BC Timeline
Prehistory
The British Isles and Ireland were originally part of the European land mass joined by a land corridor off the south-eastern coast, modern-day East Anglia. This enabled human migration to what would much later become islands. The climate was characterized by overall warmer conditions alternated with severe Ice Ages. This included large ice sheets that came down as far as Norfolk to the east and South Wales to the west.
c. 850,000 BC
Recent finds, revealed through coastal erosion, of human footprints set into rock silts on the beach at Happisburgh, Norfolk, are the oldest discovered outside Africa. The footprints are thought to belong to a hominid species called Homo antecessor.
c. 800,000 BC
Further to the footprints found on the Norfolk coast, there have also been finds of flint tools that indicate further human occupation.
c. 700,000 BC
Butchered animal bones and stone artefacts, particularly flint tools, indicate hominid activity. Humans are thought to have populated the area from around 780,000 BC. Major finds of animal skeletons in places such as Inchnadamph in Scotland, include bones from wolves, polar bears, Eurasian lynxes, brown bears, and reindeer. There have also been recent (2010) finds of stone tools that date back to 800,000 BC, indicating even earlier human habitation.
c. 520,000 BC
In 1994, the earliest human bone was found in southern England by archaeologists from UCL. The single tibia bone was found in a quarry in Boxgrove village in West Sussex, giving the Homo heidelbergensis man the name ‘Boxgrove Man’ (although being a proto-human species). This is the earliest example of a human species bone that has been found in northern Europe, and he is certainly the oldest man to be found in Britain. Teeth from another individual were also found at the site a few years later.
c. 250,000 BC
This period is referred to as the Pleistocene and, when considering the human population, the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age. It is characterized by the various humanoid peoples that arrived in Britain, including Homo heidelbergensis, Neanderthals, and later, possibly, Homo sapiens. These were nomadic bands of peoples that followed the migration routes of various species of animal.
50,000 BC
Towards the Upper Palaeolithic we see the arrival of early modern humans (peviously Cro-Magnons), thought to be due to the warming of the climate and the waning of the harsher conditions evidenced before. A notable find was the Red Lady of Paviland, a near-complete male skeleton (despite the title) found in 1823 in South Wales. The skeleton was dated at 33,000 years old and is one of the oldest human burial finds in Western Europe.
c. 10,000 BC
The harsher conditions of the previous period, including the extreme conditions of the Ice Ages, begin to wane. Human populations in the area of the British Isles, despite being still largely nomadic and consisting of hunter-gathers and fishers, become more of a permanent feature of the islands.
5,000 BC
The melting of the ice after the last Ice Age is thought to have led to the flooding of Doggerland, an area to the east of the contemporary island that is now beneath the North Sea, as well as creating the channel that cut the island off from the continent at around 6,500 BC.
c. 3,000 BC
The more settled islanders, known as Neolithic people (the New Stone Age), begin to populate the western parts of the islands. The people begin to move from more hunter-gather modes of subsistence to farming. This period also sees the building of large stone and earth monuments, the most famous being Stonehenge, parts of which were built between 3,000 BC and 2,000 BC. This period also saw the building of earth structures such as Silbury Hill, which, at 30 metres high, stands as the tallest Neolithic human-made mound in Europe and one of the tallest in the world.
c. 1,800 BC
Bronze Age settlers (Beaker Folk) in south-east and eastern England. These settlers are known as ‘Beaker Folk’ owing to the phenomenon of burials featuring distinctive pottery and other precious items. This also gives rise to the idea of a more stratified society. Metallurgy had developed in southern England, which in turn led to further development of trade from just flint used for tools to various metals such as gold, copper, and tin. These developments were influenced by techniques that spread from West Asia.
600 BC
This period saw the beginning of the settling of the Celts (Iron Age) from Austria and Switzerland. This is generally acknowledged to be the result of a mixture of population movement, immigration, and trade.
c. 200 BC
Prior to the Roman invasions of the British Isles, there were invasions by Belgic tribes, mainly in eastern England. These tribes were important in terms of the development of coinage and language, and the Iceni tribe, based mainly in what is now the county of Norfolk, famously revolted against the Romans after an initial peace.
55–54 BC
The Roman Empire, concerned with the potential threat of the Celts in Britain, sent exploratory expeditions to the islands. This was on the command of Julius Caesar, the emperor during this period, but the forces met with significant resistance and were warded off for the time being.
AD Timeline
Early history
AD 43
The Roman conquest of England, Wales, and (temporarily) lowland Scotland by Emperor Claudius began. The influence of the Romans on Britain was significant and had a lasting impact, principally because it united the southern part of the island for the first time. This was accomplished through the construction of infrastructure, such as roads, and the development of trade with the European continent. During this period, there were also significant Christian influences that moved people away from both Celtic belief systems and Roman cults. The introduction of Christianity into Roman Britain helped to further develop links with the European continent. However, this was by no means the only belief system, with the various pre-Roman pagan cults still to greater and lesser extents existing in parallel to both Roman cults and Christianity.
122–38
Emperor Hadrian visited Britannia, as it was then called, in AD 122 and built Hadrian’s Wall between Scotland and England. It was built along a line from the Tyne River in the east to the Solway Firth on the west coast, which is the narrowest stretch of the island. Most importantly, the wall marked the most northern frontier of both Britannia and of the Roman Empire at the time; it would later be surpassed by the Antonine Wall between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. The intentions of the wall were twofold: both to keep the ‘barbarians’ inhabiting the highlands from invading the lowlands and to stop flows of people in both directions, thereby consolidating Roman power and influence south of the wall.
c. 400
Gaelic Scots (Scotti or Gaels) from Ireland raided and eventually colonized western Scotland. Western Scotland eventually became part of the Dál Riata, which covers the West Highlands, islands (Inner Hebrides), and the northern tip of Ulster.
c. 409
There were a variety of different clans and peoples inhabiting Britain during the Roman period, and, eventually, the extent of the rebellions from within by these different groups, as well as attacks from ‘barbarians’ abroad, became too much to bear. The links with Rome were weakened and undermined by these episodes, and eventually the Roman army withdrew from Britain. Although this spelt the end of the Roman Empire in Britain, it was not the end of Roman Britain, as there were many British Romans still in Britain. The post-Roman period, also known as the ‘sub-Roman’ period, is marked by the variety of kingdoms that emerged based on the various tribal allegiances. This also underlines the overall lack of unity that the Roman Empire brought to the islands, despite there being the beginnings of a unified country. There are also wars between the Celts.
c. 410
After the Roman withdrawal from Britain, there was a period of settling by Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) peoples. This is generally understood to have taken place during various invasions by different Germanic groups that are collectively referred to as the Anglo-Saxons, although there are other theories suggesting that the Anglo-Saxon influence occurred through a process of acculturation. The eastern part of southern England was the most affected part of the island, and major archaeological finds have been uncovered, particularly in East Anglia. The Anglo-Saxon cultures left no written records, and so historians and archaeologists rely on what Bede, the first English historian, wrote down.
430
The invading Anglo-Saxons were pagan in their belief system, and so Christianity lost influence in the more south-eastern parts of the island. The more western parts still remained Christian and were greatly influenced by the teachings of St Patrick and other missionaries who helped to spread Celtic Christianity (from 432) to parts of Scotland, Wales, and west and northern England. However, later, Christianity would spread across the whole of the islands, making the people's belief system somewhat homogeneous.
c. 500–820
The development of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Heptarchy) was a crucial political development that evolved during this period. These were known as East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex. There were fluctuations in the number of kingdoms at the time owing to political alliances and the particular supremacy of rulers, but these were the most prominent. The relationships between the kingdoms were very volatile, but Northumbria largely dominated throughout the seventh century, to be replaced by Mercia as the most dominant kingdom into the eighth. These kingdoms were located in the north of England, the east, and the south, and they would eventually be unified to form the Kingdom of England. The other parts of the island were inhabited by Celtic peoples who populated Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Cornwall.
597
A visit from Pope Gregory in 597 to Canterbury, the capital of Kent, was somewhat successful in the south-east of England. This was organized under the leadership of St Augustine of Canterbury, who preached the Roman Catholic Church model of Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons of southern England. His leadership of the Church in England led to the establishment of the ecclesiastical capital in Canterbury, Kent, and the founding of the English Church. However, the Irish Church had significant influence on the rest of the islands. Particularly notable was the establishment of the Church of Iona off the west coast of Scotland by Columba in 563 and the subsequent conversion of the Picts. This also led to the establishment of a similar church on Lindisfarne off the Northumbrian coast in 635.
664
Further down the east coast from Northumbria was the Synod of Whitby, an important church council. It chose to follow the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church model for British Christianity, rather than those of the Irish monks of Iona and Lindisfarne. This was important owing to the power of the Northumbrian kingdom and the subsequent influence of the ecclesiastical decisions taken by the Church at the time.
789–95
After the influences of the Romans, the Celts, and the Anglo-Saxons on the islands, a further cultural development came when the Scandinavian (Viking) raids began. The Vikings were travelling from Scandinavia, west as far as America and east towards Russia, but they also found their way to the British Isles and England, which took a significant proportion the Viking attacks. One infamous attack included a raid on Lindisfarne, an important cultural centre at the time. Vikings initially settled in north Scotland and on the islands of Shetland and Orkney, but they continued to raid parts of the east coast of England and parts of Ireland.
800
At this point, Cornwall was still under the influence of the Celts; however, the growth and importance of Wessex moved westward, and Cornwall was eventually conquered by the Anglo-Saxons.
820
The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms came to be dominated by Wessex, which eventually resulted in the union of the Heptarchy in the face of common threats from the Viking raiders to the east and the Celts to the west. This forged the path for the creation of the Kingdom of England as a unified political area.
832–60
There was also a union of powers in Scotland through the joining together of the Scots and the Picts, two distinct peoples both under Celtic influence, under Kenneth Macalpin, King of the Picts, to form most of the eventual Kingdom of Scotland. The Scots was a label used to describe a broader population of people inhabiting Scotland at the time, but who were not Picts. This then became the term to refer to the more unified people of the eventual Kingdom of Scotland.
860s
Various Scandinavian people, the Norwegians in the north and east and the Danish in the south and east, began to settle on the islands during and after the Viking raids and subsequently influenced the native cultures significantly.
871–99
The domination of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Wessex in England also led to the rise and reign of Alfred the Great of Wessex as an important political force. After stopping the advances of the Danish and confining them to an area known as the 'Danelaw', he sought to further strengthen Wessex through expansion. This was initially to the east, capturing London in 886. He also established various legal institutions in order to stabilize society, which were precursors for the English state.
954–59
Eventually, through the relative power and influence of Wessex as a united kingdom and the union of the Heptarchy, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms consolidated into the Kingdom of England. This process also included the recapturing of the Danelaw.
1013–14
The first of two important invasions of the islands in the eleventh century was again from Scandinavia; however, this time it was not by more partisan tribal bands but an army from a more united kingdom. This force was led by Sven I of Denmark, who had also conquered parts of Norway. He conquered the English kingdom through a series of attacks and came to rule. He also, most importantly, produced an heir, Cnut the Great, thus bringing the English kingdom under a more Scandinavian influence, ruled in large degree from the Continent.
1014
The common enemy of the Scandinavian Vikings in Ireland served to galvanize the multiple Irish kingdoms. Eventually, this led to a variety of rulers wielding power over Ireland as a unified kingdom, although not as strongly tied together as England. However, together they were able to weaken and, to a large degree, defeat the Vikings in Ireland. Viking influence, culturally and socially, did, however, remain, with many able to speak both Irish and Norse.
1018
In Scotland, there was a uniting of some of the peoples, the Picts and the Gaels, with the Dál Riata being incorporated into what became known later as the Kingdom of Alba. A variety of kings ruled the area now known as Scotland, bringing a sense of a single kingdom.
The early Middle Ages
1066
1066 is an infamous year in the history of the British Isles, principally owing to the fact that it was the last successful invasion of the island by an uninvited force – the ‘invasion’ of William III in 1688 could also be argued to be the last successful invasion of a foreign power, but he was ‘invited’. King Harold had succeeded to the throne of England after the death of Edward the Confessor in January 1066, although there was also a claim by William of Normandy, who said that the throne had been promised to him by Edward – a claim that had in turn been acknowledged by Harold himself. King Harold went north to successfully defeat an invading Norwegian army, led by Harald Hardrada, at Stamford Bridge (25 September). Only days later, William and his army landed on the south coast. King Harold and his army were demoralized from the previous battle, and, despite a hard-fought fight at Hastings (14 October), William I (the Conqueror) defeated Kind Harold and ascended the English throne. This was a turning point for the English kingdom as it moved the country from being a Scandinavian-oriented society and culture to being a more French-influenced country. William I was quick to institute changes to the social order, most significantly with the introduction of the Norman feudal system, which differed slightly from the Anglo-Saxon system. In addition, there were significant architectural additions, with numerous impressive castles and cathedrals being built across the kingdom.
1072
William I was quick to crush a variety of rebellions across England, in particular a series of attacks known as the ‘Harrying of the North’, in which William aimed to subjugate northern England after invasions from Scandinavia. William eventually went further north and invaded Scotland in 1072. The Scottish king, King Malcolm III, although initially opposing William, submitted to him. This started the process of the Normanization of Scotland, whereby various castles were built, families were instituted as the elites, and the Norman feudal system was instituted, as in England.
1086
A crucial document recording the period was compiled in 1086 and is known as the Domesday Book (tax and land records). This was put together at the command of William I in order to assess the extent of his holdings in England. The book is a record of all land and livestock in England, which was ultimately the property of the crown, as all landowners, under the feudal system, paid homage to the king. It also provides an amazing snapshot of life in England at the time and is one of the oldest public survey records in Europe.
1169
Henry II, the first of the Angevin kings and great-grandson of William I, sought to expand the English kingdom, despite already having more holdings than the king of France. Henry, with a force of 600 men and support from the Irish and Norse, invaded and controlled the east coast of Ireland. Eventually, many of the Irish kings, as well as the Irish Church, submitted to Henry, who became Lord of Ireland. Anglo-Norman control over Ireland, which began with this invasion, was to remain well into the thirteenth century.
1200s
Although there was some teaching in Oxford prior to the establishment of a formal university, the banning by Henry II of English students attending the University of Paris ensured a growth in attendance. There was also a dispute with some townsfolk, which led to scholars relocating to Cambridge and founding Cambridge University.
1215
The Magna Carta (‘the Great Charter’), signed by King John, though he was forced at sword-point by the barons, is a founding document for many principles of law and democracy. It was famously signed at Runnymede near Windsor and protected English aristocratic rights against royal abuse. It was the first document that ensured that the monarch did not have absolute power – it limited the power of the monarch to take money or land from the aristocracy and stopped the monarch from illegally imprisoning them without a fair trial. The Magna Carta also serves as part of a political myth of liberty and freedom – in that it was seen as the first attempt to codify some elements of a constitution whereby individuals other than the king were afforded rights of some sort. Three clauses from the Magna Carta still remain in English law, the most important being the right to a fair trial and due legal process.
1265
Although there had been earlier attempts to establish English parliament structures in the form of councils, particularly in 1254 and 1258 under Henry III, it was not until Simon de Montfort organized a short-lived English proto-parliament that more formal parliamentary procedures were instituted. In 1264, de Montfort, in order to gain the approval of some of the agitated barons and consolidate his power over the kingdom, invited a variety of elites, including representative knights from all of the boroughs. This marks the emergence of the first English parliament, the formal structures of which would be adopted later by Edward I in his ‘Model Parliament’.
1282
Prior to Edward I, Wales, through various rulers such as Llywelyn the Great and his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, had evolved into a single political unit. Wales also became more culturally and socially united through the efforts of various elites to copy the methods seen in England and Scotland, in order to resist English claims to the country. However, because the rulers failed to pay homage to the English king, Edward I, the English marched on Wales with a substantial army, which had the support of some of the Welsh elite hostile to Llywelyn. Eventually, Llywelyn paid homage and surrendered lands, and Edward I controlled much of Wales, which was to become a principality, although not formally annexed until 1536.
1295
As was the case with the Normans and their Great Councils, Henry II’s councils, and de Montfort’s proto-parliament, it was clear that the monarchs of the time needed consent from the elites in order to rule the islands and to raise funds for war, and this was enabled through the existence of formal meetings in the form of parliaments. However, it was Edward I’s ‘Model Parliament’ that became the first regular English Parliament that would sit with a representative body from across the lands. It was based in principle on the Parliament of de Montfort, with representative knights from the boroughs, and it also instituted the precedent for members of the elite to be able to air grievances to the king. This Parliament formed a ‘model’ on which future English Parliaments would be based. However, these Parliaments were part of the practices of feudalism in that they were part of the process by which the elites would pay homage to the king and the King could levy taxes on the elites.
1296
One of the wars that Edward used the Parliaments to fund was that with the Scots. Owing to rising tensions with many of the Scottish elite and the connections that Scotland had with the French, Edward I marched on Scotland in 1296. The first major battle was an assault on Berwick, a border town in the lowlands, after which the army proceeded northward through Scotland. Edward is also known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’ for the sustained focus on gaining control over Scotland. The English were initially successful and pushed as far north as Banff.
1297
There had been earlier meetings in Ireland between the Anglo-Normans and the Irish, but it was not until 1297 that the first Irish Parliament would be formally founded. In much the same way as the English Parliament, its intentions lay in supporting feudal relations and paying homage to the king. Initially, there was some representation from across Ireland, but rebellious elites from various backgrounds, including Anglo-Irish and the more autonomous Irish kings, ensured that the crown had increasingly less control outside of a confined area on the east coast around Dublin called ‘the Pale’.
1301
After England had largely conquered Wales under Edward I, Edward Caernarvon (later Edward II) was named first Prince of Wales. This ensured that the principality was part of the system of governing under Edward I, who intended to try and control and dominate as much of the British Isles and its nations as possible.
1314
The War of Scottish Independence continued, and two particular individuals from the Scottish side would become notorious – William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. Although the English were initially successful in their campaign in Scottish territory, this was relatively short-lived. There were then two periods of Scottish success, first at the hands of William Wallace and then later at the hands of Robert the Bruce. The Scottish victory at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) was crucial in this process, and they claimed independence from England; this paved the way for the eventual invasion of northern England by the Scots under Robert the Bruce (1328), which forced Edward III to sign the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton recognizing the independence of Scotland, with Bruce as king.
1326
During this period, the first Parliament of Scotland was founded. In order to better rule over Scotland, Robert the Bruce needed the consent and support of the Scottish elites, and, through having a Parliament, he was better able to achieve this. In the initial Parliaments, there was also a representation of knights from the boroughs in a similar fashion to what had been done in England in both de Montfort’s proto-parliament and Edward I’s ‘Model Parliament’.
The late Middle Ages
1337
The Hundred Years’ War between England and France began in 1337 and was a series of conflicts principally between the rulers of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France over the control of French territory. Each side had a variety of allies, and, significantly, the Kingdom of Scotland was on the side of the French against the English. The roots of the conflicts lay in that the functioning of the feudal system, where the Norman kings of England had also at the same time been vassals of the French king owing to having lands in France. The lands, or possessions, in France, which had previously been under control of the English crown, were slowly overtaken by the French crown, leaving only small areas to the English crown. This was one of the reasons for the outbreak of conflict between the two kingdoms, which also included issues of succession to the French throne with an English claim, and the problems associated with the ‘Auld Alliance’ between the French and the Scottish.
1348–49
In 1348, a bubonic plague pandemic known as ‘the Black Death’ reached the islands and eventually destroyed a third of the islands’ population. It was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history and is thought to have travelled from Asia along the Silk Route to Europe, being carried by the fleas that lived on black rats. The plague was to contribute to a wider fall in population across the islands that was also impacted by earlier famine (1315–17) and wider expansion. It saw the disappearance of many rural villages, which can be seen today only by the fact that some churches, particularity in East Anglia, sit alone in the countryside, whereas they would have previously been at the centre of village life.
1362
Throughout the fourteenth century, the relationship between England and France would dominate, even to the extent that the official language was changed from French to English. Previous kings and elites, from the Normans onwards, would have spoken French as the official language, where English was spoken by the bulk of the population. However, in 1362, after the Statute of Pleading, English was made the official language of Parliament instead of French, on the basis that people did not understand what was being decided in their name.
1381
The Peasants’ Revolt in the summer of 1381 had a variety of causes, but two particular pressures are thought to be the outcome of the Black Death – population loss leading to higher wages, which subsequently led to controls on wages – and the high taxes resulting from the sustained wars with France in the Hundred Years’ War. The revolts began with opposition to the introduction of a poll tax in Essex, but eventually spread to other parts of England, including East Anglia, as far north as York, and as far west as Somerset, and with major fighting ending with the Battle of North Walsham, Norfolk, where the Bishop Despenser of Norwich, along with other landowners and an army, crushed the rebels.
c. 1387–c. 1394
Geoffrey Chaucer is, in many ways, understood to be the father of English literature. He was active in his production of poetry, but he was also a renowned philosopher, alchemist, civil servant, and diplomat. He most famously wrote The Canterbury Tales, for which he is best known today. The work contains 20 stories, written in Middle English, and chronicles the journeys of a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury Cathedral. It is important owing to its critical and ironic portrait of English life and the extent of its satire.
1400–10
Although, by and large, Wales and Welsh landowners had been solid supporters of the English crown, there were a few who had taken on service with the French, and there was still a feeling of Welsh separatism among some. This came to a peak with the rise of Owain Glyndwr and the Welsh revolt against English rule from 1400 to 1410. In some respects similar to that of the Peasants’ Revolt and other revolts across Europe, its genesis could be argued to lie in the impact of the Black Death and various crises that came as a result. The Welsh Revolt was, however, longer lasting and included numerous landowners and elites against the English rule. The Welsh forces went so far as to invade England, with French support, although the rebellion eventually suffered significant defeats at the hands of the future King Henry V and his English Army. Support for the rebellion receded, and the landed gentry in Wales saw England and an alliance as the best way to maintain their power and control; however, the figure of Glyndwr still stood as a figurehead of the idea of Welsh independence.
1406
The Isle of Man, a British Crown Dependency that sits in the middle of the Irish Sea between the west coast of England and the east coast of Ireland, had been settled by the various invaders throughout the history of the British Isles. This included the Celts and the Norse, although it was never incorporated into the Roman Empire. The island was eventually given to Scotland as part of the Treaty of Perth (1266), following military action between the Scottish and the Norwegians over the Outer Hebrides. It then passed to and from Scottish and English hands, eventually being bought by the Earl of Derby from Scotland.
1407
After the introduction of the Model Parliament, with representation from both the Commons (knights, burgesses, and citizens) and the Lords (barons and clergy), Parliament began to develop so that these two groups would meet and discuss separately. But it was not until 1407 that, by royal decree from Henry IV, it was decided that the House of Commons, the separate meeting place of the commons, would become responsible for taxation. This was decided on the basis that the commons would be paying the bulk of the taxes, and, therefore, their representative body should decide upon the legislation that would set these taxes.
1411
In contrast to the policies of Henry II – the banning of English students from attending the University of Paris – due to the relationship between Scotland and the French, Scottish students were driven from Oxford and Cambridge and had to go to Paris in order to pursue studies, as there was no university in Scotland. This led to the need to have a domestic university in Scotland, and St Andrews was a logical choice owing to the presence of a monastery that had already been a centre of learning.
1415
The Hundred Years’ War between the French and the English continued in earnest well into the fifteenth century, but it was at the Battle of Agincourt, where England beat a militarily superior France in a decisive victory, that things began to change. The English Army’s notable use of the longbow, which proved to be highly effective, was a defining tactic. The victory became an important part of a national myth about the superiority of the English, particularly over the French, as a numerically smaller army was able to take on and beat a larger army.
1455–87
The Wars of the Roses between Yorkists and Lancastrians was a major dynastic civil war fought in England at the end of the fifteenth century, although it was not a singular conflict and was more of a series of battles and conflicts between two important families over the rights to the succession of the throne. Although, initially, the Yorkists were victorious and ruled for much of the period, it resulted in the eventual success of the Lancastrians at the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485) and the crowning of the victor Henry Tudor. This was the beginning of the Tudor reign in England, which was consolidated through Henry’s marriage to Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, thus joining the two competing families.
1469
In a similar way to the tensions over the Isle of Man, the Northern Isles, individually known as the Orkney and Shetland slands, located to the north-east of Scotland, had a disputed claim. Although originally Pictish, the islands had several hundred years in the hands of the Scandinavians, until the fifteenth century, when the islands were promised to Scottish noblemen as insurance for the payment of a dowry. The dowry was never paid, and thus the islands were transferred to Scotland by Norway.
1477
After numerous trips to the continent, William Caxton brought back printing technology to England and set up a press in Westminster. Caxton himself translated and printed more than 100 books in English and was the first to do so. This was a crucial development for the English language; as a result of the process, there was a standardization of the language that had hitherto been highly regionalized and contained many dialects.
Towards the nation state (Britain)
1509
The accession of Henry VIII to the throne of England is of considerable historical significance. The impacts of his reign on the development of Britain as a nation state in social, political, and cultural terms are still being played out today. Henry VIII was the second son of Henry VII, the first Tudor king, and Elizabeth of York. His elder brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, died an untimely death at age 15, after a bout of illness from which he did not recover. His wife, Catherine of Aragon, did recover and would later, under much controversy, go on to marry Henry VIII and be the first of his eight wives. Henry VIII was left as the eldest son of Henry VII and, therefore, ascended to the throne after the death of his father in April 1509.
1513
From the fourteenth century, but mainly in the sixteenth century, there were a series of wars between the two kingdoms of Scotland and England known as the Anglo-Scottish Wars, which finally ended with the Union of Crowns in 1603. One of the principal battles within this series of conflicts was the Battle of Flodden (1513), in which England won a decisive victory over the Scottish army led by King James IV. James was, in fact, Henry VIII’s brother-in-law through marriage to his sister Margaret. Henry had previously declared war on France (1512), and the French and the Scottish had a notorious alliance known as the Auld Alliance, whereby they would support each other in war. James IV invaded England in honour of the alliance with France and, although initially successful in various raids, met defeat at the Battle of Flodden, where James was also killed. He was the last monarch from the British Isles to be killed in battle.
1534–40
One of the most significant developments in the British Isles to take place in the sixteenth century was when Henry VIII broke with papacy and became the Head of the English Church (Roman Catholic). The catalyst for this was Henry’s concern to produce a male heir, which his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had failed to do. Henry decided that, in order to accomplish this, it would be necessary to remarry, and, therefore, he needed to annul the marriage with Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. Owing to the unsympathetic nature of Rome, the circumstances required Henry to become head of the English Church (with the Act of Supremacy), although he continued to be a devout Catholic himself. The Reformation had begun on the continent, with the religious activism of Martin Luther, but it was not until Henry’s break with Rome that the beginning of the English Reformation was initiated, and the gradual move from a catholic country to a protestant one began (although Henry himself remained Catholic). This shift would continue to prove problematic in both the later sixteenth century, with Mary I, and the seventeenth century, with both the Civil Wars and the Glorious Revolution.
1536–42
The first formal union that brought together two kingdoms of the British Isles was enacted in 1536 with the Laws in Wales Acts 1536 and 1542. Henry himself was from the Welsh Tudor dynasty, which played a part in the general acceptance of the union. In addition, the general acceptance of Protestantism in Wales was helpful in the assimilation of Wales into the English governmental system too. These Acts created legal and administrative integration of England and Wales. This included the integration of the nobility, with Welsh landowners becoming more powerful.
1547–53
During Henry VIII’s reign, Protestantism gradually became the dominant religion, despite Henry’s personal Catholic faith, and opposition was fought, including episodes such as the dissolution of the monasteries. It was not until Henry’s death and his only son Edward’s reign (he was crowed Edward VI, aged 9) that Protestantism became the official religion in England. This occurred largely through the removal of particular Catholic religious practices at the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, one of the leaders of the English Reformation.
1553–58
Edward IV’s reign was short compared with his father’s, which resulted in a problem of succession, as Henry only had one son. After Edward fell gravely ill, plans were put in place to ensure a Protestant heir, which fell to Lady Jane Grey, Edward’s cousin. However, Edward’s half-sister Mary (through Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon) undermined the plan by disposing of the newly proclaimed queen and laying claim to the throne. In so doing, Mary I is recognized as the first Queen of England. She also restored Roman Catholicism as the state religion and persecuted Protestants, earning her the nickname of ‘Bloody Mary’ – she is thought to have had more than 280 Protestant dissenters burned at the stake.
1558
Calais, on the northern French coast and the closest French town to England, had been captured by the English during the Hundred Years’ War and remained in their possession until January 1558 after the Siege of Calais. Calais was the last enclave on the European continent to be lost. Mary I was still on the throne at the time, as she did not die until November of 1558.
1558–1603
Mary I had no children, and so the throne went to her half-sister Elizabeth I (through Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn). After the turbulent religious discord that the reign of Mary had overseen, Protestantism was to be reconfirmed as the state religion. One of the defining features of Elizabeth’s reign was one of stability after the problems concerning both religion and succession that had beset both her father’s and her siblings’ reigns. Her reign also lasted for 44 years, a significant length considering the shorter reigns of her siblings. Some historians have suggested that, as well as being politically intelligent, she was also lucky. It was during her reign that the Spanish Armada, sent to overthrow her and the Protestant establishment, was defeated by the English Navy.
1560
The Scottish Reformation took some slightly different routes to that of the English Reformation. Lutheranism, from the preachings of Martin Luther, had begun to circulate in the early sixteenth century in Scotland. It was not, however, until the late 1550s that the Scottish Reformation began to cause a constitutional crisis and force the elites to rule on the direction of religious practice in the country. In 1560, the Scottish Parliament met to rule on this and, by overturning the Treaty of Edinburgh and establishing Protestantism as the national faith, established the Scottish Reformation. The clergyman John Knox was a central figure among those who were called upon to write the legislation that led to the creation of the Protestant Church of Scotland. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, the Scottish monarch at the time, oversaw and did not intervene in the process, despite her personal convictions as a Catholic.
1585–90
Initial expeditions were made to sail westward and establish colonies in North America. The first colonists to land and try to establish a colony did so at Roanoke, in present-day North Carolina. Although the initial ventures were unsuccessful in establishing permanent populations, with the colonists being wiped out by starvation, disease, and possible engagement with Native Americans, this led to more successful attempts later on.
1587
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, had spent a significant portion of her reign living in France and Spain, with Scotland being overseen by regents. Mary returned to Scotland after the death of her husband King Francis II of France. She remarried and produced an heir, James, in favour of whom she was forced to abdicate. She attempted to regain her throne, but, after the murder of her husband and then her marriage to the man accused of his murder, she was imprisoned. She eventually escaped and fled to England in the hope that her cousin, Elizabeth I, would support her claim to the Scottish throne. Instead, Elizabeth saw Mary as a threat to her own throne, principally owing to her Catholicism, and had her imprisoned for 19 years. This culminated in a trial and the eventual execution, in 1587, of Mary for plotting to kill Elizabeth I.
1588
King Philip of Spain had been the joint monarch of England along with his then wife Mary I until her death in 1558. He saw the Protestant Elizabeth, his sister-in-law, as an illegitimate ruler and made numerous thwarted attempts to undermine her, which culminated in the execution of the Catholic Mary Stuart. Elizabeth I and her Protestant cause were seen as a threat, and the Spanish decided to attempt to retake the throne of England, both to further the Catholic cause and as retaliation for Elizabeth’s support for the Dutch Protestants against Spain. The Spanish Armada sailed from Spain intending to invade England, and, after some unsuccessful battles and skirmishes off the south coast, were forced around the British Isles by a pursing English fleet. English land forces prepared for an invasion were waiting in Essex where Elizabeth I gave her most famous speech (speech to the troops at Tilbury). Eventually, the remaining ships were to face significant storms on the west coast of Ireland, which destroyed many and resulted in the death of many men. The defeat of the Spanish Armada was at the time used to bolster the reign of Elizabeth I and contributed to the national narrative; it is still celebrated as one of Britain’s greatest military successes.
c. 1590–c. 1613
The years during the reign of Elizabeth I are often referred to as the ‘Elizabethan Era’ and the later part of the English Renaissance. This was a period of significant cultural output in music, poetry, literature, and, most famously, theatre and the plays of William Shakespeare. This period is known as a ‘golden age’ in British history owing to the galvanizing effect that this cultural output had on a sense of national identity – the idea of Britannia.
1600
After the Spanish Armada and the English dominance in terms of tactics and technology on the high seas, there was a concerted effort to travel east in order to establish trade routes. The initial efforts met with failure, but eventually, in 1600, Elizabeth I granted the rights to trade routes around the Cape of Good Hope to India to a joint stock company that became known as the East India (trading) Company.
1603
After the turbulent century between the Scottish and the English kingdoms, the death of the childless Queen Elizabeth I meant the throne went to the then King of Scotland, James VI. The son of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, he became the first Stuart king, marking the end of the Tudor Age. The circumstances also meant a personal union, a union of crowns, between England and Scotland, as James was the king of both kingdoms. James VI and I relocated to England upon his succession and lived out his life there.
1607
At the same time as there were colonial endeavours in North America, with the establishment of the first permanent English colony at Jamestown (Virginia), there were also colonial exploits in Ireland with the Plantation of Ulster (Northern Ireland), with Scottish and English Protestant settlers. The plantations in Ireland, which had begun under the reign of Henry VIII and continued under the reign of both Mary I and Elizabeth I, had never reached the more northern part of Ulster. James I, who now ruled Ireland as it was a possession of the English Kingdom, moved to ensure the Plantation of Ulster as a ‘British venture’, using both Scottish and English settlers.
1611
King James I was a renowned scholar, having written several books and taking great interest in the cultural ‘golden age’ that continued under his reign. It was also under his instruction that an official Bible was translated into English, which he put his name to. The Authorized King James Version of the Bible was issued in 1611 for the Church of England and became an important document for the standardization and development of the English language. It is argued to be one of the most influential books for the English language ever written.
1628
Charles I, the second son of James VI and I, succeeded to the throne in 1625. Charles I was a believer in the divine right of kings and was in near constant battle with Parliament. His failure in various military adventures led him to be more unpopular, and Parliament passed an Act, the Petition of Right (1628), to restrict the monarch’s power to imprison people under royal will and to raise taxes without parliamentary consent. The following year, in 1629, Charles began a period of ‘personal rule’ where he did not utilize Parliament in the way previous monarchs had done in order to gain approval and pursue ‘national interest’.
1641
Owing to the treatment of the Catholic Irish by the settler English and Scottish landowners, the Irish rebelled, attacking their Protestant overseers. There were rebellions all over Ireland, and in Ulster in particular, with the overall intention of capturing and overthrowing the English- and Protestant-run government and administration. The attempt at an overthrow failed and deteriorated into bitter conflict between the native Catholic Irish and the Protestant English and Scottish settlers. The imprisonment of Charles I and the beginning of the Civil Wars in England only added fuel to the fire, with the English Parliamentarians' refusal to raise an army for the king.
1642–48
The rebellions in Ireland and in Scotland led to a political crisis in England at the hands of Charles I, who failed to adequately govern and appease the kingdoms he ruled over. His personal rule and absolutism undermined the authority of at first the ‘Short Parliament’ and then the ‘Long Parliament’, in which parliamentarians tried to gain some political control. These attempts, however, failed to curtail the king’s demands, as he considered himself to have the ‘divine right’ to rule. This culminated in civil war breaking out between the supporters of the Long Parliament, the Parliamentarian ‘Roundheads’, and the supporters of Charles I, known as ‘the Cavaliers’.
1649
One of the significant results of the Civil Wars was the eventual execution of King Charles I. He was first put on trial and was found guilty of putting his own personal interests before those of his country. This resulted in the charge of treason against his people, and he was sentenced to death. Charles did not recognize the court or the trial, saying that there was no earthly authority that had jurisdiction over a monarch who had received their power to rule through God. There were 59 commissioners, known later as ‘the Regicides’, who signed the death warrant prior to his execution. King Charles was beheaded on 30 January 1649, outside Banqueting House, Whitehall, London.
1653–58
After the execution of Charles I, the country was declared a republic under the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. His ‘Model Army’ had crushed the remaining opposition forces, leaving him and his army in charge. Cromwell also invaded Ireland with his army in order to overthrow the Catholic government. He disbanded the Rump Parliament in 1653 and established England, Scotland, and Ireland as a Protectorate, with him as Lord Protector. In many people's eyes, this was merely a dictatorship by another name and echoed the absolutism of Charles I. The period of the republic is also known as ‘the Interregnum’ by monarchists.
1660
After Oliver Cromwell’s death, he was briefly succeeded by his son, Richard. In addition to Richard Cromwell being an ineffective leader and ruler, the hereditary nature of the rule further undermined the authority of the position. He attempted to call Parliament in order to establish his authority and gain favour. He was unable, however, to control either Parliament or the army, and his rule was replaced with a Council of State in 1659. Charles II was declared the rightful king from the moment of the execution of his father, Charles I, in 1649, and was invited back from exile to be king. The monarchy was thus restored under Charles II, giving the name ‘the Restoration’ to the period. This period was also characterized by a flourishing of cultural pursuits that were banned under the puritanical Protectorate of Cromwell. Charles II is remembered as ‘the merry monarch’ as a result.
1665
The Great Plague in England, in 1665, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague since the first major outbreak – the Black Death pandemic of 1348–49. It was, by and large, centred on London and was estimate to have killed around 25 per cent of the population of London. It mainly affected the poorer citizens of London, as the rich could escape to country houses or relatives.
1666
As the Great Plague began to subside, people began to return to London, where they would face another disaster: the Great Fire of London. The fire started in a bakery on Pudding Lane and spread to engulf the majority of the old City of London in the centre. The result of the fire was that the largely medieval buildings, made of wood and thatch, were destroyed, leaving it open for a planned city. None of the major renovation plans were put in place, but renovation did occur on a more piecemeal basis. The most famous of the renovated buildings, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, is St Paul’s Cathedral.
1679
Although the principles of a right to fair trial are in Clause 39 of the Magna Carta from 1215, and there was an earlier attempt to more righteously define the right of people not to be unlawfully imprisoned by the monarch or Parliament with the Habeas Corpus Act of 1640, it was not until the 1679 Act that the principle of a right to fair trial became a key part of the British constitution. This Act, although having been amended, remains as part of the statute book today. The Act gave prisoners a right to judicial review and imposed certain restrictions on their imprisonment. This year also saw the gradual development of the political party system in response to ‘the Exclusion Crisis’, with those who supported the Exclusion Bill, the Whigs, and those who opposed it, the Tories. The bill sought to exclude Charles II’s brother from succession on the grounds that he was a Roman Catholic. The bill was eventually defeated, but the two factions, the Whigs and the Tories, remained.
1686
The illustrious mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton had had success within a number of mathematical fields, and particularly with optics, while a fellow at Cambridge University. In 1686, however, he proposed the laws of motion and gravitation for which he would be most remembered. The laws were subsequently published in 1687 in a set of three books known collectively as Principia.
1688
In the wake of the Exclusion Crisis, whereby the Whig faction of Parliament tried to ensure that James, the brother of Charles II, would not succeed to the throne owing to his Catholicism, there was concern for who would succeed Charles II as king. On Charles’s death in 1685, however, the throne went to his brother, James, who became King James II of England and Ireland and VII of Scotland. The King’s Catholicism was of major concern to many in the political and religious elite who were worried this might ally him to the French and encourage a more personal and absolutist rule. James II married a devout Catholic, Mary of Modena, and, when a Catholic heir was born in 1688, the tensions culminated in a group of elites inviting William of Orange and his wife Mary, James II and VII's daughter, to take over the throne. William landed with an invasion force at Torbay in Devon and, after relatively little opposition, advanced to London, forcing James to flee for France. William III and Mary were made joint monarchs after agreeing to sign the Declaration of Rights. The episode was subsequently known as ‘the Glorious Revolution’ owing to the relatively bloodless nature in comparison with the more dramatic revolutionary events in other countries.
1689
As a condition of being allowed to succeed to the throne, William II and Mary were required to agree to and sign the Declaration of Rights. The document was a series of demands regarding the relationship between Parliament and the monarch, and the powers of each. The Declaration became part of the Bill of Rights, which further sets out the rights accorded to citizens and the conditions of the constitutional monarchy known as ‘the King/Queen in Parliament’. The Bill of Rights forms one of the cornerstones of the uncodified British Constitution and remains in place today; it was also an inspiration for the American Bill of Rights.
1690
Although England and Scotland were relatively free from violence, the campaign to defend against the attempts to retake the throne by James II in Ireland was more violent. In an alliance with the Catholic Irish, James II sought to mount an overthrow of what he saw was the illegitimate monarchy in William and Mary. There was also a significant ethnic and religious dimension to the conflict, with the English attempting to secure Protestant rule over the mainly Catholic Irish. The major, and deciding, battle was the Battle of the Boyne, which was won by William and his forces. This ensured William and Mary’s claim to the throne and Protestant ascendancy in Ireland.
The eighteenth century
1707
Although the Union of 1603 joined the crowns of Scotland and England under one monarch, it was not until 1707 and the Acts of Union that England, Wales, and Scotland (Great Britain) were fully integrated as governments and administrations. The Scottish and English Parliaments were united in Westminster, with the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh being dissolved; this would remain so until the Acts of Devolution in 1999. The Union, which happened under the reign of Queen Anne, resulted in the creation of Great Britain as a nation.
1715
Since the Exclusion Crisis and the Glorious Revolution, where King James II and VII was deposed and replaced by William II and Mary, there had been bubbling support for James’s line as the rightful heirs to the throne. After James’s death in 1701, this claim went to his son James Stuart, also known as ‘the Old Pretender’, and support for James’s right was galvanized under the Jacobite banner. The Jacobite risings had been happening since 1689, but the first national, and more organized, attempt to take back the throne, drawing support in Scotland but also in England among Tory supporters, was in 1715 and is thus known as ‘the Fifteen’. The Jacobite forces were crushed, and James fled back to France.
1721
Although the position of ‘prime minister’ did not exist at this point, Robert Walpole became Britain’s first de facto prime minister owing to his appointment as the First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader of the House of Commons. This gave him a powerful position that was aided by his relationship with King George I, the first Hanoverian monarch.
1739
In 1739, a series of battles broke out between Great Britain and Spain. Known also as the War of Jenkins’ Ear, owing to the ear of a British ship's captain being displayed to Parliament after the Spanish had boarded his ship, the war took place in the West Indies and Southern Atlantic states of America, over trade and colonies, with Britain suffering greater losses than the Spanish and losing some control over the Caribbean. The war was a precursor to the Austrian War of Succession, which involved most of the major European powers.
1742
The War of Austrian Succession pitted the major European powers against each other over the claim to the throne of the Habsburg monarchy. Britain supported Austria against Prussia, France, and Spain. Under the command of George II, Britain’s military force became part of an Anglo alliance known as the ‘Pragmatic Army’ owing to its support of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, which recognized Maria Theresa as queen of the Habsburg Empire.
1745
Despite the crushed Jacobite rebellion of 1715 (the ‘Fifteen’), there was still support for the Stuart claim to the throne. James Stuart, the Old Pretender, had made his son Charles Stuart, known as the Young Pretender and ‘Bonnie Prince Billy’, Prince Regent and, therefore, he could act on his father’s behalf. Charles sought to make another attempt to rally the Jacobite cause and try to reclaim the British throne for the Stuarts. The rebellion, although having some initial successes, including marching into England from Scotland, was beaten at the Battle of Culloden, despite most of the government forces being involved in the Austrian War of Succession on the continent. Charles eventually fled back to France, and the Jacobite cause, despite still having some support regarding the rightful heirs to the throne of Britain, never raised an active rebellion again.
1756
The Seven Years’ War, which has been referred to as the ‘truly first world war’, took place between 1756 and 1763. It was a war about colonies and trade and involved all the major colonial powers at the time, but the main belligerents were France and Great Britain. The result of the war was success for Great Britain, as it gained significant lands in North America from the French and Spanish.
1750s–1830s
The initial stages of what has become known as the Industrial Revolution took place in the mid-eighteenth century. Although controversial, it is argued to have started in Great Britain thanks to a combination of access to coal, capitalist and entrepreneurial culture and development of technology, and the relationship between these factors. The Industrial Revolution resulted in significant developments in technology and manufacturing and increases in population. It also helped Britain to further solidify its dominance over trade and was an ingredient in enabling the British Empire to expand and retain its colonies owing to its superior military technology.
1761
One of the significant aspects of the Industrial Revolution was the development of transport technologies such as steam power and rail. One additional development was that of the British canal system, which started with the construction and opening of the Bridgewater Canal between Manchester and Leigh in order to transport coal from the mines to the city. It is argued that the construction of this canal began the Canal Age, whereby many set to building private canals across Britain in order to transport increasing amounts of goods and raw materials.
1765
The Isle of Man was purchased by the British Crown from the Duchess of Atholl in accordance with the Isle of Man Purchase Act of 1765.
1769
Two of the important technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution were the invention and development of the steam engine and the invention of the spinning machine. The invention of the steam engine enabled more efficient mining of coal and was later utilized in the invention of the steam-powered railway, and the invention of the spinning machine revolutionized the textile industry. One of the influential steam engines was invented by James Watt, and the water-powered spinning frame patented by Richard Arkwright was one of the most significant inventions in the textile industry. The conditions, and relatively low population of the UK compared with other textile-producing countries such as India, forced factories to develop labour-saving technologies to meet the demand for products.
1775–83
Although Britain was successful in the Seven Years’ War it also led it to be in significant debt. One of the precursors to the American War for Independence was that Britain began to tax the colonies in order to increase its income. This angered the colonists in America, as they had no representation in Parliament and, therefore, could not have any say over the taxes being imposed on them from abroad. Hostilities between the colonists and the British continued to grow and culminated in the event known as the Boston Tea Party. Groups of protesters boarded ships harboured in Boston, owned by the East India Company, and seized the tea, dumping it into the harbour. This event resulted in a backlash from the British authorities, which put in place a variety of Acts that curtailed and, in cases, ended local government. This further catalysed opposition to the British by the colonists and resulted in the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The colonists won the war, resulting in British recognition of the Independence of America and the loss of the Thirteen Colonies, thus forcing the British Empire to evolve eastward towards India.
1793–1815
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of conflicts fought between some of the major European powers resulting from the French Revolution of 1789. The principal belligerents were France and Britain, but also included Prussia and Austria, who supported the re-establishment of the French monarchy. The French were led by Napoleon, and the conflicts principally concerned the imperial ambitions of both France and Britain. The Revolutionary Wars developed into the Napoleonic Wars as Emperor Napoleon led his French Republic on an expansionist mission across Europe. The Napoleonic Wars took place in various stages, or coalitions, which, although initially successful, enabling control over the Low Countries, Spain, and parts of Italy, crushing the Austrian and Prussian armies, and moving on to control nearly the entire European mainland, were eventually defeated by a coalition of the British and the other major European powers known as the Seventh Coalition.
The nineteenth century
1801
In a similar way to Scotland prior to the Act of Union in 1707, Ireland up until 1801 had been in a personal union with first England and Scotland and then, after 1707, Great Britain. The Acts of Union of 1800, which came into force in 1801, formally joined the governments of Great Britain and Ireland, moving all representation to the Parliament in Westminster. The political elite in Ireland were in the hands of the Anglo-Irish known as the Protestant Ascendancy, and the tensions between the native Irish and the political elite forced the consideration of a political union in order better to control the loyalist forces. The attraction for the Irish Catholics was that the new government promised emancipation and to curtail the power of the Protestant elite. As a result of the Acts, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed, as was the Union Jack flag to represent the new kingdom.
1805
As part of the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon attempted to lay the groundwork in order to mount an invasion of Britain; this attempt resulted in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and one of the most notorious British naval victories. The British were led by Admiral Nelson, and the victory confirmed British naval supremacy.
1807
The Slave Trade Act 1807 was the initial step towards large-scale abolition of the trade and use of slaves by major colonial European powers and America. Although not a ban on slavery as a practice, it was a ban on the trade of slaves specifically in the Atlantic. The intention was to encourage other European powers to also end the trade in slaves. It was not until the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 that the practice of slavery itself was made illegal, ending slavery in the British Empire.
1815
The last major coalition of the Napoleonic Wars was the Seventh Coalition. Its major victory was at the Battle of Waterloo where, under the command of the British Duke of Wellington, the Coalition crushed the French. The victory at Waterloo led to Napoleon being forced into exile and abdicating the position of emperor, and, after the Coalition moved on to Paris, the eventual restoration of King Louis XVIII to the throne of France.
1825
Although there had been railways developed for private commercial use earlier on in the Industrial Revolution, it was not until the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway that the world’s first public passenger railway was founded. Although it initially used horse-drawn railway carriages, with a mix of both carts for coal and carriages for passengers, the railway later used steam engines developed by Robert Stephenson. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 1830, was the first railway to use exclusively steam-powered engines and was where Stephenson’s famous ‘Rocket’ won the Rainhill Trials in order to operate on the line.
1829
Throughout Britain, but especially in Ireland, Catholics had been persecuted and oppressed for a long time. This included not being allowed to stand for public and political office, vote in elections, own property, inherit land, or join the army. Progress of Catholic emancipation, the unpicking of these restrictions of the rights of Catholics, was slow, but culminated in the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829 that did away with the restriction on Catholics’ right to stand for political office, vote in elections, and hold senior positions in public office – thus enabling their representation in positions of power.
1832
Prior to the first Reform Act 1832, those able to vote were only land-owning males. Although, over the years, the requirements on the amount of land slowly diminished the franchise, those allowed to vote remained a small proportion of the overall population. The Great Reform Act of 1832 aimed to significantly extend the male franchise, by 50 per cent, by including those who leased property and all male householders living in properties worth more than £10 per year. This did little to enfranchise the working classes or women, which would be addressed in the later reform Acts, the Representation of the People Acts 1918 and 1928.
1837–1901
Queen Victoria, who served for 63 years and 216 days, was until recently the longest-serving British monarch and the longest-serving female monarch in history. Elizabeth II, the current queen, overtook her as of September 2015. Queen Victoria’s long reign in the nineteenth century led to her period as a monarch being known as the Victorian era. It was a period of significant success and growth for Britain in terms of its global empire, the Industrial Revolution, and the increasing rights of various disenfranchised communities. It was also a period of particular cultural output in the arts and literature, as well as a period of highly moralistic and temperate sensibilities and behaviours. These attitudes and beliefs of the British, coming from the behaviours encouraged in the Victorian era, led to the coining of the term ‘keeping a stiff upper lip’ – showing unemotional restraint in the face of difficulty.
1838
The lack of the extension of the franchise to the working class in the Reform Act of 1832 led to the creation of the Chartist movement. One of the outcomes of Chartism was the creation of the People’s Charter by six members of Parliament and six working men. It detailed six main aims: (1) a vote for every man over 21; (2) a secret ballot (instead of voting in public); (3) MPs do not have to own property; (4) MPs will be paid; (5) equal voting constituencies; and (6) an election every year for Parliament. The People’s Charter became an important political manifesto detailing an expansion of the franchise and some other elements of political reform. In addition to the creation of the manifesto, there were also large public meetings held for working men to encourage the principles of the movement. These were in many ways the initial stages of a working-class, national trade union movement, although not formally recognized or organized as such.
1839
After Lord Durham was sent to Upper and Lower Canada in 1838 in order to report back on various rebellions, he wrote the Durham Report. The report was controversial and progressive for its time and recommended that the two parts of Canada, Upper and Lower, be joined, among other recommendations regarding the administration of the British North American Colonies. These recommendations alluded to self-governance, which was to encourage other colonies, such as Australia and New Zealand, to aim for more independence from British rule.
1845
The disastrous harvest failure in Ireland in 1845 and 1852 caused widespread and significant famine in Ireland. The disaster is also known as the Irish Potato Famine, which reflects the degree to which many Irish were reliant specifically on the potato as a food source. It was the potato crop that was most significantly affected through the disease known as ‘potato blight’. The reasons for this reliance were many, but it was the staple food for the poor in Ireland. The famine resulted in the death of a million Irish and the emigration of a million more, reducing the population by roughly 25 per cent. The event also had the knock-on effect of inspiring significant political reaction to both the oppressive regime but also to the British Crown and helped to fuel ideas and movements of Irish Republicanism and Home Rule.
1851
Although there had been workers' movements, including the Chartists and other more temporary organizations, as well as more general unions, the 1850s saw the emergence of New Model Unions, which were often focused on specific trades and skills.
1853–56
The Crimean War began with the Ottoman Empire declaring war on Russia over a territorial dispute regarding the Black Sea. Britain and France, in alliance, did not want to see any increase in Russian power or territory, both for different reasons, and so they joined in alliance with the Ottoman Empire against the Russians. It resulted in an Allied victory after fierce fighting in the Crimean region, which included the infamous ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ by the British during the Battle of Balaclava. The charge ended in defeat, but was championed as an example of the bravery of British troops and was immortalized in poetry and reporting soon after.
1868
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) was established in 1868 and brought together various trade unions into a national umbrella movement. The intentions were to have a more centralized and thus more powerful workers' movement that could better demand change in both pay and working conditions, but also potentially have a wider impact on politics in a more socialist direction.
1870
The Forrester Elementary Education Act 1870 required that primary schools be set up in areas that did not have adequate educational provision. Although there was a commitment to ensure that children between 5 and 13 were educated, with exceptions of those who either worked or lived too far from a school, it was not until an extension of the Forrester Act, the Elementary Act 1880, that primary school education became compulsory for those aged between 5 and 10. Although there were conflicts over the running of the schools locally between churches, private schools, and officials in the National Education league, the overall result was the beginnings of a national system of education. In addition, in 1870, following the suggestions of the Durham Report and the unification of Canada, the country became a dominion state, with the transfer of most of the remaining British territory in North America to Canada.
1871
Prior to the Trade Union Act 1871, trade unions were considered criminal organizations in the eyes of the law and operated as quasi legal organizations. The Act recognized trade unions as beneficial for both employers and employees and recognized them as legal entities.
1899
The Boer War, from 1899 to 1902, took place in South Africa and was fought between the British and the Boers. The Boers were a combination of the populations of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State who were descended from Dutch colonists.
The twentieth century
1901
Just as the twentieth century began, the death of Queen Victoria meant the death of the longest-reigning British monarch to date. It also meant the end of the Victorian era, as Britain entered a new age where its position as a global superpower would be significantly challenged.
1904
Britain and France had been in many conflicts and were generally hostile towards one another on and off for more than 1,000 years. In 1904, however, in the wake of their alliance during the Crimean War, they together signed the Entente Cordiale. This formalized the loose agreement that had existed between the nations after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The Entente Cordiale was a formalization of an alliance that ensured cordial relations between the two nations – in that both recognized the claims of the other to various territory – and simultaneously assured a united front against Germany and Austria-Hungary. This alliance, together with Russia, would eventually become the ‘Triple Entente’.
1910–36
Despite the loss of Ireland after the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, the period immediately after the First World War saw the British Empire at its height. This was down to the ‘scramble for Africa’ during the period known as New Imperialism between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, when the various imperial European powers sought to colonize the African continent. The British and the French were the most successful in terms of overall territory gained, and, in 1913, just prior to the First World War, 90 per cent of the continent had been colonized by the various European powers. The British Empire reached its global territorial peak after the war, thanks to the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles that divided the African possessions of the German and Ottoman Empires among the Allied powers as ‘League of Nation Mandates’. In 1922, prior to the creation of the Irish Free State, the British Empire covered approximately a quarter of the Earth’s total land area.
1911
Prior to the Parliament Act 1911, the House of Lords had been able to oppose new bills and veto their progress. The Parliament Act 1911 sought to restrict this veto power significantly, ensuring that the Lords’ power to restrict legislation was reduced. This was constitutionally important as it gave the Lords a slightly different role in the process of the development of legislation in the Houses of Parliament, where the majority of the power would lie with the Commons, but the Lords could amend and guide legislation. The Act also reduced the possible length of Parliaments from 7 to 5 years.
1914–1918
Owing to the various alliances formed by the major European powers, such as the Entente Cordial and the Triple Entente, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, in June 1914, precipitated the First World War. The war, also known as ‘the Great War’, was the first truly global war, excluding the Seven Years’ War, involving the major imperial powers whose empires were, by default, also drawn into the conflict. It was also one of the first technologically advanced and mechanized wars, involving planes, tanks, machine guns, and gas attacks. It centred on the trenches of Northern France and Belgium, where the Allies and the Central Powers were in a near stalemate, with the occupied trenches and ground fluctuating relatively little for the duration of the war. The death toll of the war was unprecedented, and Britain lost more than 1 million lives. The war resulted in a victory for the Allies over the Central Powers and resulted in the Treaty of Versailles, where Britain, and other Allies, gained territories from the Central Powers.
1916
Midway through the First World War, Great Britain needed to deal with a domestic battle too. The Catholic Irish had, for too long, been promised reforms that had not materialized. Although there had been a variety of Home Rule Acts in order to appease the Home Rule Movement in Ireland, the first two had not made it through Parliament to become legislation. The third ‘Home Rule Act’, formally known as the Government of Ireland Act 1914, although being forced through Parliament, was never implemented, being postponed as a result of the outbreak of the First World War. This further setback catalysed the Home Rule Movement and the Irish nationalists after an attempt by the British authorities to introduce military conscription to support the war in Europe. The pressure erupted in what is known as the Easter Rising against Britain in Dublin. This was an armed insurrection with the explicit intent of overthrowing the British government in Ireland and establishing an Irish Parliament. Although the rebellion was forcibly quashed by government forces, the Easter Rising led to significant support for the Republican movement, which was evidenced in its winning support in the 1918 general election. These events would eventually evolve into the Irish War for Independence, which would be successful in establishing an independent Irish state – the Irish Free State.
1918
In addition to the already extended franchise granted through the Reform Act 1832, it was decided, after the First World War, that all men over 21 would be granted the right to vote. The franchise was also extended to women for the first time, although only to women over the age of 30. The horrors of the First World War played a significant role in the arguments for extending the franchise – it was deemed unfair that those who had fought for the British political system would not be able to vote in it. The right of women to vote, although seeing support from some thinkers in the nineteenth century, was the result of significant campaigning by the women's rights group known as the Suffragettes.
1919
After the significant losses suffered by all sides in the First World War, it was decided that an intergovernmental body was required in order to maintain peace in the world. The League of Nations was created with the intention of arbitrating conflicts through peaceful means. Although somewhat successful in the period up to the 1930s, the League proved ultimately a failure as it was unable to stop the descent into the Second World War, which would engulf more of the world and take more lives than the First World War.
1921–22
After the Easter Rising in 1916, and owing to the harsh treatment of nationalists by British government forces, there was significant support among the Irish public for the Republican cause. This resulted in success for the Republicans in the Westminster election of 1918, where they won 73 of the available 105 seats. Republicanism and support for an independent Ireland evolved into the War of Independence, where the Republican forces fought a coalition of British government forces and Irish police forces. A truce was declared, and various parties were invited to take part in treaty talks in London. The Anglo-Irish treaty was drawn up and signed in December 1921. The treaty did not guarantee a fully independent republic, but it did give Ireland dominion status. This established the Irish Free State, with its own working Parliament. The constitution of the Irish Free State was signed in 1922, and, later that year, Northern Ireland opted out, deciding to remain in the United Kingdom with its own devolved Parliament.
1924
The Labour Party grew out of the trade union movement and broader working-class and more socialist political parties of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Labour Party overtook the Liberal Party as the second party in the early 1920s, owing both to the extension of the franchise to working men and women and the more organized nature of the Labour movement. The general election of 1923 delivered a hung Parliament, and, although the Conservatives were the party with the most seats, Labour joined with the Liberals, after a tacit agreement of support, and held a minority government with Ramsay MacDonald as prime minister. The minority government was, however, not stable enough, and another election was called in October 1924, one that delivered a Conservative majority. It would not be until the 1945 election that Labour would gain its first majority government.
1926
Owing to increased domestic use of coal during the First World War, the export gap had been filled by other countries, which meant the UK’s coal was less competitive on the international market. As a result of this, mine owners were forced to reduce the wages of miners fairly significantly over a 5-year period. This downward pressure on miners’ wages led directly to the General Strike of 1926. The TUC decided that all of its members should strike, removing nearly 2 million from the workforce for a 9-day period. The strike was ultimately unsuccessful in that it did not force the government to act in favour of halting wage reductions.
1928
The Representation of the People Act 1918 had significantly increased the franchise through including both men over 21 and women over 30. However, there was a clear discrepancy between the rights of men and women, which, by 1928, was difficult to justify. The Representation of the People Act 1928 sought to extend the franchise to all women over 21 and was, therefore, also known as the ‘Equal Franchise’ Act.
1930s
The Great Depression, which started in the late 1920s and continued through into the 1930s, was the longest and deepest global economic depression of the twentieth century. It engulfed most of the world’s economies and reduced the global GDP by 15 per cent. Although the depression began in the USA, it soon moved to other countries, and Britain was greatly affected too. Britain’s industrial production was reduced by nearly a quarter, and foreign trade reduced by nearly two-thirds. There was also a significant increase in unemployment, which led to poverty and worker strife. It was a direct consequence of this, and the sustained level of unemployment and poverty faced by British workers, particularly in the north of England, that led to the Jarrow March in 1936. A group of men marched from Jarrow, a ship-building, coal-mining, and steelwork town in the north of England, to London in order to deliver a petition to MPs regarding the state of the industry and living standards. It was not seen as an immediate success and was not debated in the Commons, but has been later shown to have possibly laid the foundations for some of the social reforms that took place after the Second World War.
1931
As a direct result of the British Empire, at the 1926 Imperial Conference, the countries that were part of the Empire decided to form a union. This tied the dominions into a more formal union, both with Britain and with each other. The British Commonwealth of Nations emerged as a result of the Balfour Agreement signed at the Imperial Conference in 1926, but did not come into effect until the relationship was formalized by the Statute of Westminster 1931. Although the colonies of the British Empire would slowly gain their independence throughout the twentieth century, resigning the British Empire to history, the Commonwealth would keep some of the shared history, traditions, and interests alive through a formal union known as the British Commonwealth, which would later become the Commonwealth of Nations.
1936
The focus of the monarch had, since the creation of the position of prime minister and the increasing power of the position and the Houses of Parliament, waned. This also meant that relatively few issues regarding succession had plagued former royal houses, resulting in a fairly stable period regarding the constitutional role and responsibilities of the monarch (this was in large part owing to Queen Victoria’s long reign in the nineteenth century). This stability was challenged with the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936. Early on in 1936, only a few months into his reign after the death of his father, King George V, Edward proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, a married American divorcee. She was planning to also divorce her second husband in order to marry Edward. The marriage was not approved by the prime ministers of either the United Kingdom or the dominions, owing to the unacceptable prospect of the queen being twice-divorced, and Edward was forced to choose between the Crown and his marriage. He chose Wallis Simpson and abdicated from the throne, leaving the Crown to his younger brother, George VI.
1939–45
During the 1930s, the National Socialist 'Nazi' Party came to power in Germany. Its annexing of Austria and its aggressive advance into territories such as the Sudetenland and eventually into Poland in 1939 led to war. After a period of appeasement, thanks in large part to the horrific memories of the First World War, Germany’s advance into Poland triggered the Western Allies, including Britain and France, to declare war on Germany, which began the Second World War. The war lasted 6 years and involved countries across the globe. The USA joined the war in 1941 after an attack by the Japanese on US ships in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. It eventually led to victory for the Allies, but not before significant losses. The Second World War was, and remains, the most deadly conflict in human history, with more than 60 million estimated to have died. Britain, however, lost nearly half the amount of people lost in the First World War, which still amounted to nearly 500,000 people.
1940
After the initial stages of the war, where the British Expeditionary Force had to retreat from the continent from Dunkirk, France, in the face of the German advance, Britain remained somewhat confined to its island. The German U-boats were have a devastating impact on the Merchant Navy in the Atlantic, reducing the supplies reaching the British Isles. As the British seemed weak, the Germans had planned to continue their advance after the fall of France and to invade Britain in a plan named Operation Sea Lion. The Germans needed to set the stage for a land invasion, and this required taking out the British air force, the RAF, through sustained bombing campaigns on the airfields of Britain. The campaign between the two air forces, in the skies over Britain, became known as ‘the Battle of Britain’ and was a successful attempt by the RAF to defend against the German air force and to prevent the invasion of Britain. It is argued to be the first major German loss and a turning point in the war. The name ‘the Battle of Britain’ was taken from a famous speech by the newly elected prime minister, Winston Churchill, who would go on to become an iconic wartime leader.
1941
Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbour, which brought the US into the Second World War, there was a formal agreement between Great Britain and the United States. The Anglo-American alliance was sealed through the Atlantic Charter, which set out the goals of the Allies during the war and for the post-war period. It was a list of principles to which the UK and the US agreed, along with other allied countries, that set out the wider political goals of an international order.
1942
In 1942, a renowned economist, William Beveridge, was asked to write a report on social insurance and allied services, the social services, by a parliamentary committee. The report, now known as the Beveridge Report, became the founding principles on which the welfare state would be constructed after the Second World War. He famously noted five great evils that beset society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease. His idea was to construct a social welfare system that would eliminate these social ills as best possible, which included a national health-care system. 1942 also saw the arrival of American troops in Europe. After the US entered the war, initially beginning operations in the Pacific theatre, it also joined the fight in Europe, arriving in Belfast and establishing forces in the UK. This was of significant relief to both the military and civilian populations, as Britain had been defending its island almost alone since the retreat from Dunkirk in 1940. The German bombing raids and assaults on the Merchant Navy in the Atlantic were having an impact on morale, and the arrival of the Americans helped to lift spirits.
1944
The Education Act 1944, also known as the Butler Act, was a sweeping piece of legislation that restructured the English and Welsh education systems. State education was from that point free and compulsory up to the age of 15, being divided into three stages (known as a tripartite system). This included primary education (ages 5–11 years), secondary education (ages 11–15 years), and then further post-school training. The intention of the Act was to provide universal, free state primary and secondary education, in many ways mirroring the principles of the Beveridge Report regarding universal health care and social services. 1944 also saw a significant turning point in the Second World War in the European theatre. Allied troops landed in Normandy, France, on D-Day, crossing the English Channel from the UK mainland in June. It is still the largest seaborne invasion in history This resulted in the liberation of Paris in August and the eventual liberation of France by the end of the year.
1945
In a similar way to the creation of the League of Nations in the wake of the First World War, the Second World War saw the foundation of the United Nations. The United Nations replaced the failed League of Nations with a mandate to promote and ensure international cooperation. Britain was a founding member, along with the United States and the Soviet Union. The UK also remains one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. 1945 also saw victory at home for the Labour Party, which won a landslide general election, with Clement Attlee becoming prime minister. This was a surprise given the popularity of Winston Churchill, a Conservative, as wartime leader, and Labour gained its first majority government. The Labour government was swift to put into motion a variety of social reforms that founded the British welfare state. These included recommendations from the Beveridge Report.
1947
The Yalta Conference that took place in February 1945, and that was followed by the Potsdam Conference in August 1945, was a meeting of the heads of the UK, US, and Soviet Union. The decisions taken at the meetings, which were implemented in the years immediately following the war, shaped post-war Europe. For Britain and its Empire, 1947 was a significant year, as both India, the ‘Crown Jewel’ of the Empire, and Pakistan gained their independence. This resulted from the passing of the Indian Independence Act 1947, which partitioned British India into two new independent countries – India and Pakistan. This Act preluded the beginning of large-scale decolonization across Asia, and eventually the Americas and Africa. At home in Britain, the Coal Industry Nationalization Act 1946 also came into force, resulting in the full-scale nationalization of the coal industry, which would remain in public hands until the 1980s. This was another policy inspired by the need to address the five evils set out in the Beveridge Report, specifically ‘idleness’, and was part of an overall plan for a ‘mixed economy’. The coal mines were run by the National Coal Board.
1948
A further recommendation of the Beveridge Report was the creation of a universal health-care service, and, in 1948, the Labour government created the National Health Service. The Beveridge Report, on which Labour Party manifesto promises were based, outlined a ‘comprehensive health and rehabilitation service for prevention and cure of diseases’. The service was to be funded through general taxation and a form of taxation known as National Insurance, and was to be ‘free at the point of use’ for all citizens. As part of the necessary rebuilding and restructuring after the war, 1948 also saw the post-war immigration from Commonwealth begin, with people coming from the Caribbean. The British National Act 1948, an ‘open door policy’, gave UK citizenship to people coming from the colonies. 1948 also saw the opening of the Olympic Games in London, the first after the 11-year hiatus due to the Second World War.
1949
The creation of the Irish Free state in 1922 resulted from the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in the wake of the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Irish War for Independence (1919–21). The Constitution of Ireland was created in 1937; however, the Irish Free State was still a dominion within the British Commonwealth; despite this, Ireland remained neutral during the Second World War. After the war, the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 was passed, coming into force in 1949 on the anniversary of the start of the Easter Rising. In international affairs, 1949 also saw the creation of another intergovernmental body known as NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is fundamentally a military alliance between the members and operates on a principle of mutual defence, whereby, if any of its members are attacked by an external force, it is seen as an attack on all members, and NATO will respond as such. NATO became the rallying point and main opposition to the Warsaw Pact led by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. 1949 also saw the signing of the London Declaration by the heads of state of the members of the Commonwealth. One of the important aspects of this agreement was India’s continued membership after its declaration as a republic following the 1947 independence. The name was also changed from the ‘British Commonwealth’ to the ‘Commonwealth of Nations’, ushering in the emergence of the modern Commonwealth.
1950–53
The Korean War, fought between North and South Korea, with the United Nations led by the US supporting the South, and China and the Soviet Union supporting the North, resulted from the division of the Korean peninsula following the Second World War. The war was, in many ways, a ‘proxy war’ between the US and the Soviet Union, which exacerbated relations between the two leading to the Cold War. British troops supported UN action in Korea, but the war resulted in a stalemate between the North and the South.
1951
Despite the landslide victory for Labour in 1945, it was not able to win again in 1951. The Conservatives won, with Winston Churchill returning as prime minister, although significant social and economic changes put in place by the Attlee government remained, including the foundations of the welfare state, the NHS, and the ‘mixed economy’ with policies such as nationalization. This tacit agreement ushered in what is known as the ‘post-war consensus’ between the two major political parties regarding some fundamental principles of government. The consensus was to continue until Margaret Thatcher’s governments in the 1980s. 1951 also saw the Festival of Britain take place on London’s South Bank, a festival to celebrate the recovery after the war and to display the advances and ingenuity in British architecture, science, and industry among others. Festival celebrations also took place in cities across the country.
1952
After the death of George VI in February 1952, his elder daughter, Elizabeth II, ascended to the throne. She simultaneously became the Head of the Commonwealth. Her coronation in 1953 was the first to be televised and led to many people buying television sets in order to watch it.
1953
The publishing of the discovery of DNA by two scientists from Cambridge University, Watson and Crick, in 1953 was a landmark piece of research for science. DNA is the molecule that contains all genetic information and instructions in living organisms and has been referred to as ‘the building blocks of life’. Watson and Crick discovered the ‘double-helix’ model that they suggested for the structure of DNA. This is often noted as one of the most important scientific discoveries of the twentieth century.
1955
The 1955 general election, held 4 years after the previous election, resulted in a Conservative win, with Sir Anthony Eden as prime minister, who had only replaced Winston Churchill a few weeks prior to the election. The Conservatives managed to increase their majority in the House of Commons. 1955 was also the year that commercial television started. Although the BBC had existed prior to 1955, the Television Act 1954 created a demand to break the monopoly of the BBC by having an independent provider, but also by creating a regulator in the form of the Independent Television Authority. The first channel to launch through ITV was in London, spreading to other areas of the UK in the following years.
1956
The Suez Crisis, which occurred in late 1956, was a milestone event for the dwindling British Empire and British power on the world stage. The Suez Canal, which runs through Egypt, was and is a crucial strategic and navigational waterway from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean that bypasses the need to sail around the southern tip of Africa. The Egyptian government, led by President Nasser, felt a need to flex its strength against previous colonial powers and regional powers such as Israel (founded in 1948). In so doing, Egypt nationalized the canal, with Britain, France, and Israel creating an alliance and invading Egypt to reclaim power over the canal. This was not supported by the US, and, although it was a military victory for the British forces, they and the French were forced to leave by the UN. The Egyptian claim on the canal was supported, and Britain’s position as a regional power was damaged irreparably. Many argue that this event marks the end of Britain’s time as a global super power. Back in Britain, the first nuclear power station became operative, marking a step forward in the production of power to cope with the increasing use of electricity, and consumer goods that required it, by an increasing population.
1957
The Suez Crisis and the international disaster that ensued led to the forced resignation of Prime Minister Anthony Eden, who handed the premiership to Harold Macmillan. This had a severe impact on Britain’s position as a world power. Another blow, more specifically to British imperialism, was the gaining of independence by Ghana, which was the first British colony in Africa to gain independence. Britain, however, still had intentions as a global power, and 1957 saw Britain test its first hydrogen bomb in the Pacific (although the British had tested an atomic bomb in 1952). The ownership of nuclear weapons means that Britain is a ‘nuclear weapon state’ by the terms of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT); it also provides Britain with a nuclear deterrent and, in some way, contributes to its still being a significant global power. In London, there had been considerable problems with pollution and ‘smog’. This necessitated the need for legislation on pollution, and, after passing in 1956, the Clean Air Act came into force. This forced people to use ‘smokeless’ fuels and was an important piece of legislation regarding the environment and governments’ role in regulating the private sphere for public health goals.
1958
1958 saw the opening of the Preston Bypass, Britain’s first motorway, which went around the city of Preston in Lancashire. Later, this piece of road, only 8⅛ miles long, became part of the M6 motorway. The road was two-lane in both directions and was widened to three lanes in 1966.
1959
The general election of 1959 returned, for a third term, the leading Conservative government, which was for a second time led by Harold Macmillan. The Conservatives also again increased their number of seats and, therefore, their majority in the House of Commons.
1960
1960 saw the creation and founding of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and Britain, along with six other countries not included in the European Economic Community (EEC), was a founding member. Britain was, at the time, more interested in its relationship with the Commonwealth of Nations and in the ‘special relationship’ with the USA and refused to join the EEC. Britain looked at the EEC with suspicion and was reluctant to give away too much sovereignty and ‘identity’ to the union. This was to change in the 1960s and 1970s, but the same suspicions would motivate the anti-European politics of the 1990s and 2000s.
1963
A year prior to the next general election, Harold Macmillan resigned as prime minister, giving the job to the Conservative Sir Alec Douglas-Home. He was, at the time, a member of the House of Lords and was only very briefly prime minister as he lost the election of 1964. 1963 also saw the opening of new universities across Britain. This was in order to cater for the demand owing to the increasing number of students with the necessary qualifications coming through the education system. In 1963, the Robbins Report was published that recommended the immediate expansion of the university sector. This resulted in the number of universities in Britain more than doubling from 20 to 43. The newer universities, built throughout the 1960s, were known as the ‘plate glass universities’ owing to their architectural style. These include the University of East Anglia, the University of Bath, and the University of York. In European relations, Britain had become more pro the union and was encouraged by both its prospects in the international order following the Suez Crisis and increasing social and economic problems at home. Charles De Gaulle, the president of France, however, vetoed Britain’s entry into the EEC. He was critical of Britain’s relationship with the US and arguably did not want Britain as a rival to the leadership of the EEC.
1964
The general election of 1964 saw Labour win a slim majority, of only four seats, ending the 13-year dominance of the Conservative Party. Harold Wilson was made prime minister, but the slim majority that the Labour Party had proved difficult, and another election was called by Wilson in 1966. The 1960s also saw the rise of large supermarket food retailers.
1965
The death penalty (by hanging) for serious crimes, such as murder, was abolished in favour of ‘life imprisonment’ as a result of the Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act 1965. Although the last execution to take place was in 1964, the death penalty for other capital crimes such as treason was not finally abolished until the Human Rights Act in 1998. 1965 also saw the initiation of the comprehensive education system wherein schools would be ‘non-selective’, and students would automatically transfer after primary school. This was initiated by the Labour government in opposition to the selection through the 11-plus exam, which was seen to be socially divisive.
1965–69
After the Continental Shelf Act 1964, which ‘made provision as to the exploration and exploitation’ of the area of the North Sea to which Britain had a claim, companies began to explore and drill for oil and gas, and large fields were found during the late 1960s. Oil is by and large found off the Scottish coast towards Norway, whereas gas is generally found off the south-east coast. Although there were peaks in production in the 1980s and 1990s, oil and gas production has tailed off, often owing to extraction not being economically viable, such as the extraction of oil in the Brent oilfield.
1966
1966 saw England win the football World Cup for the first and only time. The team was captained by Bobby Moore. The championship was held in England, and England went on to beat West Germany in the final, four goals to two.
1967
The Abortion Act 1967 made abortions by regulated practitioners operating in the National Health Service legal. The law extended to all parts of the UK except Northern Ireland, where it became legal in 2020. In addition, 1967 saw the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which decriminalized private homosexual acts between two men over the age of 21. Both of these laws represented a greater liberalization of social and moral views.
1968
Inspired by the civil rights protests happening in the US, a Civil Rights movement grew up in Northern Ireland with the aims of addressing the discrimination against Catholics in addition to other broader rights such as voting. The Civil Rights movement, although initially separate from the Republican movement, was perceived by the authorities and the Unionists as being part of the Republican cause. The tensions grew significantly after a march in Derry was banned by the Northern Irish government, a ban that was defied by the protesters, resulting in violence as the police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (largely Protestant), beat the protesters, injuring many. The incident, along with the ‘Battle of the Bogside’ in 1969, is seen by some as the start of what became known as ‘the Troubles’, a period of conflict between Northern Irish Republicans, Unionists, and the British government.
1969
In 1969, the Representation of the People Act 1969 extended the vote to all persons over 18. This, therefore, included people between the ages of 18 and 20 who were previously excluded, although they could not stand for Parliament. 1969 also saw the first flight of Concord, the world’s first supersonic passenger plane. The plane was the result of years of research and collaboration between French and British companies under an Anglo-French treaty.
1970
Following the extension of the franchise to those over 18, the general election of 1970 led to the Conservatives winning over Labour. This made Edward Heath prime minister, leading a Conservative majority of 31 seats, a reasonably comfortable lead, in stark opposition to what had been predicted as a Labour win. The Liberals, under the leadership of Jeremy Thorpe, lost a significant number of seats. Harold Wilson remained leader of the Labour Party in opposition and was returned as prime minister in the following 1974 election, despite it being a ‘hung Parliament’.
1971
15 February 1971 was known as ‘Decimal Day’, as it was the day in which the British pound was decimalized. The process was formalized in the Decimal Currency Act 1969. Prior to decimalization, where £1 would be equal to 100 pence, £1 equalled 240 pence, with 12 pence to a ‘shilling’, and 20 shillings to a pound. In Northern Ireland, the ‘Troubles’ continued, with the British Army deploying troops on the streets from 1969 owing to the aftermath of the Battle of the Bogside. It was not until 1971 that the first British soldier, Gunner Robert Curtis (age 20), was killed in the ‘Troubles’, having been reported to have been shot by a member of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army called Billy Reid. The North Sea oil concessions were auctioned to a variety of companies after the discovery of large fields. This contributed greatly to the British economy at a time of difficulty and made the country more energy-independent; however, it has been argued that the proceeds from oil and gas have been unwisely spent by successive governments.
1972
As a result of the increasing tensions and difficulty in Northern Ireland, with a significant rise in violence in the period between 1970 and 1972, the government of Northern Ireland at the time, known as the Stormont Regime, was seen by the British government as incapable of handling the security situation. This was in large part owing to the fact that the Stormont Regime was a Unionist- and Protestant-controlled administration. The British government pushed through emergency legislation, the Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972, which imposed direct rule from Westminster in Northern Ireland, dissolving Stormont. The process and tensions were catalysed by the events of Bloody Sunday in Londonderry, where British soldiers shot and killed 14 unarmed civilians during a protest march. In Africa, post-independence Uganda, under the rule of the dictator Idi Amin, expelled all Asians, largely of Indian decent, from the country, with many settling in Britain. People of Indian descent had been present in many of Britain’s former colonies from the days of the British Empire.
1973
After three attempts at joining the EEC, Britain was granted membership after De Gaulle had left office. In the process, Britain left the EFTA and entered the EEC (now EU). The European Communities Act 1972 established that EEC law would be incorporated into domestic British law, and Britain became a member on 1 January 1973. Britain became a member in the first wave of enlargement that included Denmark and Ireland. Norway was to be included, but a national referendum returned a vote of ‘no’ to joining. Joining the EEC was seen as a positive move by many, in difficult economic times, and was voted through Parliament despite there also being many detractors.
1974
There were two general elections in 1974. The first, in February, resulted in a ‘hung Parliament’, with Harold Wilson as prime minister. There were attempts at building a coalition with the Liberal Party under Jeremy Thorpe, but an agreement was never reached. The minority government operated until another election was called in October. This election was won by Labour with a small majority, with Harold Wilson as returning as prime minister.
1975
As Britain had not had a referendum regarding its joining of the EEC, as Norway had, Labour had promised in its 1974 election manifesto to give people the ability to vote on ‘the continued membership of the EU’. The result was a resounding one, with 65 per cent of British voters in support of remaining in the ‘common market’ as it was then referred to. There were supporters for the ‘yes’ and the ‘no’ campaign in both parties, with the cabinet at the time also being split on the decision.
1976
The then prime minister Harold Wilson resigned, owing to health and exhaustion concerns, to be replaced by James Callaghan. Wilson had served as prime minister for 8 years in two separate governments. James Callaghan had nearly immediately to deal with some of the most difficult economic times for Britain, as it was forced, owing to a devaluing of the currency and a requirement to pay down on debt, to borrow money from the International Monetary Fund. This was seen as a national embarrassment.
1978–79
Callaghan had to deal with running a minority government, owing to both by-election loses and defections, which necessitated striking a deal with the Liberal Party. The Lib–Lab pact enabled Callaghan to continue as prime minister through an agreement with the Liberal Party that lasted a bit over a year. This was also a very unstable time socially and economically, with significant strikes by major unions that winter. Known as the ‘Winter of Discontent’, the winter of 1978–79, one of the coldest for many years, was beset by strikes from different industries. The industrial action that had taken place throughout the 1970s, both forcing the 3-day week in 1974 and leading to the ‘Winter of Discontent’ in 1978–79, was one of the major targets for Margaret Thatcher when she came to power.
1978
A major reproductive technology was proved to work in 1978 when the world’s first baby, conceived as a result of in vitro fertilization (IVF), was born in Oldham. Babies born through this method have also been referred to as ‘test tube babies’. This technology enabled many women who had trouble conceiving to become pregnant.
1979
The general election of 1979 resulted in a sound majority for the Conservative Party and gave Britain its first female prime minister, Margret Thatcher. One of the major policies that the Conservatives campaigned on was to control the trade unions, which only that winter had caused significant difficulty through a number of strikes. 1979 also saw the death of Lord Mountbatten, the Queen’s cousin, who was killed by an IRA bomb while fishing in Ireland. There were also two referendums, in both Wales and Scotland, regarding devolution and the creation of national assemblies. In Scotland, although the referendum returned a very slightly positive answer to devolution, the relatively low turnout meant the proposal had to be repealed. The electorate in Wales returned a resounding ‘no’ to the proposals for a Welsh assembly, and thus devolution in both countries was put off until the Government of Wales Act 1998 and the Scotland Act 1999 established an assembly in Wales and a Parliament in Scotland.
1981
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was formed in March 1981 after four Labour Party members, two of whom were sitting Labour MPs and one of whom, Roy Jenkins, was the President of the European Commission, became disillusioned with the left-wing, anti-European direction that the Labour Party was taking in the early 1980s. The SDP cooperated with the Liberal Party and would eventually merge with it. In Ireland, the Troubles continued with a significant episode of Republican activism resulting in hunger strikes by Republic prisoners. The protests resulted from IRA prisoners’ status as ‘political prisoners’ being taken away. Bobby Sands, an imprisoned member of the Provisional IRA, was elected to Westminster during his hunger strike, although he died, along with nine others, before he was released. In London, there was significant strife and tensions between the Afro-Caribbean community and the police, which erupted into major riots in April 1981, resulting in hundreds of arrests and significant damage and injury. Also in England, a major architectural and engineering feat was accomplished with the opening of the Humber Bridge, the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world.
1982
The global recession, which began in the late 1970s, continued into the early 1980s and, in 1982, was having a significant impact on the UK economy. Inflation, although lower than before, was still high, as was unemployment. The economic conditions and the power of the unions became the objects of Margaret Thatcher’s policy programme that sought to privatize many of the national industries and to shut down inefficient factories and mines. Unemployment in the UK was at 3 million at the beginning of 1982. The destruction of numerous industries resulted in the UK becoming a net importer of goods for the first time in 1983. At the same time as the economy was in difficulty, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory located in the South Atlantic off the coast of Argentina. Both countries had a territorial claim on the Islands, but the Islanders themselves wanted to remain under British rule. After Argentina’s occupation of the islands, a major British Military Task Force was deployed to retake the Islands. After a 10-week war, the British were successful in their mission, and the Falkland Islands returned to British control. The war was seen as a major propaganda coup for the incumbent prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.
1983
Despite the difficulties faced in the first term of the Conservative prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, the 1983 election led to her re-election after a landslide victory. The victory in the Falklands War and the fact that the economy had returned to growth, even after some of her more unpopular policies, gave her the support necessary to return to government with a significant mandate.
1984
After Thatcher’s re-election, her policy programme intended to address inefficient industries continued. Numerous coal mines in the midlands, the north of England, and Wales were closed, and others had their subsidies reduced or removed, leading to major strikes by the miners. The miners lost the battle and were forced to go back to work after a vote by members of the National Mineworkers Union. This was a major political victory for Thatcher and the Conservatives and reduced the power of the unions significantly. It was also in 1984 that the IRA bombed the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton, intending to kill Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. Although Thatcher escaped unhurt, five people were killed, including two high-profile members of the Conservative Party, although not government ministers.
1985
Although the Troubles continued, a landmark piece of legislation was signed in 1985 that would, in many ways, be a pathway to peace, or at least the start of the Peace Process. The Anglo-Irish Agreement, signed in November 1985 by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald, gave the Irish Republic a part in the organization of Northern Ireland. The immediate consequences of the agreement were small when concerning the Troubles and tensions in Northern Ireland, but it enabled a process of dialogue to begin between the two sides.
1986
As a principal policy programme, after some of the major industries had been reduced through closure, downsizing, or the reduction or stopping of subsidies, they were to be privatized. This removed the responsibility for the industries from the government. This policy programme was a crucial part of the neoliberal economic principles that were put into practice by the Conservative government in the 1980s.
1987
The general election of 1987 returned the Conservative Party to power led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It was her third election victory, although it was not such a landslide as the 1984 election, and the Conservative majority in the House of Commons was reduced. The Conservatives campaigned on a manifesto promising lower taxes, defence spending, and a strong economy. The economy had begun to improve, with unemployment and inflation having been significantly reduced; this gave the Conservatives considerable support as they were seen as economically competent.
1988
Although the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Liberal Party had been working together in the SDP–Liberal Alliance since the early 1980s, in 1988 they formally merged into the Social and Liberal Democrats, which would become the Liberal Democrats.
1989
1989 saw the invention of an era-defining technology – the World Wide Web. Invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, it was initially used as a tool for networking academic references, but then became a network between academic departments sharing information.
1990
The introduction of the Community Charge, commonly known as the ‘Poll Tax’, a single flat-rate tax on every adult introduced in 1990, provoked riots in London. The tax, a regressive tax, burdened the poor most heavily, and the move from a tax based on the value of one’s house to the community charge was seen as deeply unfair. Thatcher was forced to resign, as it was a flagship Thatcherite policy, and she was replaced by John Major, who pledged to repeal the unpopular tax.
1991
In August 1990, Iraqi forces, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, invaded, captured, and occupied Kuwait. The initial fighting was successful for Iraq, and Kuwait was announced as the 19th province of Iraq. After the UN Security Council demands for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait were met with inaction, NATO and the US gave a final ultimatum that they should leave or face war. Further inaction, backed by a failure to comply with UN Resolution 660, led to Operation Desert Storm being launched by the US-led coalition of forces, including British, who invaded and liberated Kuwait, reinstalling the disposed Kuwaiti monarchy with a decisive victory.
1992
The general election of 1992 resulted in a Conservative victory, with John Major as the prime minister. Although he had previously been prime minister after Margaret Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, the election win gave Major a personal mandate, although the Conservatives were returned with less of a majority. In September 1992, John Major had to deal with a significant economic crisis known as ‘Black Wednesday’, when the British pound sterling was forced to withdraw from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) owing to its value falling below the acceptable limit. The ERM was a currency system introduced by the EEC in order to reduce monetary variability between European countries in preparation for the introduction of a single currency.
1994
A major engineering achievement occurred in 1994 when the Channel Rail Tunnel between France and Britain opened. This provided a fast and efficient train service from London to Paris and Brussels. 1994 also saw the first women priests ordained in the Church of England.
1997
The general election of 1997 saw a landslide victory for the Labour Party, which had been in opposition since 1979. Tony Blair was made prime minister, and the government had a significant majority. The Labour Party had rebranded itself as ‘New Labour’ and had moved to the political centre ground. This enabled it to capitalize on the unpopularity of the Conservatives and take significant numbers of seats away from them. One of the first policies of the explicitly social democratic government was to start the process for the devolution of the nations, and, in order to accomplish this, referendums on devolution were called for Scotland and Wales. Both returned a positive vote, which gave the democratic mandate for both the Government of Wales Act 1998 and the Scotland Act 1999, leading to the establishment of the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament, respectively. 1997 also saw the sovereignty of Hong Kong transferred to China after British rule since 1842. Hong Kong was gained by the British after the Opium Wars with China and was transformed into a major financial and trading centre over the 155 years it was under British control.
1998
In Northern Ireland, a landmark agreement, the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, was signed, which was a major advance in the peace process. It set out various political institutions including plans for the Northern Ireland Assembly, a devolved governing body. It contained three strands: one pertaining to Northern Ireland itself, one concerning the relationship between the North and the South of Ireland, and the third concerning the relationship between the UK and Ireland. There were also crucial parts of the Agreement that concerned the decommissioning of weapons by paramilitary groups. The Agreement was endorsed by referendums in both parts of Ireland, with significant support in both parts of the island. In June, the first elections of devolved Northern Ireland Assembly were held, with the Ulster Unionist Party gaining the most seats.
1999
After the positive vote of the two referendums on devolution in 1997, and the subsequent Government of Wales Act 1998 and the Scotland Act 1999 being passed, the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament structures were established. The first Scottish Parliament elections took place in May 1999, resulting in a Labour–Liberal Democrat coalition as the first Scottish Executive. The first elections for the National Assembly for Wales also took place in May 1999 and resulted in a Labour–Liberal Democrat coalition.
The twenty-first century
2000
After the House of Lords Act 1999, a reform bill that sought to take away the right to sit in the upper house of Parliament based on birth, the number of hereditary peers entitled to sit and vote in the House of Lords was reduced from 750 to 92 in March 2000, with a number being allowed to keep their hereditary title on a temporary basis, and others being made life peers. After the development of the World Wide Web during the 1990s, there was a frenzy of speculative investment in internet-based companies, known as dotcoms. This frenzy came to an abrupt end in 2000 as the ‘dotcom bubble’ burst owing to over-investment in companies that ended up not performing; the global stock markets fell as a result.
2001
The 2001 general election returned Labour, led by Tony Blair, to power. Little changed in the electoral make-up of the country, with Labour only losing one seat and thus retaining its significant majority in the House of Commons. 2001 also saw significant problems for farmers and rural Britain, with an outbreak of a disease known as foot and mouth. This resulted in the need to kill an estimated 10 million sheep and cattle in order to gain control over the outbreak, with a significant impact for the farming economy and community. In Northern Ireland, the Assembly was suspended until 2007 owing to a variety of cases involving supposed connections with the IRA. During the suspension of the Assembly, power reverted to the Northern Ireland Office, a department of government.
2003
Despite the suspension of the Assembly in Northern Ireland, the elections still went ahead, although at a postponed date in November 2003 instead of May. The Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein made gains, becoming the first and the second parties respectively, and the parties worked to try and restore the devolved institutions. Britain, as part of a coalition of forces with the US, invaded Iraq on the basis that Iraq presented a threat owing to its possession of weapons of mass destruction. It was subsequently established that Iraq did not have any of these weapons. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, probably the largest political protests in London’s history, in opposition to the war, took place with approximately 1 million marchers. The first bombs landed in Baghdad in the early morning of 20 March, followed by a ground-troop invasion into Iraq from Kuwait the same day. The initial invasion lasted only 21 days, whereas the occupation of Iraq by coalition forces, involving an Iraqi insurgency, lasted until 2010 when the final US troops left Iraq.
2004
2004 saw the fifth process of enlargement by the EU, approving ten new states to membership. Seven of these countries were former Eastern Bloc communist states. This process of enlargement entailed representation of the new member states as both commissioners in the European Commission and as staff in all of the European institutions. This has had unintended consequences such as the shift towards the use of English as a working language over French. It was the largest single expansion of the EU to date.
2005
The 2005 general election returned the Labour Party, with it achieving its third successive victory with Tony Blair as prime minister. Although Labour won, it lost many seats and, therefore, lost its considerable majority. Although Tony Blair had been popular prior to the invasion of Iraq, the war played a role in voters choosing to vote for the Liberal Democrats, who had opposed the war. In Northern Ireland, the Assembly remained suspended, while the IRA ordered members to cease ‘military operations’. An international decommissioning body also reported that IRA weapons had been ‘put beyond use’; simultaneously, some Unionist paramilitaries moved to disarm. So, despite the Assembly being at loggerheads, there was still significant progression in the overall peace process. Internationally, the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement on climate change signed in 1997, came into force. The protocol put the responsibility to address climate change with developed countries, as they were historically responsible for the pollution. The UK was also rocked by a terrorist attack on the London transport system by British-born Islamist suicide bombers, which killed 52 people.
2006
In Northern Ireland, the Assembly met between May and November for the first time since suspension in 2002. This followed the passing of the Northern Ireland Act 2006, which made provisions for the establishment and running of the devolved Assembly. The parties were tasked with discussing the provisions for the continuation of the Assembly after it was fully restored. A further terrorist plot to blow up trans-Atlantic planes between the UK and US, using liquid explosives, was thwarted by the British police.
2007
In Northern Ireland, the Assembly was restored, and Ian Paisley led a new power-sharing government as first minister, with Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness as his deputy. This was a ground-breaking achievement in the peace process, with two former enemies now working together for Northern Ireland. After 10 years as prime minister, Tony Blair stepped down as Labour Party Leader and, therefore, prime minister. Gordon Brown, one of the core members of the New Labour project since the 1997 election and the Chancellor of the Exchequer since 1997, was made Labour Party leader and prime minister. After only 2 days as prime minister, Gordon Brown was required to deal with two attempted terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow where car bombs failed to go off. In central England, Northern Ireland, and Wales, during the summer of 2007, there were severe floods owing to extreme amounts of rain. The floods caused great damage to private and public property across the regions.
2007–10
2007 saw the beginnings of what would be the worst international recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It began with a crisis of credit in the US housing market, where housing debt owed by lower-income families began to be defaulted on. Owing to the extent of the lending to, and debt of, these homeowners, the major American banks and mortgage societies were left significantly exposed to the financial fallout. As a result of this, other international banks and many governments, owing to complex investment programmes, were also exposed to the financial problems. This situation led to what was termed the ‘Credit Crunch’, whereby credit for private homeowners and businesses dried up, leading to significant stagnation in many economies. This furthermore led to a drop in consumer demand and further recession. In this process, many international banks were ‘bailed out’ , in part nationalized, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, both in the US and in the UK, by their respective governments.
2008
Despite the fact that Gordon Brown was seen to have acted with competence in dealing with the financial crisis, the Labour Party suffered its worst local election (local authority) results in 40 years, finishing behind the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, with only 24 per cent of the national vote. To many, this represented a shift in the political mood of the country, which was compounded by Labour’s defeat in the 2010 election. Gordon Brown’s personal ratings and the connection between the Labour Party and economic competence regarding the finances of the country provided a perfect storm for Labour defeat, which began with the 2008 local elections. In Northern Ireland, Ian Paisley resigned and was replaced as first minister in Northern Ireland by Peter Robinson.
2009
To further illustrate the change in the political allegiances of voters, in the 2009 European elections, with a low turnout of 33 per cent, Labour polled 15.7 per cent of the vote and finished third behind the Conservatives (27.7 percent) and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP; 16.5 per cent). The increased support for the Conservatives at a cost to Labour was also shown in further local elections (county council), where Labour polled its worst ever local result with 23 per cent, after the Conservatives on 38 per cent and Lib Dems on 28 per cent. The results in the two local elections, from 2008 and 2009, and from the European elections showed that the Labour Party had haemorrhaged the significant support it had come to power on 12 years previously. The Conservative Party, the Lib Dems, the Greens, and the anti-Europe party UKIP all benefited from voters moving away from supporting Labour.
2010
Despite the Labour Party losing significant support in comparison witih the support it had in the previous three general elections (1997, 2001, and 2005), the 2010 British general election resulted in a hung Parliament. Although it was clear that the Labour Party had no mandate to form a government, no other party had won a majority, and so a coalition needed to be formed. It was David Cameron who went to the Queen and said that he could form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. The coalition government, therefore, came to power with David Cameron as prime minister. Many speculated that the coalition would not last the full 5-year term, but, as a result of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011, a clear end to the parliament was set, providing a certain stability to the unusual circumstances.
2011
The 2011 Scottish Parliament elections were a significant turning point in Scottish politics. The Scottish Parliament had been designed as a proportional representation system in some degree to stop any one party having a majority and having too much power. However, 2011 saw the Scottish National Party gain an overall majority and, therefore, did not need to go into coalition with any other party in the Scottish Parliament, with Alex Salmond as first minister. This clear victory for the Scottish Nationalists gave them a clear mandate for a referendum on Scottish independence, which was a cornerstone of their manifesto. This forced David Cameron to agree to a referendum, and it was finalized that the referendum would take place in 2014 after the terms were set out and signed by both sides in the Edinburgh Agreement. The 2011 elections also saw Scottish Labour lose significant support to the SNP.
2012
London was chosen in 2005 as the host city for the 2012 Olympic Games. This would be the third time in the Olympics Games history that London would host the Olympics (1908, 1948, 2012), making it the first city to do so. Although there was significant criticism owing to the costs of hosting the event, which included significant building projects for both sports and transport infrastructure, the overall event was seen as a success. The games showcased many successful British athletes, and Britain finished third on the medal table, gaining 29 Golds. This was the most successful Olympics for Britain since London hosted the games in 1908.
2013
The Coalition government, led by the Conservatives, had come to power promising to address the country’s finances, specifically the budget deficit. The deficit is the annual amount the government needs to borrow in order to meet the shortfall between tax receipts and government spending. In order to address the deficit, and more broadly the overall national debt (the total amount of money owed by a government), the coalition enacted austerity measures, cutting public services that were argued to have ballooned under the previous Labour governments. Despite austerity measures, however, the deficit crisis continued. 2013 did see improvements in economic growth, manufacturing output, unemployment, and building works, which were to continue in 2014. Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher died on 8 April and had a significant funeral procession, including military honours and a service at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. The death of Margaret Thatcher was received with mixed feelings, showing the divisive nature of her legacy, with many people considering her to have saved Britain from crisis, and equal numbers considering her to have destroyed Britain’s heartland. In Europe, Croatia was granted EU membership, marking the second former Yugoslavian state, after Slovenia, to become a member of the European Union.
2014
The winter of 2013–14 saw severe floods across the UK, although predominantly in England, resulting in property damage. The 2014 European elections marked a substantial victory for UKIP, as it won 24 seats in the European Union Parliament election, with Labour on 20 seats and the Conservatives on 19; the Liberal Democrats lost all but one of their seats and also did badly in local council elections. The Commonwealth Games were held in Glasgow from 23 July–3 August, and the home nations of Scotland, England, and Wales did particularly well in the events. Operation Herrick, the name for Britain’s combat operations in Afghanistan, came to an end, with troops withdrawing by October. British economic growth continued, vindicating the coalition’s policy programme, but budget deficit was still a major problem, resulting in continued austerity cuts. The referendum on Scottish independence took place on 18 September, with a large turnout of 85 per cent returning a vote to remain in the UK – the ‘no’ to independence vote, 2,001,926 (55.30 per cent) voted No, and 1,617,989 (44.70 per cent) voted Yes. As a result, Alex Salmond, first minister in the Scottish Parliament, resigned and was replaced by Nicola Sturgeon, the deputy first minister. 2014 also saw the first woman bishop in the Church of England consecrated.
2015
The beginning of 2015 marked a historic economic record where inflation dropped below 0 per cent in February, the lowest since records began. Inflation returned to positive figures later in the year. Support for the death penalty dropped to below 50 per cent (48 per cent) for the first time since 1983. In the run up to the 2015 general election, immigration/immigrants headed a list of main concerns of the electorate, replacing the NHS. The general election in May returned the Conservatives to power with an overall majority and David Cameron as prime minister, defying all of the opinion polls and expert commentators who had suggested another ‘hung Parliament’ was on the cards. The Liberal Democrats, following their fading popularity in the local and European elections, lost a considerable amount of seats, prompting the former deputy prime minister and Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, to resign as party leader. The Lib Dems also lost their position as the third party in the House of Commons to the SNP, with the SNP decimating Scottish Labour and taking all but 3 of the 59 seats available in Scotland. This support for the SNP was built on the back of its success in the 2011 Scottish elections and the popularity accrued during the 2014 referendum campaign, despite the ‘no’ vote. The significant result of the general election led to the additional resignation of both the Labour leader Ed Miliband and the UKIP leader Nigel Farage, although Farage’s resignation was not accepted by his party, and he remained leader of UKIP.
2016
This year was dominated by the referendum on the UK's membership in the EU, which took place on 23 June 2016. On a turnout of 72.2 per cent, 51.9 per cent (17,410,742 votes) voted to leave the EU, and 48.1 per cent (16,141,241 votes) voted to remain. Known as Brexit, this decision has dominated the political landscape ever since. Following the vote, David Cameron stepped down as Conservative Party leader and prime minister and was replaced in July by Theresa May. Nigel Farage resigned as UKIP leader. Prior to the Brexit vote, Sadiq Khan replaced Boris Johnson as the mayor of London, becoming the first Muslim mayor of London. The collapse of the NHS was forecast with increases in waiting times, and there was a rise in pollution caused by commuters and vehicles. New forests were proposed to restore the countryside, and the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national parks were extended by 188 square miles. In the world of sport, Leicester City won the Premier League for the first time, having started the season as 5,000:1 outsiders for the title.
2017
At the start of the year, the devolved government broke down following the resignation of Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness as deputy first minister, with new elections held on 2 March. On 29 March 2017, the government invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, beginning the formal EU withdrawal process. In May, Buckingham Palace announced that the Duke of Edinburgh would step down from official duties in the autumn, at age 96. A general election on Thursday 8 June resulted in a hung Parliament, where no pary had an overall majority in the House of Commons. Labour gained seats, particularly in London, (overall +30), and the SNP suffered heavy losses (-21). Prime Minister Theresa May reached an agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to support the minority Conservative government. Terrorist attacks in London and Manchester led to a heavy loss of life.
2018
Brexit negotiations extend across the year, with Prime Minister Threresa May suffering numerous defeats of her early Brexit Bill. In November, she secured cabinet support for her Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, and, by the end of the year, EU members had ratified the Withdrawal Agreement. May saw the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, with an estimated 1.9 billion people expected to tune in around the world. The England football team reached the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time since 1990. As the year drew to a close, Home Secretary Sajid Javid declared the rising number of migrants attempting to cross the Channel to the UK to be a major incident.
2019
The UK was scheduled to end its membership of the EU at 11 p.m. on 29 March, but, after months of inconclusive debates, several extensions were requested. In July, Theresa May formally tendered her resignation as prime minister and was successed by Boris Johnson, who was chosen in a ballot of party members. A general election was called for 12 December, and the Conservative Party, led by Boris Johnson, won a majority with 365 seats. The Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, suffered major losses, and the SNP made major gains in Scotland, taking 48 of the 59 seats. On 20 December, MPs backed Boris Johnson's EU Withdrawal Bill by 358 to 234, paving the way for the UK to leave the EU on 31 January 2020.