American and British culture - Summary Part 2

Class 2: English culture and
history
 Great diversity of physical features
o Influenced by:
 Human settlement
 Population movement
 Military conquest
 Political unions

 The British isles:
o Last ice age: The entire country was connected to the mainland
and was not an island
o Has +-920 islands:
 Great Britain
 Ireland
 The Inner and Outer Hebrides
 The Shetlands & The Orkneys
 The Isle of Man
 The Isle of Wight
 The Isles of Scilly
 Channel Islands


 Subdivisions:
o Based on Anglo-Saxon kingdom subdivisions
o Existed between 1994 - 2011
o The Heptarchy (The 7 kingdoms):
 Northumbria
 Mercia
 East Anglia
 Essex
 Kent

,  Sussex
 Wessex
 Counties
o Historically divided into 92 counties
o Today the foundation for ceremonial counties
o Largely related to the monarchy and for administrative
metropolitan and non-metropolitan subdivisions
o Ceremonial Counties of England
o Preserved Counties of Wales
o Lieutenancy areas of Scotland

 Roman Britain
o (Prehistoric Britain)
o Finds:
 850,000 years ago: footprints near Happisburgh
 700,000 years ago: butchered animal bones and stone tools
in East Anglia
 500,000 years ago: Boxgrove Man in West-Sussex

o Events:
 8,300 BCE Mesolithic settlers arrived by land and sea
 6,000-5000 BCE: Land bridge disappears

o Periods:
 4,000 BCE – 2,000 BCE: Neolithic period
 Introduction of agriculture
 Evidence of religion: Windmill Hill
o Centres of ritual and seasonal tribal feasting
o Evolved into Henge Monuments

 2,000 – 700 BCE: Bronze Age
 Beaker Folk
 Wessex Chieftains

,  Trade from Ireland to the Baltic and Greece
 Transformation of neolithic Stonehenge

o Pre-Roman Britain: The Celts
 Knowledge of iron introduced in 7th c. BCE
 Celts is a modern name for many tribes who lived during the
Iron Age
 6th c. BCE: Growing population leads to pressure on the
land
 3rd c. BCE: La Tène Celtic art
 200 BCE: Insular Celtic character
 Insular Celtic = Celtic languages and cultures that
developed in the British Isles and surrounding areas,
including Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and parts of
England and France.
 Southeast starts getting settled by tribes from Belgic
Gaul

 Celtic Language
 Indo-European language family
 Spoken throughout much of Roman and pre-Roman
Western Europe
 Still spoken today in the British Isles and Britanny,
France
 Continental Celtic vs Insular Celtic

 Insular Celtic
 Divided into Irish (Goidelic) and British (Brythonic)
 Goidelic spread through Irish migration
 Brythonic replaced earlier languages (e.g. Pictish)
 Welsh is the direct descendant of Brythonic

, o Roman Britain: The Conquest
 The North Sea was regarded as the boundary of the human
world
 Britain lay in the territory of the god Oceanus
 Caesar conquered Gaul between 58 and 50 BCE and invaded
Britain in 55 or 54 BCE
 Setting up client relationships with local tribes
 Claudius decided to conquer the island outright in 43 CE
 Out of personal ambition and because of British
aggression
 By 60 CE Romans were attacking Anglesey
 The last stronghold of independence

 But Boudicca, queen of the Iceni’s, rebellion
 Romans forces were distant and scattered
 Before control was reasserted rebels had sacked the
centres of Romanized Britain
o Camulodunum (Colchester)
o Verulamium (St. Albans)
o Londinium (London)

 It would take until 69 – 96 CE for Roman civilization to really
spread
 The conquest of Wales was complete by 78 CE
 But Agricola’s invasion of Scotland failed
 Shortage of manpower
 By 90 CE reduction of the British garrison
 Need for a permanent frontier in the north

 Construction of Hadrian’s Wall