of the national
language reflected the territorial unity. Thus the period of the 14th–15th cc.
is considered to be the time of the formation of the English nation.
Education developed enormously. A lot of new schools opened. The major
technical invention is the usage of printing press in 1476.
LECTURE 2
LECTURE 2

BRITAIN IN THE 16th – 17th CENTURIES

Plan:

1) Britain in the 16th century:

a) Reformation of the Church;
b) The epoch of Elizabeth;
c) Tudor Parliaments;
d) Lifestyle, language and culture.

2) Britain in the 17th century:

a) Economic and social development;
b) The Bourgeois Revolution (Parliament against the Crown,
the constitutional period, the civil war, the English republic, the
protectorate).

1. Britain in the 16th century

A) Reformation of the church
The next Tudor monarchs are Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and
Elizabeth I. The Tudor monarchs Henry VIII and Elizabeth I made a
significant contribution into the further political, economic and social
development of England. Henry VIII carried out the greatest religious
reform of the time, the Reformation of the Church. In 1534, by the Act of
Supremacy the English Church was separated from the Roman Church.
Henry became the Civic Head of the Anglican Church. A new religion of
Protestantism was adopted. Protestants believe in the authority of the
Bible, rather than in the authority of the tradition or of the Pope. They also
believe in the importance of preaching and studying God’s word in the
Bible. Protestant services are rather plain compared to Catholic services.
(In Britain and the USA today most people are Protestants).
The Reformation caused a deep conflict between the new believers
and Catholics which lasted for a century.

B) The epoch of Elizabeth

Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Her main goals were to find a peaceful
solution to the problems of the English Reformation, to solve the religious
conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics and to make the country
prosperous.
Under Elizabeth I the Anglican Church, basically Protestant, but
preserving some Catholic practices, was finally established with a regular
church attendance and Bible teaching. The second half of the 16th c. was
characterized by the beginning of the country’s colonial expansion and
rapid commercial growth. Elizabeth encouraged English merchants to
settle abroad and create colonies. This policy led to the foundation of
Britain’s colonial empire in the 17th–18th cc. The first colony was Virginia
in North America.
After the victory in the war with Spain (1588) England became
acknowledged as a strong European sea power.
Elizabeth also welcomed the development of new Renaissance ideas,
which were reflected in all spheres of spiritual life: in philosophy,
literature and arts. The term «renaissance’ refers to the combined
intellectual and artistic transformations of the 15th and 16th centuries,
including the emergence of humanism, protestant individualism,
Copernican astronomy (the study of the universe) and the new
geographical discoveries, especially the discovery of America. The 16th c.
was a great period of secularization of life and arts.

C) Tudor Parliaments
England was a feudal monarchy with a strong royal power.
Parliament continued to function on a limited basis. It was used for law
making and raising money.
During the 16th c. power moved from the House of Lords to the
House of Commons. The members of Parliament (MPs) in the Commons
represented richer and more influential classes than the House of Lords. In
fact, the idea of getting rid of the House of Lords, still a real question in
British politics today, was first suggested in the 16th c.
 During the 16th c. the size of the Commons nearly doubled, as a result
of the inclusion of Welsh boroughs and counties and the inclusion of more
English boroughs. In order to control discussion in Parliament, the Crown
appointed a «Speaker». His job in Tudor times was to make sure that
Parliament discussed what the monarch wanted Parliament to discuss, and
that it made the decisions which he or she wanted.
The Tudor dynasty was the peak of English Absolutism. At the same
time it showed the first signs of struggle between absolute monarchy on
the one hand and the new nobles and bourgeoisie on the other.

D) Language and Culture

Both rich and poor lived in small family groups. In spite of hard
conditions of life, most people had a larger and better home to live in than
ever before. At the beginning of the Tudor period English was still spoken
in a number of different ways. There were still reminders of the Saxon,
Angle, Jute and Viking invasions in the different forms of language. Since
the time of Chaucer, in the middle of the 14th century, London English had
become accepted as standard English. Printing made this standard English
more widely accepted among the population.
2. Britain in the 17th century
A) Economic and social development
Elizabeth died in an agrarian country. But the 17th c. was the period
of changes in the country’s economic life and in the people’s minds.
Firstly all England turned from a wool producer into a manufacturer of
woolen clothes. Shipbuilding, metallurgy, coalmining were gaining might
too. At the same time new branches of industry began to develop –
production of cotton, prints, silk, glass, soap, etc. Immigration of skilled
artisans from other countries was encouraged and it led to the springing up
of new manufacturing centers.
The appearance of new capitalist relations could be observed in the
countryside too. The process of enclosing lands for pastures destroyed the
common open field system. Most peasants lost their lands and became
wage labourers; when the arable farming became important again many of
them returned to their lands as hired workers. The social structure of the
Country was as follows: King, the feudal nobility, the bourgeoisie (the
great city magnates, the middle merchant class and the petty bourgeoisie),
workmen.
With the Stuart dynasty begins a new order of things. The direct line
of the Tudors ceased in Elizabeth. The line of the Stuarts introduced the
kings of Scotland to the English throne. After all the ages of conflict to
unite the two kingdoms under one crown, was a good idea. But it was not
the direction towards which England had striven. It happened so that they
had not mounted the throne of Scotland, but Scotland sent its king to rule
over England.
The reign of Tudors was characterized by almost unresisted
absolutism. With coming of the Stuarts a mighty struggle for constitutional
liberties started and lasted till the last Stuart monarch was expelled from
the throne, and the independence of people was placed on a firm basis.
The first half of the 17th century faced serious changes in society.
Economic power moved into the hands of the merchants and the gentry.
But the further development was hampered by the survival of feudal
relations, by absolute royal power. The bourgeoisie and the gentry
demanded the right to direct the state policy in their own interests. It could
be achieved by establishing the supremacy of Parliament over King. The
House of Commons was already gaining power. The Crown could no
longer raise money or govern without cooperating with the merchants and
the gentry.
The Tudors were lucky not to have these problems. The Stuarts were
not wise enough to accept changes. In general, the political developments
of the period resulted from basic changes in thinking in the 17th century.
By the time the last Stuart monarch, Queen Ann, died, a new age of reason
and science had arrived.

B) The Bourgeois Revolution

The B.R. was the greatest political event in Europe in the 17th c. It
paved way for the development of a new economic system of capitalism.
The new classes of the merchants and the gentry became very strong
economically but they did not have political power. The further progress of
free enterprising was hampered by the survival of the old feudal relations.
So a conflict between the bourgeoisie and the old aristocracy became
inevitable. The bourgeoisie could get political power only by establishing
the supremacy of the House of Commons over the House of Lords. The
conflict was speeded up by the policy of royal absolutism which the ruling
kings (the Stuarts, the Scottish dynasty, James I and Charles І) led at that
time.
The conflict grew into the civil war between the king and Parliament.
The Bourgeois Revolution passed through some stages (Parliament against
the Crown, Religious disagreement, the Constitutional period, the Civil
war, the English Republic, the Protectorate and the Glorious Revolution).

Parliament against the Crown

The first Stuart king was James I. His belief that the King was chosen
by God led him to trouble with Parliament. He ruled without Parliament
between 1611 and 1621. After his death his son Charles I quarreled even
more bitterly with the House of Commons, mainly over money. In 1628
the Parliament made the king sign a document limiting his power, the so-
called Petition of Rights. In order to prevent it being used Charles
dissolved Parliament and ruled as an absolute monarch.

Religious Disagreement
The bourgeoisie adopted a new ideology – Puritanism (a branch of
Protestantism) which was basically antiroyal, republican. Puritans stood
for the simplicity of Church, for strict discipline, fundamental moral
virtues and asceticism. The puritans were severely persecuted. Many of
them fled to America where they founded first English colonies in
America.
Anti-Catholic feeling had already been increased under James I in
1605. A small group of Catholics had been caught trying to blow up the
Houses of Parliament with King James inside. One of these men, Guy
Fawkes, was captured in the cellar under the House. The escape of King
and Parliament caught people’s imagination; and since then November 5th
has been celebrated in England as GuyFawkes’s Day, with fireworks and
bonfires.

The Constitutional Period (1640-1642)

The constitutional period is the beginning of the English Bourgeois
Revolution. Charles dismissed Parliament but was forced to summon it
again. The country faced economic problems. This new Parliament was
later called «the Long Parliament». The majority of seats were occupied by
Puritans who started an active political struggle against King. They were
divided into Presbyterians and Independents. The former stood for
moderate reforms, the latter wanted more radical changes. According to
the Puritans’ moral norms theatres, dances, fancy fashions were prohibited
by an Act of Parliament.
The Puritans introduced Bill of Attainder and Grand Remonstrance.
Charles tried to arrest five members of Parliament known as «ring-
leaders». However, he was unsuccessful; they were warned and took
refuge in London. London locked its gates against the king and Charles
moved to Nottingham, where he gathered the army to defeat those MPs
who opposed him. The Civil War started.

The Civil War (1642-1649)

Charles was supported by the old nobility and the clergy. They were
called Cavaliers. The royalists controlled most of the North and the West.
Parliament was supported by the new nobility, merchants, peasants,
soldiers and craftsmen. It controlled East Anglia and the Southwest,
including London. Its army consisted of armed groups of London
apprentices. Their short hair gave them the name Roundheads. At first the
king’s army scored a number of victories. Parliament got its first victory in
the battle of Marston Moor (1644).
The most important role during the revolution was played by Oliver
Cromwell (1599-1658). Cromwell continued Britain's policy of
colonization. He ruthlessly subdued Ireland and conducted wars with
Denmark, Spain and Holland for the commercial supremacy in the world.
In April 1646 Charles surrendered. He was brought before court,
sentenced to death and beheaded. The precedent of executing a monarch
was laid. Soon after the House of Lords was abolished and England
became a republic ruled by the House of Commons.
The English Republic (1649-1653)
The republic was governed by Parliament consisting of one house
only. It supported the interests of the rich, promoting the development of
free enterprising. It severely suppressed all democratic movements of
common people.
The Protectorate (1653-1658)
In 1653 Parliament was dissolved. The Council of officers
established military dictatorship and Cromwell was declared its Protector
with far greater powers than King Charles had had. His efforts to govern
the country through the army were extremely unpopular. The merchants
and the bourgeoisie wanted the monarchy back.
The Restoration of Monarchy
In 1658 Cromwell died. His son was declared Protector. But the army
refused to recognize him. Soon Charles II was invited to return to his
kingdom. So, the Stuart’s dynasty was restored. After his death in 1685 his
brother James II became King. He persecuted Puritans and didn’t keep
many other promises given to Parliament. So Parliament invited his distant
relative (William of Orange, the Dutch husband of James’s daughter Mary)
to invade Britain. The Crown was offered to both William and Mary.
This easy and bloodless change was called the Glorious Revolution.
As a result Parliament got supremacy over the monarch. It was proclai-
med in the Bill of Rights in 1689. Britain became a parliamentary monarchy.
The power of the feudal aristocracy was replaced by that of the bourgeoisie.

LECTURE 3
BRITAININTHE18th-19thCENTURIES
Plan:
1) Britain in the 18th century:
 a) Government. Colonial policy;
b) The Industrial Revolution;
c) Changes in the countryside;
d) England and France.

2) Britain in the 19th century:

a) Chartism;
b) England in the second half of the 19th century (industrial
development and colonial expansion; trade-unionism, democratic changes
in the second half of the 19th century; Victorian epoch).

1. Britain in the 18th century

А) Government. Colonial policy
Government
The last of the Stuarts, Queen Ann, died in 1714. The Protestant ruler
of Hanover (Germany) became George I. During his reign government
power was increased greatly because the new king spoke only German and
did not seem interested in his new kingdom. The idea of the «cabinet» was
developed at that time. The chief rule was that all members of the cabinet
were together responsible for policy decisions. Any minister who
disagreed deeply with other cabinet ministers was expected to resign. The
author of this idea was Robert Walpole, who remained the greatest
political leader for twenty years. He became the first Britain's Prime
Minister. It was he who made sure that the power of the king would
always be limited by the constitution. The limits to monarchy were as
follows: the king could not remove or change laws, the king was
dependent on Parliament for his financial income and for his army, the
king was supposed to «choose» his ministers. Even today the government
of Britain is «Her Majesty's Government». Judges were not supposed to
account for their actions either to the king or to the government. Besides,
the law «Habeas Corpus Act» was adopted, guaranteeing the safety of the
British subjects' immunity and property against arbitrary treatment. Thus
England was becoming a constitutional monarchy.

The colonial policy

In the 18th c. the main rival of Britain was France. The British won
the 7 Year War with France (1756-1763) and occupied the French
possessions in North America (Canada). By1775 Britain had founded 13
colonies in North America which were soon lost as a result of the
American War of Independence.
 The British began to colonize India, which was completely invaded
in the middle of the 19th c. They discovered Australia in 1769 and annexed
it next year. In the 70s of the 18th c. the British laid hands on Gibraltar – an
important strategic point in the Mediterranean.
In the 40s-50s of the 19th c. New Zealand was colonized. In 1882
Egypt was invaded. In 1890 Africa was divided into the areas of European
influence. Britain succeeded in taking over most of the African areas,
especially in the South.
In the 20th c. as a result оf the WW1 Britain got Kenya, Tanganyika,
Nigeria and some other African territories.
The period after the WWII was characterized by the collapse of the
colonial system. The majority of the British colonies won their political
independence at the end of the 50s and the beginning of the 60s. Since
1931 the former British colonies and dominions have become members of
the British Commonwealth of Nations. Nowadays the Commonwealth
includes54 states (former colonies, dominions and some dependent
territories). Some colonies wished to continue with the imperial
arrangement (they are afraid of being swallowed up by their nearest
neighbors), e.g. Gibraltar, St. Helena, the Falklands/Malvinas and Belize.
For British government, on the one hand this is a source of pride, but on
the other hand it causes embarrassment, because the possession of colonial
territories does not fit with the image of a modern democratic state, and it
causes irritation because it costs the British taxpayer money. The members
of the Commonwealth are closely connected politically and economically.

B) The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution started in the 60s of the 18th c. and lasted
100 years. It meant transition from manual labour at manufactures to
mechanical labour at factories. It established the capitalist mode of
production as an economic structure. The revolution started in cotton
industry with the invention of "Jenny" (a spinning machine) by James
Hargrieves and putting it into practice in the 70s-80s.
The invention of a steam engine (James Watt) promoted the
development of machine building: locomotives, steamboats and different
mechanical tools. The growth of mechanical equipment and new means of
transport promoted the development of metallurgy. Heavy industry became
the main branch of economy. The accumulative produce of British
factories was more than that of the rest of my world taken together. In the
middle of the 19th c. Britain was called "the world workshop".
The Industrial Revolution greatly changed the sphere of social
relations. The process of industrialization was accompanied by a ruthless
exploitation of workers. It led to the antagonistic division of classes: the
bourgeoisie and the industrial workers. It gave rise to unemployment and
there started a wide migration within the country as well as abroad: the
USA, Canada, and Australia. During this period there were also built many
new industrial cities in the north-west and in the Midlands of England.

C) Changes in the countryside

The 18th c. was the time of the agrarian revolution. Parliament
passed laws allowing the landowners to enclose lands since land had
become private property after the feudal «holding» rights were abolished.
By the middle of the century there was no more common land in England.
Peasantry as a class disappeared.
Farming began to develop quickly in the 18th century. There were a
number of improvements in farming methods. Britain and Holland were
better at farming than any other country in Europe. Improved use of land
made it possible to grow wheat almost everywhere. Cattle breeding
increased greatly too. There appeared big farms.

D) England and France

The French revolution of 1789 had created fear all over Europe. The
British government was also afraid that the revolution would spread to
Britain. But it was slower than other European states to make war on the
French republic. Though in 1793 Britain went to war after France had
invaded the Low Counties (today, Belgium and Holland). One by one the
European countries were defeated by Napoleon, and forced to ally
themselves with him. Most of Europe fell under Napoleon's control.
Britain decided to fight France at sea because it had a stronger navy, and
because its own survival depended on control of its trade routes. British
policy was to damage French trade by preventing French ships, including
their navy, from moving freely in and out of French seaports. The
commander of the British fleet, Admiral Horatio Nelson, won brilliant
victories over the French navy, near the coast of Egypt, at Copenhagen,
and finally near Spain, at Trafalgar in 1805, where he destroyed the
French-Spanish fleet. Nelson was himself killed at Trafalgar, but became
one of Britain's greatest national heroes. His words to the fleet before the
battle of Trafalgar, «England expects that every man will do his duty»,
have remained a reminder of patriotic duty in time of national danger. In
the same year a British army landed in Portugal to fight the French. This
army, with its Portuguese and Spanish allies, was eventually commanded
by Wellington, a man who had fought in India. But fighting the French on
land was an entirely different matter. Almost everyone in Europe believed
the French Army and its generals to be the best in the world. Wellington
was one of the very few generals who did not. «I am not afraid of them»,
he wrote on his appointment as commander. «I suspect that all the
Continental armies were more than half beaten before the battle was
begun. I, at least, will not be frightened beforehand». Like Nelson he
quickly proved to be a great commander. After several victories against the
French in Spain he invaded France. Napoleon, weakened by his disastrous
invasion of Russia, surrendered in 1814. But the following year he escaped
and quickly assembled an army in France. Wellington, with the timely
help of the Prussian army, finally defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in
Belgium in June 1815.
2. England in the 19th century
А) Chartism
The process of mechanization on the one hand and the end of
Napoleonic Wars in 1815, which decreased the production of goods for
export almost completely, on the other hand, flung men out of work by
thousands. Unemployment was made worse by 300.000 men from Britain’s
army and navy, who were then looking for jobs. People looked for jobs at
any wages and any conditions. The working day lasted from fifteen to
eighteen hours. Children's labour was used in mines and at factories.
At the same time the price for bread rose quickly. Parliament wanted
to protect locally grown corn from cheap imported corn. It led to increase
in price of almost everything. But wages remained the same. The general
level of living was extremely miserable.
The so-called Poor Law Act of 1834 provided less help for the needy
than before. Many people had to live in the working houses at «starvation
wages».
The economic crises of 1830-32, 1836-38 made the life of common
labourers unbearable. There was a danger of mass riots, people began to
break machines. Being frightened by people's discontent Parliament
adopted the first Reform Bill in 1832 which gave more rights to voters.
Forty-one English cities were represented in Parliament for the first time.
Since 1824 workers had been allowed to join together in unions. This
program helped the working people to grow politically. They were coming
to realize the necessity of getting legislative rights in order to improve
their economic conditions.
An important role in this movement was played by Chartism – a
politically organized movement of the working people of England for their
economic and political rights in the 30s-50s.
In 1836 «The London Workers' Association» worked out a People's
Charter. The Charter demanded the following rights: universal suffrage,
secret vote, abolition of property qualification (the right for a man without
property of his own to be an M.P.), an election every year. From 1839 to
1847 Chartists worked out three petitions to Parliament about the People's
Charter, signed by from one to five million people, having added to them
some economic demands (an 8-hour working day, prohibition of children's
labour). But the petitions were rejected by Parliament. These years were
accompanied by riots, hunger marches, strikes and political meetings.
In 1847 fearing a new rise of people's anger Parliament passed a Bill
limiting the working day by 10 hours.
Chartism was the first example of a truly national political movement
of the working class. It contributed to the development of further political
and social reforms.

B) England in the 2nd half of the 19th century

Industrial Development and Colonial Expansion
In 1851 Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition of the Industries
of All Nations inside the Crystal Palace to show the greatness of Britain's
industry. It mined more than half of the world's output of coal. Britain
produced steamboats, steam engines, woolen and cotton cloth, different
machinery. The accumulative produce of British factories was more than
that of the rest of the world taken together. The greatest example of
Britain's industrial power in the middle of the 19th c. was the railway
system. By 1870 the latter was almost complete. The trade turnover of
England and its colonies alone was nearly one third of the world's one.
The bulk of society was the middle class – commercial people,
industrialists, who often came from poor beginnings. They were self-made
people believing in hard work, a regular style of life and being careful with
money.
The country was getting richer and richer. It was much due to the
policy of colonial expansion. In the 40s-50s of the 19th c. New Zealand
was colonized. In 1882 Egypt was invaded. In 1890 Africa was divided
into the areas of European influence. Britain succeeded in taking over most
of the African areas, especially in the South).

Political Life
In the second half of the 19th c. the supremacy in Parliament passed
completely to the House of Commons and the king's power was limited to
the minimum. Queen Victoria (1819-1901) was the first to accept the role
of a constitutional monarch.
The second half of the 19tb c. was characterized by the foundation of
different political and trade union organizations. They led the fight for
democratic changes in the country. The most important idea of the 19th c.
was that everyone had the right to personal freedom. Between 1867-1884
some Reform Bills were carried out improving the legislative system. In
1872 voting was carried out in secret for the first time. Between 1875-1914
the conditions for the poor improved as the prices fell down. In 1870 and
1891 two Education Acts were passed. All children had to go to school up
to the age of 13.A university system began to develop quickly. England
started to build «redbrick» universities in the new industrial areas. They
taught more science and technology to prepare specialists for Britain's
industry. More attention was also taken of workers' homes, of factory
conditions and public health. The authority of the church was weakened.
Church attendance became lower. People had other ways of spending their
Sundays: going to museums, parks and libraries, pubs and travelling.
In the 70s the main bourgeois parties, the Conservative Party and the
Liberal Party, were formed on the basis of the Tories and the Whigs
correspondingly. The leading party formed government; the other one
formed the opposition. In 1900 the Labour Party was established. During
the Victorian age a set of values was established which emphasized hard
work for one's own benefit, thrift, family life, responsibility, absolute
honesty in public life and extreme respectability in sexual matters.

Family Life
Life became more comfortable, most houses had gas for lighting and
heating. A change towards marriage happened: more men began to marry
for private happiness, not financial reasons.
Women were still not equals, they were discouraged from going out
to work. Wife was legally a man’s property. By the end of the 19 th century
women started their feminist movement for their rights. They’ve got the
right to divorce.

Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria reigned the country for the longest period (63 years)
(1837-1901). She died at the age of 82. She was the last monarch of
Hanover Dynasty, her successor belonged to Windsor Dynasty (Saxe-
Coburg-Gotha). The time of her reign was a period in which Britain’s
international standing reached unprecedented heights. She came to be as
much a national icon as Elizabeth I had been.
 LECTURE 4
BRITAININTHE20thCENTURY
Plan:
1) Britain before World War 1 (Loss of the leading position).
2) World War 1.
3) Britain between the World Wars, World War II.
4) The Post War period.

1. Britain before World War 1 (Loss of the leading position)

Loss of the world's superiority
From the end of the 19th c. Britain began to lose its world supremacy.
Other countries, Germany, for example, had greater natural resources,
including coal and iron. With the development of the British Empire many
British people invested their money to different fields of industry in
colonies which were based on cheap labour and it was more profitable than
to invest money in home industries. Britain was being transferred into a
parasitic state, living more on income from foreign investments. British
workers produced less than those in other countries. Britain was behind
other countries in science and technology, as well as in management skills.
And did little to change it.
Public schools, the private system of education for the richer middle
class, did not encourage business or scientific studies.
Britain found that Germany, France and the USA were increasingly
competing with it. After the WW I Germany took the lead, after the WW II
the USA.
2. World War I (1914-1918)
World War I broke out as a result of an economic and colonial
rivalry of the leading capitalist countries.
Germany's threat to France and German invasion of neutral Belgium
made Britain declare war on Germany on August 4. It was a long and
bloody struggle.
Germany nearly defeated the Allies, Britain and France, at the
beginning of the war. It had better trained soldiers, better equipment and a
clear plan of attack. The first successful battle of the Anglo-French forces
was at the River Marne, deep inside France.
Britain and Germany fought at sea too. From 1915 German
submarines started to sink merchant ships bringing supplies to Britain. At
the battle of Jutland, in 1916, Admiral Jellicoe got victory over the
Germans. If he had failed in that battle Germany would have gained
control over the seas surrounding the British Isles and would have made
Britain surrender.
On August 8, 1918 the allied forces carried out a major breakthrough
surrounding and destroying 16 German divisions. Germany was defeated
and on November 11, 1918 the Armistice was signed.
The country lost 750,000 people in World War I. The cruelty and
stupidity of that war was best expressed by Britain's «war-poets»,
especially by Wilfred Owen, who died on the battlefield. His poems
influenced public opinion, persuaded many that the war had been an act
against God and man.
3. Britain between the World Wars, World War II
In the 20s– 30s England (as well as other capitalist countries) was
deeply effected by the worldwide economic crisis Powerful new Nazi and
Fascist governments were taking over in Germany, Italy, Austria and
Spain. The danger of war was clear. There were well-wishers of fascism in
England too. Non-fascist countries, like England, France, chose the policy
(the Tory Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain), of silent encouragement
of Hitler's preparations for the coming war with the aim of turning
aggression against the Soviet Union. Great Britain rendered material and
financial help to Germany
On September 1, 1939 Germany declared war on Poland. England
being an ally of Poland was forced to declare war on Germany, but it was
«the phony war» (without active war actions). It lasted till April 1940
when Germany attacked Norway. The war was coming west. France was
defeated, the air attacks of Britain started, Chamberlain resigned and
Winston Churchill became Prime Minister. The war became a matter of
life or death for Britain. Hitler's invasion plan of Britain «Operation Sea-
Lion» was stopped because Germany opened the second front against the
USSR. With the beginning of war actions against the USSR – the USA and
Britain expressed their readiness to create an antifascist coalition. In July
1941 the Anglo-Soviet treaty of united actions against Germany was
signed in Moscow. In December 1941 the USA declared war on Japan
when the American Naval base of Pearl Harbour was attacked by the
Japanese. This added new dimensions to the war.
Since 1942 (according to the Anglo-Soviet Treaty) definite material
help was rendered to the USSR. British sailors displayed their courage and
stamina. The second front was opened only in June 6, 1944 (D-Day) in
Norway. Later in September 1944 the Anglo-American army reached the
western border of Germany. The most vigorous fight happened in the
Ardennes, (South-East Belgium). On the 9th of May 1945 the joined
forces of the USSR, Britain and the USA got victory over fascist Germany.
England lost 303,000 soldiers and 60,000 civilians in that war.
 4. The Post War period
The post-war period was characterized first of all by the collapse of
the colonial system. Since 1931 the British Empire was called the British
Commonwealth of Nations. The majority of the former British colonies won
their political independence at the end of the 50s and beginning of the 60s.
The post-war Labour government (1945-1951) headed by Clement
Attlee converted Britain to a welfare state. In 1944, for the first time, the
government introduced free secondary education compulsory for children
up to 15, and promised to provide further and higher education. In 1946
the National Health Service was set up which gave the right to free
medical treatment. In 1948 the National Assistance Act provided financial
help for the old, the unemployed and those unable to work through
sickness, for mothers and children.
Progress in these areas was the result of new ideas about basic human
rights. Basic political rights were adopted in the 17th c., the 18th c., at the
end of the 19th c. and the beginning of the 20th c.: freedom of speech, of
press, the right to a universal secret vote. In the 20th c. people began to
demand basic social rights: the right to work, the right to free education,
the right to proper health care, the right to care in old age, equality of men
and women.
In 1949 Britain joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
In 1951 the Labour government was replaced by the Conservative
government of Winston Churchill. The early 1950s brought steady
economic recovery. In order to restore the country's economy immigration
from the Caribbean and South Asia was encouraged.
In the post-war period there have been eight Labour governments and
eleven Conservative governments.
In 1979 the Conservatives came to power. The Conservative
government was led by Margaret Thatcher, the first woman Prime
Minister in European history. She remained in her office up to 1990. The
main aim of Thatcher's government was to give Britain a strong full-
market economy. Thatcher herself promoted the virtues of individual
initiative and of getting ahead by hard work and merit. In order to revive
economy the government closed down deficient enterprises, carried out the
program of state-owned industries privatization. As a result the British
turned into the nation of shareholders. The level of well-being of the
middle class became rather high.
Thatcher's critics accused her of neglecting the system of education and
health service, of creating a sharper division between the rich and the poor.
The 70s were noted for the feminist movements. Women won the
legal right to free abortion, in 1975 the Equality Pay Act came into force
and Parliament also passed the Sex Discretion Act making discrimination
between men and women unlawful in employment and various other
fields.
 In 1990 Margaret Thatcher was succeeded by John Major, who
became the leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister. John
Major's government continued to follow the main guidelines of the
previous government, though giving more attention to the social sphere. It
is true to say now that the British have never been better housed, the health
of the nation is looked after as never before, the educational standards are
rising.
In 1997 the position of the Prime Minister was won by Anthony
Blair, a leader of the Labour Party.
During the last decades both the Conservative and Labour Parties
were agreed on the need to keep up the «welfare state», in particular
avoiding unemployment. Britain became in fact a social democracy, in
which both main parties agreed on basic values, and disagreed mainly
about methods.
Britain is a highly developed industrial state. It has one of the largest
amounts of invested capital abroad. London has remained one of the most
important centers of international finance, insurance and other services.
Britain plays a decisive role in the functioning of the Commonwealth. It
covers some 14 million square miles – territory inhabited by more than
700 million people.
In the 20th c. the monarchy has been represented by the House of
Windsor: Edward VII (1901-1910), George V (1910-1936), Edward VIII
(1936-abdicated), George VI (1936-1952) and Elizabeth II (b.1952).